Motorcycle
Item
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Title (Dublin Core)
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Motorcycle
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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The Motorcycle as a Valuable Asset in War Operations
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Caption: Japanese motor vehicle experts study our motorcycle machine gun units and methods
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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FROM the arrival of the British Ex-
peditionary Force in Belgium in the
late summer
of 1914 down
to the pres-
ent time, the
motorcycle
has steadily
gained in
importance
in different
sranches of
the military
service.
Its use has
not been re-
stricted to
the Allied
armies. The
best author-
ities place
the number
of motorcycles employed by the armies of
the Central Powers, at the time of the
Battle of the Marne, at 18,000. The
British had at least 40,000 in service in
the Spring of 1915, while the French had
about 11,000. The Italian forces, up to
the present, have 10,000 according to
recent estimates.
It has been figured that more than
750,000 motorcycles have been in use for
military purposes by
the belligerent powers
since July, 1914. This
does not include those
at present in the United
States Army services,
for prior to our en-
trance in the Great
War, the American
Army did not have
more than perhaps 150
machines in all.
Before the era of
trench warfare on a
large scale, the greater
number of motorcycles in use were for
despatch riding. By reason of its readi-
ness for use at a moment’s notice and its
ability to thread its way among the heavy
traffic behind the lines, the motorcycle
superseded all other means employed
for carrying despatches between head-
quarters, often long distances apart.
Another important use of the motor-
cycle in war is that of convoying supply
trains from base to distributing stations
along the front. The flexibility of the
motorcycle
makes it
particularly
valuable for
such work.
Motorcycles
have also
been used
in con-
siderable
numbers,
to convey
picked rifle-
mentopoints
on the front
where rein-
forcements
are needed,
and whole
battalions
are sometimes transported in this manner.
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1918-04
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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581
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Filippo Valle
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 92, n. 4, 1918
