I think C5100, C5102, C5103 and possibly C5104

Hi Steve,

Can you please tell me where you found the photo of the Despatch Riders on exercise in what appears to be Queensland? I'm keen to know if there was any caption or other information accompanying the photo as I believe the bikes in the photo might have been shipped to the same destination as my bike (Singapore).

Rob

email (option): robert.g.elliott@gmail.com

Thanks for the link Jan, I've sent off a request for information, will let everyone know what I find out.

email (option): robert.g.elliott@gmail.com

Thanks for the info, my eyesight is not what it used to be .......

Rob, I wouldn't discount the bike having been brought back to Australia well after the war via a non-official path.

I served with the Australian Air Force in Malaysia in the mid-70's (that involved stints in Singapore) and there were still a couple of M20's being used by the locals then so whether these avoided capture or just didn't get destroyed are both possibilities.

I know that while I was there a pre-war Norton International surfaced and it had been buried ahead of the Japanese invasion and ended up hidden for decades.

There were dozens of English bikes brought back to Australia as private imports by Australian servicemen (I still kick myself for not bring back my Norton Dominator that I rode for a couple of years while there) so possible your Norton came back via a private deal?

email (option): rays54@hotmail.com

Absolutely correct Ray! I know that was the case from personal experience. I was working in Darwin as part of the rebuild after Cyclone Tracy and bought a Norton Dominator 88SS from a RAAF guy called "Bullets" who brought the bike to Australia after having been stationed at Butterworth Base. Wish I still had it. He told me there were still quite a few WD bikes around the Malay Peninsula even then. I also bought NOS WD Norton parts from Malaysia back in the 80s - some still in their grease proof wrapping!

However, the thing that suggests that the bike was brought back after the war by the Army was that the AWM records show that it was eventually disposed of to Lenroc in Adelaide. How would the Army know who the bike was disposed off to unless they had possession of it? Does anyone know if motorcycles were ever shipped back to their place of origin after the war? Vehicles were recaptured by the Allies after the Japs were driven out, there's photographs of that. But did they ever bother to bring them back to resell them?

The other possibility, as I think Rik suggested earlier, was that the bike didn't make it onto the Nordness on it's voyage to Singapore, or the ship turned back mid voyage(unlikely, as equipment and men were definitely being shipped to Malaya to shore up the defences at that time)....or the records are simply incorrect and W12315 was never in the batch that was shipped overseas in the first place!

Curiouser and curiouser!

email (option): robert.g.elliott@gmail.com

Hi Interesting information Some of the parts that I got for my WM 20 40775 came from an ex RNZAF loadmaster called Gavin who brought 3 WM 20's back from Singapore one of which he has kept and the others he onsold.
Henk sourced the identity of his bike which I passed on to him.
Gavin is still in the process of rebuilding his bike but it is on the back burner as he has an interst in Model T's!!
Cheers
John

email (option): jsaft1951@xtra.co.nz