more Motorcycle World 1942

here we have the Japanese Rikuo type 97 which was Japan's premier military motorcycle in WW2. virtually a copy of a US Harley-Davidson. Harley-Davidson actually produced motorcycles in Japan for a short while. the Japanese government took over and produced the Rikuo. Harley-Davidson had no recourse and so lost out entirely on this deal.

Motorcycle World 1942

when we last looked at motorcycle world in 1932 things were looking up. now we are in the 3rd year of WW2 and all civilian machine production has stopped by 1942{in the USA}earlier in the rest of the nations mentioned here. the changes nevertheless are many. more telescopic forks, more shaft drive, better tires, bigger engines with more cylinders{2 in most cases}and lots of sidecars for military use. our first picture here is the BMW R71 which all but one of the military bikes pictured here have copied in one way or another. second is the Soviet M72 which you can still get one of if you look around a bit. third is the USA's Indian 841 and fourth the Harley-Davidson XA. last is the British Matchless G3/L. the M72 is an almost carbon copy of the BMW as is the Harley-Davidson. the Indian differs in detail with a V/2 instead of a flat one. all these are shaft drive at least two of them have tele-fork front suspension, they are all equipped to haul a sidecar with driven wheel as well. the German machine and the Soviet one were built in large numbers as was the Brit. the Indian and the Harley-Davidson were built at the request of the US Army and only about 1,000 of each were produced before the Army decided to use the Jeep instead. basically tough shit for you Indian and Harley-Davidson. last the British Matchless was only a single cylinder motorcycle with tele-fork front suspension. the Brits mostly used militarized civilian type machines for their forces. they actually worked quite well and did good service for their army. they could also be equipped with a sidecar. the British troops liked the Matchless best of all their machines because it was a bit more powerful with overhead valves and handled and rode better with the tele-fork suspension. when next we visit motorcycle world things will have changed quite a bit.

early 20th century destroyers at work

Sunday warship

seems a little odd to me in organizations devoted to killing and destruction but here are some chaplains and etc. in the Royal Australian Navy, the USN, the Royal Navy and the Russian Navy.

a few pictures of St. Patrick and friends in action