I had fallen behind with my reading, so I only digested yet another superb issue of BDN yesterday afternoon. In particular, and as ever, I was most impressed with Roger Willis’ On the Money column, in which he boldly chronicles BMW’s links with some of the nastier parts of WWII … from which various events and stories continue to emerge. I’ll not comment further on this controversial subject other than to say that, thanks to the Russians (on the Eastern Front) and the Americans (both before and after D-Day), Germany eventually finished a poor second in that terrible six-year conflict…oh, and let me also add that the K75S Bee Emm which I owned for several years in the 1990s, was one of the three finest street machines I have ever ridden, with its rider sitting upright in still air whilst travelling at 80mph. I also take considerable comfort from the fact that we and the Germans are almost certain to be staunch allies in WWIII!
The reason for writing is Roger’s mention of BMW’s R75 military sidecar outfit, for it triggers a true and light-hearted tale from my Norton days when our fleet department was an active supplier of modified Commando Interstates to several police forces throughout the UK. The Commando for the coppers was appropriately called Interpol, albeit within our slightly cynical sales team, it was affectionately known as the Interplod.
There was a pleasant elderly chap on our fleet assembly line who had been a WWII despatch rider for the Royal Signals. He told a good tale, too, for he’d ridden side valve BSAs and Norton’s in Africa and survived! He was delighted to eventually find himself astride an OHV Matchless in mainland Europe, which would you believe, was fitted with telescopic front forks.
Apparently, it was in the Spring of 1945 when he first sampled a captured R75. I naturally asked how it compared with the British machinery, hardly any of which were fitted with sidecars. “Blimey”, said he,” if we’d been issued with these, and Jerry had been forced to ride our bikes, the war would have been over a fortnight earlier!
M Jackson, Romsey, Hampshire