Toy version shown here.
How did they envision using this thing? It seems to me that if used “on the go,” the driver and gunner are pretty well assured of getting shot to pieces. If they stop and dismount, the motorcyle itself will get too shot up to be functional and the sidecar will provide minimal concealment and no cover.
I have always assumed it was like ‘Rat Patrol’ jeeps. They looked cool.
they may have worked better against scattered (fleeing) infantry armed with non automatic rifles. If you don’t have an assault rifle, hitting a moving target is not a trivial thing to do.
I must admit I’d never given that prospect much consideration before.
In a word, I do not know, but have a couple of thoughts.
The motorcycle has always fit awkwardly in military formations. Motorcycle couriers, and that is about it. But everyone just knows in their hearts that motorcycles ought to have a use, for MPs, or laying signal wire or something, gosh darn it, something.
One might try to justify a machine gun on a motorbike as way to carry a heavy weapon. In truth that does not work out. The bike will outpace the foot troops in easy goings, but the infantrymen will do better in thick and heavy terrain. Besides, machine guns are not all that heavy.
But still motorcycles are cool. If only we could think of a way to use them…
Right. Machineguns can be carried pretty well on Jeeps/Hummers/utility vehicles, as well as drawn by horse, and I believe that all of those have been done.
The motorcycle doesn’t make a lot of sense when you consider common battlefield conditions - no or unreliable roads, rough terrain, quick starting and stopping, and need for not making a lot of noise.
It’s cool though - I think there’s plenty of films/TV shows with motorcycles in combat.
regardless of the presence of the machine gun, the Germans in question may have used primarily assault rifles if that was most appropriate for the situation. They may have used them both from the vehicle itself or by stopping, attacking and then riding away.
Russian memoir or memoir-inspired writings indicate that yes, the Germans on motorcycles showed up even near organized infantry formations, not just in pursuit of fleeing soldiers. Again, the key point to notice is that in 1941 fighting in Belarus the Russian army was short on assault rifles.
The way you use anything that is highly mobile, heavily armed and vulnerable, is in hit and runs.
Approach under cover. Behind a hill, a bunch of trees, behind buildings or wherever. Then pop out of cover, let out a quick blast, then go back undercover, reposition to a different location and repeat.
I’m not saying a motorbike with a machinegun would have been very good in that role, but that’s the way to use it with the highest degree of success.
Or use them for rounding up disheartened prisoners of war. Think of it as a mechanical sheepdog.
The only use I can come up with for the thing is to make a highly mobile machinegun dragoon team. They drive the bike to near where they intend to fight, they dismount taking the machinegun with them, and then fight as conventional infantry. I do know that bicycle troops were used in WWII in somewhat that fashion, so perhaps this was attempt to give such troops even greater speed and range.
I think you are overthinking this.
My WAG is it wasn’t a case of the Germans looking at a machine gun and thinking, “this would be great on a motorcycle!”
It was more likely they looked at the motorycles they were already using and thought, “If we give them a machine gun, at least they have a fighting chance.”
I see it as more of a defensive thing than as an attack weapon. In places that had a lot of guerrilla activity, a motorcycle courier makes an excellent target; easy capture/kill, possibility of capturing valuable intelligence. Not quite so easy if the sidecar has a machinegun mounted on it.
Can’t access the link, but assume it is a BMW R72, or the Russian IMZ copy. I actually drive the modern Russian version, sans machine gun:
http://www.extravaganzi.com/ural-patrol-t-motorcycle-breath-of-motorcycling-fresh-air/
They were developed for the German Blitzkrieg style of invasion. Able to carry three troops and a fair amount of kit. The sidecar wheel is driven, as well as the rear, and having only three wheels means that all carry weight all the time…they do very well in nasty terrain. They are light enough that I can lift any of the tree wheels off the ground alone, and if there were three able bodied soldiers available, there would be no issues over being stuck in mud holes or whatnot.
Because all three wheels carry weight at all times, the ride is rather tippy…that is to say each corner follows all the ups and downs of the terrain, and the suspension is not as effective as on a four wheeled vehicle where a wheel largely un-weights as it passes over a hole.
I can see the gunner being effective when chasing an enemy vehicle. At any appreciable range, it would probably work better to stop with the machine pointed in the general direction of fire.
The russians thought enough of the idea that they produced virtual clones of the BMWs, and after WW-II continued with the idea, moving the origional IMZ factory to civilian productions, and building Dneprs for the military. The origional IMZ tooling went to China, where the resulting machines are known as Chaing Jaings (sp?)
Motorcycle units were an experimental measure developed in the late interwar period. They were phased out as larger troop carriers like trucks and halftracks were put into operation.
When the Germans were trying out new ideas in mobile warfare prior to the start of the war, a lot of guys thought that equiping units with bicycles and motorcycles was great. They would be great at zipping into the enemy territory and capturing important objectives. They were envisaged as motorized cavalry. Unfortunately, bike troops are vulnerable, expensive, and terribly road-bound. Bikes were still perfect as couriers, but for real combat they just weren’t that good and were disbanded early in the war.
Recon units likely would get more use out of such a vehicle.
Yeah, I forgot about that. Recon units used bikes quite a bit.
Yeah. It’s important to get out of trouble as fast as you got in it.
Seems like a good weapon for manning checkpoints. Did the Germans use a lot of checkpoints in occupied territories?