Sometime ago there was a discussion on British bikes that served with the Soviet Union, a suggestion that I poo pooed as unlikely and unsuited to their needs. Well, it seems I must eat my hat as by chance I came across the web site "Engines of the Red Army in WW2" (www.o5m6.de/Numbers.html) and under "Foreign Aid Statistics" appears amongst loads of Bedfords and Fords motorcycle Lend/lease figures for The Soviet forces.
Assuming I'm reading it correctly and according to "Beaumont"(references are given)the figures are;
BSA 685
Matchless 225
Velocette 225
Norton 1
Other 45
Total 1211
Assuming these figure are correct it would seem that the total is very small in comparison to overall Soviet Aid and motorcycle production, were they make weights so the commissars got their quota? Properly not a boat load?
BSA one would expect to be the leader and a third as many Matchlesses, but the same number of Velos? and only 1 Norton, this is not representative of production.
Also listed are totals for 1941 - 1945 which therefore include American machines (Harley Davidson?)at 29,690 of which 2/3 were sidecar outfits (according to " V.F.Vosin). Thus the UK supplied about 4% of bikes to the Soviet Union, this is supported by several pictures of Harley outfits in the East but as yet no British bikes.
Please check this out and verify or repudiate as required as I'm no expert on these matters and only raise them for general interest.
Richard
I have seen Velocette hand books published in Russian and the reason they received such a large amount from the few that were actually produced is probably because they were initially ordered by the French government. But France fell before they where all shipped over and the WO had to find an alternative use for them.
My own MDD was sent to 565 AA Battery, Oswestry on 8th July 1941. There is also one in the training film that most of us have seen. I also know another 9 were sent to 12th Lancers at Tidworth on 26th July 1941. I guess they just found places to use them up as they weren't considered for front line use. Ron
I believe that these are delivered machines, I'll double check the website. It would also appear that more that half of aid was delivered via Vladivostok by American ships flying Soviet colours which the Japanese would not attack. There must have been a lot of stuff piled up awaiting shipment on the Trans Siberian Railway, but of course no British bikes went this way. Also the French connection makes a lot of sense.
Hi,I view the forum now and then,have a WD M20 and 3HW so a great site,been looking through some WW2 issues of MOTOR CYCLING (the green un)in issue No 1799 May 18th 1944 there is mention of British motorcycles supplied to Russia,editorial page and page 39 part of which reads"Last week in the house the prime minister announced that 1,706 British motorcycles have been supplied to Russia" the editorial page deals mainly with post war exports to Russia should they find them reliable and of use to them,hope this is of interest.
