Bicycles came into service in various countries of the world at the end of the 19th century. The trench battles of World War I essentially rendered them useless. But the more mobile style of World War II was a completely different story.
In fact, World War II started with a bicycle. In April 1939, Italian troops landed on the coast of Albania and set off inland on bicycles on roads unsuitable for road transport.
The Japanese rode bicycles during the invasion of Malaya and the Battle of Singapore.
The German Blitzkrieg was held by the shelves of cyclists. British paratroopers jumped out of planes clutching folding BSA AIRBORNE bicycles and calmly rode them down the country roads of France to raid a radar station.
German airborne troops used bicycles during the invasions of the Netherlands and Norway. Resistance in France and elsewhere relied on bicycles to move radios. weapons and ammunition. The Finnish army alternated skis and bicycles in their successful war against the red army.
Two-time Tour de France champion Gino Bartali, in his racing gear, helped the Italian resistance by sending messages under the pretext that he was on training trips. Chinese guerrillas used bicycles to strike at Japanese convoys. The US 101st Airborne Division commandeered civilian cargo bicycles to carry air-dropped supplies during Operation Market Garden.
Consider the logistics of moving hundreds of combat-ready soldiers, hundreds of backpacks, hundreds of kilometers away on dirt roads. They will walk on foot in two days. If they walk at night, they will do it in 24 hours and, naturally, will not be ready for battle. If a single truck was assigned to their company, it would still take a day or two to ferry people in groups of 20 along the broken roads.
But give the soldiers a hundred bicycles, and they can cover a hundred kilometers in half a day. The Japanese used this very tactic in their hugely successful invasions of Malaya, present-day Malaysia and Singapore, from December 8, 1941 to January 31, 1942. The British colony Minor occupied the equatorial peninsula with the island city of Singapore on its southern side. The British had well fortified Singapore and its surrounding straits, awaiting an attack from the sea.
Their plan was for Singapore to withstand the siege for several months while aid arrived from Britain. The Japanese did not wait for the powerful British fleet, deciding to attack through the back door. Arriving ashore, hundreds of kilometers north of Singapore, Japanese troops requisitioned bicycles from the local Malays to use them in a lightning attack.
Lieutenant General of the Imperial Japanese Army Tomoyuki Yamashita and his 25th army invaded the entire 1120-kilometer peninsula. And in less than 70 days, they defeated the allied British, Australian, Indian and Malay forces, advancing through the jungle on bicycles.
Their victory marked the end of the British Empire in Asia. In addition to excellent leadership, competent use of force and exceptional logistics, the use of bicycles is believed to be the cause of the disaster of the Allied forces. But why did the Japanese army decide to use bicycles over horses?
This decision allowed the soldiers to move faster and with less effort, which made it possible to confuse the defenders. Japanese soldiers on light bicycles could use narrow roads, hidden paths, and makeshift log bridges. Even when there were no bridges, the soldiers wade through the rivers, carrying their iron horses on their shoulders.
Bicycles have also proven to be an excellent aid for transporting equipment. While British soldiers carried up to 18 kilograms during the march through the jungle, their Japanese enemies could carry twice as much, thanks to the weight distribution on two wheels.
Interestingly, the bicycles did not participate in the landing operation for fear of spotting the landing. However, the Japanese Army's strategy was based on the thousands of bicycles that were exported to Malaya before the war, and which could have been confiscated from civilians and retailers.
Bicycles specially adapted to the needs of the military have been in regular use since the beginning of the 20th century. From time to time in different armies of the world there were bicycles with a heavy machine gun or cargo models designed for the evacuation of the wounded. These were a kind of piece samples, which never became widespread in the army. But for the most part, civilian models were in service, to which a mount for a rifle or ammunition was attached.
One of the most interesting innovations in the world of military bicycles was the BSA AIRBORNE, specially designed in 1942 for the British paratroopers. Such a bike could be folded and attached to the front of the skydiver's suit. It was compact enough to safely jump out of an airplane with a bike. When the paratrooper landed, he could use a quickly detachable strap to detach the bike and quietly navigate to the next destination. Assembling the bike took up to 30 seconds.
Between 1942 and 1945, the Birmingham Small Arms Company produced 70,000 folding airplane bicycles. They were used by the British and Canadian infantry during the D-Day invasion and at Armina during the second wave. Although these bicycles were not used as often as originally thought, they were still a better and much faster option than walking.
Although bicycles were completely replaced by motorized transport after World War II, they played an important role for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army, who used them to transport goods along the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. However, since they often carried up to 180 kilograms of rice, such bicycles could not be ridden, they were simply pushed. These Vietnamese cargo bikes were often reinforced in jungle workshops so that they could carry heavy loads across any terrain.
Militarvelo MO-05 bicycles are still in service with the Swiss Army. Although their design has not changed much since 1905, when they were put into service. During the Sri Lankan civil war, under-equipped Tamil forces used civilian mountain bikes to move troops quickly and cheaply to and from the battlefield.
Today, bicycles are no longer universally used in the armies of the world. But they still retain the potential for cheap, mobile, and fuel-free personal transport for the fighter.
