Tag Archives: paratrooper bike

Fold-o-bike

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Private Tom J. Phelan, 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, rides his folding BSA Airborne Bicycle at the battalion’s reinforcement camp, in England, in early 1944. His kit includes a Denison smock and late model “deluxe” STEN Mk V SMG.

Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN 3579997 

Of note, over 60,000 Airborne Folding Paratrooper Bicycles were made by the Birmingham Small Arms company between 1942 and 1945, and, despite the name, they were used by light infantry and support units far and wide.

Phelan, who was wounded on 16 June 1944 at Le Mesnil, would survive the war.

The Flying Flea

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To give scouts and dispatch riders among the British paras and glider troops in WWII a ride, the 130-pound (wet) Royal Enfield WD/RE motorbike was employed. Known as the “Flying Flea” the simple off road bike used a 126cc two-stroke engine that could run on just about anything that could burn and got a very decent 130mpg.

royal Enfield WD RE motorbike flying flea parachute bike 3 royal Enfield WD RE motorbike flying flea parachute bike

Designed to fit in a reinforced aluminum crash cage, very few were actually used in battle.

royal Enfield WD RE motorbike flying flea parachute bike 2

This left the Paras to find transpo as best they could.

British glider troops pose with a local French girl on a captured German motorcycle, Normandy, 15th June 1944. note the MP40

British glider troops pose with a local French girl on a captured German motorcycle, Normandy, 15th June 1944. –Note the recently liberated MP40, which may have come as a package deal with the BWM

After the war, most of the British Army’s bikes were sold. These war-surplus motorcycles are bundled up in fives for disposal as scrap metal by weight– meaning the 5-packed Fleas were a bargain by any standard.

These war-surplus motorcycles are bundled up in fives for disposal as scrap metal