Unusual sidecar here........with Boyes anti-tank rifle..........last one for the moment.......

Didn't someone establish that it was a Matchless V-twin ?

Might have been posted before Rik.......but still a good shot and a Matchless I think.........but the girders have check-springs so probably not a G3.........what about the "C" number ?

Steve, this is a 1939 Model X Matchless and I have built an exact replica of this bike with a faithful copy of the sidecar. I took it to Normandy a few years ago. JT

I may have posted this picture as I have a photo from the IWM along with a few others. I can't understand how people can sell these photos on Ebay when they belong to the IWM who seem to do nothing to protect their copyright. I bought my copies in the 60's direct from their library, just to make it clear......

email (option): stinkypete80@hotmail.com

So did I! but you see them all over the place now, have a shot from the other side of the combo too, but leaving now for Kempton.

Cheers,

Lex

ps, but the Crown Copyright has long since lapsed....

email (option): welbike@welxxx.net

The IWM has, as far as I'm aware, never owned the copyright on the photographs in their collection, many (but not all) of the images from our period of interest were made by official photographers and were thus Crown Copyright.

What the IWM has done is licence the reproduction of copies from their archives and they place contractural terms upon their further use.

However, many of the pictures were widely distributed at the time (for instance via news agencies or directly to the specialist press) and the IWM has no control over the use of identical images from other sources.

Similar applies if we buy a period photo or even a negative from eBay. It doesn't mean that we own the copyright....

The imperial war museum library is under threat of closure at the moment, I signed an online petition the other day, hopefully it can be saved.

https://www.change.org/p/rt-hon-george-osborne-mp-urgently-reverse-current-and-future-cuts-to-the-uk-imperial-war-museum-s-annual-operating-grant-in-aid-so-that-it-can-maintain-services-and-preserve-its-standing-as-an-international-centre-for-study-research-and-education

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

I came across some interesting information about the Boyes anti-tank rifle, recently. It seems that the weapon was, by 1940, not capable of piercing the armor of most German tanks. It had been designed in the 1930s and was obsolete. The recoil, though, was such that when fired from the ground the standard procedure was that the triggerman would have another soldier lie across the back of his legs, forming a cross pattern, to help absorb the shock. I imagine that a sidecar mounted rifle of this sort would have been a bit of a liability when fired! So, this means the bike in the picture was almost certainly a last ditch effort by the Home Guard as they awaited the possible invasion of England. I think that makes it all the more poignant, and their courage all the more remarkable.

Allan

email (option): allanmatchless@yahoo.com