I have a 1942 BSA M20 with
Frame number: WM20 111756
Engine number: WM20 25039
Could anymore help with the bike s history. Am not able to trace it's history. Thank you for the information provided. Really a exquisite site with so much information about BSA M20 and World War II.
Frame number 111756 was the 6939th bike from 12000 built under contract S5209 between December 43 and July 45. I calculate the tank census number to be C5552456.
Engine 25039 is from a much earlier contract for 17000 bikes (C7287) 1940/41.
If you look up the dating service on this site, Henk can probably give you a letter with actual date of despatch.
Other than that, it's virtually impossible to know any history of it's war time use.
And on that subject I went back & had a look at the register and noticed that Mick, Billy , Joe & myself all have matching numbers with a spread of just over 100.
This would tend to indicate that they were all from a single contract .
But being 43 models highly unllikely that they were never actually used .
Any chance of spreading some light on them ?
Rob van den Brink's Norton military motorcycle website has probably the best explanation of any military vehicle website about why it is virtually impossible to trace the wartime history of any military vehicle.
For most contracts, it is clear that machines were liable to be taken from a row and sent anywhere in world. All that we can say is that at certain times, most were going to specific theatres. It's certainly true of your frame that with the war in Europe coming to an end late in 1944, far more material was being sent to India for the continuing war against the Japanese which was expected to take another year or two.
Thank you for the response. I was just trying to find out which region the bike was in with the frame number WM20111756. I completely agree that finding out exact usage is tough as per the website link you have shared. I was also surprised to see how the engine number WM20 25039 which was much earlier than the frame number landed in the bike.
Thank you all for the responses, it was so interesting and am happy so much information is available here only with everybody s efforts..
Ok, I just had a quick look, and that frame number is not in the Key Cards, that just means it was sold by the Army before appx. 1948.
Ron is correct that the C number on the petrol tank was C5552456, this I can see from bikes nearby, this is an easy contract, ans the last two digits of the frame number were the last two of the C number, wish it was always like that!
Muthu if a bike came into the workshop which needed serious engine work, it was often quicker to just take another rebuilt engine off the shelf and rebuild that one at a later date. Then that engine could easily have be fitted in a newer or older bike. No one cared much about matching numbers during those times. Ron
Thank you for the response. Your explanation gives a complete logic. I never knew they changed engines easily those days than repairing the existing ones and was thinking about the difference.
Here we have to undergo lot of procedures to change an engine like getting permissions from office of police.
Interesting that am learning facts of time with my machine and with all your efforts. I love discovering happening s of those days. Wish I was born earlier to experience the happenings especially during the war.
Posting a picture of my motorcycle.
https://ibb.co/m6rzdcy
Thank you Ron for the Census number and the engine dating.