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Re: WM20 Further history

Production of contract S/5209 should have started in July 1944, at 2000 bikes per month. But the first bikes were only received by the Army in early September 1944 (P date in the bottom left corner of the receipt card). Your bike is the 9.467th WM20 from this contract, so I assume it was built / despatched in January 1945.

Schermafbeelding-2023-10-11-om-09-10-25

Here are some other pictures with C5554xxx numbers, for your interest:
- C5554110 is a picture taken in a post war Dutch Army training center
- C5554162 is taken during the liberation, somewhere in Holland
- C5554596 looks like somewhere in the Middle East
- C5554744 and C5554827 are pictures from a post war booklet to illustrate BSAs work for the War Effort

C5554110-NL
C5554162
C5554596
C5554744
C5554827

Hope this helps!

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Re: WM20 Further history

Not too sure Ian, how did you find that it came from London? The last known whereabouts was Bolton, North west where it was purchased by my dad in the 70s

Re: WM20 Further history

All fantastic info thanks. I was thinking to paint it with Polish 1st armoured division for sentimental reasons but didnt want to be too far out with dates/where it could have been used. If the bike got sent to say Normandy with 1000s of others how likely would it be that they would return?

Re: WM20 Further history

The "liberation, somewhere in Holland" picture wasn't taken in Holland at all. I've just checked Getty and this is the caption:
22nd July 1945: Excited Berliners cheering Winston Churchill as he left the 'Winston Club' a club for troops in the Kurfurstendamm which he had just opened. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Bard (Google AI) tells me that "Churchill was not accompanied by any British military unit during his visit to Berlin in July 1945. His entourage consisted of his daughter, Sarah, and a small group of advisors." Looks as if there's an MP on the bike.

gettyimages-3427807-1024x1024

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