Good morning.
My BSA WM20 number engine and frame 84383 number tank C5117783 at the end of the war it was to Cuneo in the north of Italy.
I would like to reconstruct the history of motorcycles.
He may have taken part in the African campaign and then it arrived in Italy? In which department could belong. What could be its original color? Thank you
Regards
Welcome to the forum. You will find lots of help on here from far more knowledgeable people than me. But the one thing you will not get much help with is finding the service history of any particular bike. We would all like to find this! There are no records that show which unit a bike was issued to. Maybe the 'Italian history' of the bike might, only might, help you with a guess. If it could be traced that the bike had been in 'xyz' place since 1945 then that location might be a starting point for researching which British Army units came through there and maybe, just maybe (Can't see why) left it behind or sold it off. But if its Italian background shows it has passed through a number of owners and dealers all over Italy then it is fair to say there is no chance of tracing its origin. By my approximate guess the bike is a 1943 model so this would put it at the end of the N Africa campaign if indeed it ever did serve there. I'm not up on the factory colour for '43. It might be it gained a different colour 'in the field', but who knows? Is there any evidence of different colour layers on your bike where it has worn away on edges and so on? If you have the C number on the tank I'm guessing it has not been repainted - unless it has had an incorrect restore job some time in the past, with a 'guess' number. Best of luck with tracking something down.
Not much I can add except it doesn't seem to appear in the postwar keycards so it was disposed of prior to 1948 and it was probably painted Brown when it left the factory.
The only way you may find out its history is to study the bike, there may be some markings in lower layers of paint or there could be rebuild plates or stampings on the engine which give dates and possibly locations of repair.
One other thing, the fact it was in Italy just after the war doesn't mean it finished its military service there, most of the military vehicles in Malta were shipped there after the war.
