I've been looking at the picture with great interest. The wm20 depicted has a short side stand, an unusual rack (as far as I can see) and is in two tone camouflage paint. It looks like desert in the background perhaps? The officer seems to be a captain. Were many wm20s done in this two tone paint?
Yes it is slightly different Michel. The one I'm working on is from the first contract (left in France by the BEF in 1940) Those very early WD/C's had rubber mounted bars and fixed handlebar mounts for the controls.
Alan I'm not sure if that is cammo? It could be a mixture of oil-dust-shade?? The idea of cammo was to disrupt the shape of a vehicle and wasn't really necessary on the already disruptive shape of a bike......Never say never though! It was done sometimes. The Maltese 'Rubble Wall' was a case in point. Ron
Rik has not seen this yet. His bike has a disrupter as potraying a BEF bike.
Disruptive paint has been used both on BEF bikes and bikes used in the desert.
Its my feeling this is deliberately applied disruptor as it is visible on a number of parts.
Alan, have a look at www.wdnorton.nl colours page for more information on colours.
Yes Rob I did say "Never say never" and of all things I have seen an original picture of a bike in 'Caunter' scheme cammo of all things?? Maybe cammo on a bike was a moral boosting exercise to make the rider thing he was a bit more invisible. I have also seen jeeps with cammo, but generally with the hood and windscreen down, they were so low profile, as with a motorcycle, there is so little in the way of slabs of metal to need to disrupt?? Ron
I have a photograph of another 2nd Infantry Division BEF 16H with a brushed diagonal geometric disruptive pattern. It's clear that BEF GHQ instructions were sometimes oddly and differently interpreted. Some official documents refer to 'vehicles and motorcycles' suggesting that motorcycles were separate...but some intructions refer to 'MT' which included both...Someone somewhere clearly decided that an instruction to camoflage included the bike...just as we know that one unit removed the MT1130 central rear lamp and moved it 2" to the left in order to comply with an unclear GHQ instruction that wasn't intended to apply to motorcycles.
This WD/C seems to have been sprayed...presumably over khaki green...but it looks to be a darker colour that has been applied....