13th December 2024
Almost since motorcycles were invented, they have been used by the military. They have proven invaluable for more than a century, and despite repeated advances in technology and communications, there is little to suggest that these two-wheeled machines are going to disappear anytime soon. We look at the love affair that various branches of the military have had with motorbikes.
Mechanisation and mobilisation
As weapons and conflicts became increasingly mechanised, troops – and the lines connecting them – required mobilisation. And although the headlines were made by developments in tanks, ships, and aircrafts, it is the motorcycle that had a greater bearing on the general public than any of these war machines.
Invented and developed towards the end of the 19th Century, the first recognised deployment of motorcycles in a military context is thought to be early in the Mexican Revolution. Leading figure Pancho Villa realised that Indian motorcycles could dramatically improve the effectiveness of guerilla raids.
The Great War
It wasn’t until the First World War that the use of motorcycles in the military became commonplace. With radio communications still in relative infancy, but with war on a grand scale, horses in military use were gradually becoming obsolete. And in terms of sending messages, the motorcycle was the perfect replacement.
Names such as Indian, Triumph, and Harley-Davidson all supplied motorbikes to the military, with the Europeans focusing largely on using them for dispatch riders. Used with a side-car however, there were various attempts to add weapons to them, though looking through the history books, it’s clear that this idea never really caught on. A lack of armour and limited weight capacity, means using bikes as a weapon was ineffective. As a means of transport for infantry however, they proved their worth many times over.
Developments for WWII
As both warfare and motorcycles developed, the Second World War proved a significant plot on the graph for bikes and the military. Not only were these stronger and faster, but the folding Welbike was also dropped with para-troops to provide long-distance support behind enemy lines.
Before the time where a Land Rover or similar could realistically be sent in by air drop with troops, the motorcycle was the perfect answer. And of course, the combination made for one of cinema’s most famous scenes – Steve McQueen attempting to escape from the Germans in The Great Escape.
Modern machines
Even though warfare has moved on almost unrecognisably from the world wars, motorcycles are still proving an invaluable role. Their use for dispatch riders is now largely redundant, thanks to radio and satellite communications available for large military concerns.
This doesn’t mean that the use of a small, lightweight method to transport troops has disappeared however. In the Iraq wars – both in the 1990s and more recently – as well as the Afghan conflict, motorcycles were used throughout the challenging terrain.
In Afghanistan in particular, with large areas of rocky, largely in hospitable terrain for armoured troop carriers, the motorcycle was used by various special forces units to travel around quickly, countering insurgents, and ambushing them. Motorbikes also often were able to ride straight over IEDs and mines, thanks to the systems being set up to allow civilian vehicles to travel over them, but for them to detonate when a heavy, armoured vehicle rolled onto them.
Even now, in Ukraine, motorbikes are used by the home army to carry troops and anti-tank weapons to the front lines, attack, and then retreat quickly where required. A small, go-anywhere vehicle presents a tough target for a tank commander to hit, and the ability to cross the same terrain – and even more enclosed spaces such as woodland – means the battle can be bought to the tanks rather than being dominated by these behemoths.
Famous military bikes
As such, the use of motorbikes in wartime has spawned some famous military-based machines. BMW’s R12 and R75 proved particularly adept at assisting the German war effort in the Second World War, while the Harley-Davidson WLA and BSA’s M20 did the same for the Americans and British respectively.
Now, militarised civilian motorbikes are usually used, with off-road bikes from the likes of KTM, Yamaha, and Honda popular with armies requiring fast, all-terrain support for troops, no matter the theatre.
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