I've seen a photo of a German medical unit completely equipped with British vehicles...There are numerous photos of German motorcyclists on British machines...The Germans used everything they could from any army/country they defeated...Ian
email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com
Likewise I've seen any amount of pictures of Germans with British vehicles, and even some made up from parts from various makes. Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com
Is that a B29? the front down tube and crank cases look more like B23 B24 B25?
The "C" serial is from a block 61001-62360, impressed motor cycles various makes.
Rob
email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk
I think you're right Rob...Definitely not a B29 frame...Here's a B29 for comparison...Ian
email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com
I tried to ID that bike ages ago, but Rob's clearer picture shows the knee grips from 1939 onward. In my picture you can see the end of the fish tail. The bike has none valanced guards and speedo through the brake plate. Not a B23 as that's a SV and not a B29 as the speedo drive is wrong. My money's on a 1939 B26. You can see the bottom of the frame on the twin port sports model?? Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com
This one was on ebay last week,it might be at Dunkirk,it looks like a BSA V twin but probably not a BEF bike as the side car is on the right hand side.
The bike on the photo below could have been used as spare parts by the Germans,or aided in the rebuild of another captured bike.
Royal Enfield below could also be ex BEF.
Steve's Royal Enfield is a 1939 Model L. Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com
The figure of 20,000 odd motorcycles first appeared in Ellis's official history of the campaign. It's not clear if it's based on the war establishment of units there or shipping records but the latter are incomplete, only commencing in November 1939...They do though show that even as late as mid-May 1940, up to 500 motorcycles per day were still being sent to France to plug the increasing losses.
There can't have been that many sidecar outfits. Only the SWD Big 4 was operational with the army. The RAF may have had some 16H passenger outfits there. 4th Royal Northumberland Fusliers were the only fully equipped motorcycle battalion and they had 99, The Hopkinson Mission had less than a dozen, brought over with their riders from Queen Victoria's Rifles and it seems that each of the Divisonal Cavalry regiments had two or three with perhaps a spare...and presumably some in the Ordnance depots. Certainly less than 150 in total.
German use can be split between early ad-hoc usage and full acceptance into the system which only seems to have occured with BSA and Norton. There are late 1940 images showing that army (WH), Luftwaffe (WL) and navy (WM)units took over whatever they found and painted their own symbols on. Most of the Heer and Luftwaffe units that were in France in 1940 found that they had earned themselves a holiday in the East. Some vehicles were left behind for the units that replaced them but many went to the Russian front with new Wehrmacht number plates. The Navy being more static seem to have kept quite a lot of captured material in use on the channel coast.
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The RTR and the Army had 38 and 39 models between them..The picture below shows the RTR team on the 38 bikes with the registration numbers mentioned...The second photo shows ISDT riders at the docks in 1939...Note the 'civvy' M24s...One of these bikes is in the original photos I have of the team in Austria...I'll try to dig out and copy the originals....Ian
email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com
John Tinley's picture of those bikes. Ron
email (option): ronpier@talk21.com