OT: WW-II Display Today (Pictures)

Folks came up today and took 90 year, WW-II and Korea veteran Dad out to see in Peoria,Illinois.

IT WAS GREAT!

I wouldn't have expected to see a Kettenkrad in Peoria . . .

That BMW R75 motorcycle model was built by the Russians after the war. It was mfdg from WW2 BMW prints. The Chinese are now building that same bike and they are being exported. They can be bought on eBay as well as other places.

Harley-Davidson mfdg around 1000 units that were slightly different. The front end and tanks being most notable. The XA models were based on the BMW R75 and built during the war.

All these motorcycles are twin opposed 750 cc flat heads and are shaft driven. Some of the BMW sidecars had a powered wheel. Can't say if the motorcycle pictured is German, Russian, or Chinese.

The pictures are great!!!! I have an Uncle that fought in WW II. He brought home a Army version of a Harley with the side car. How he got it?? I knew better than to ask too many questions. LOL

He still rides the bike in some parades during the year. He just turned 90 this last week. He is on his third wife. HE has out lived the first two. HE jokes he went with a newer model this time LMAO. She is just 72. So she is 18 years younger. He still rides a cycle in the summer. He did get a lighter Honda cycle for just riding to town and such.

He was in the Army when the war broke out. HE was jump school trainer at the beginning of the war. He then was shipped out to England to help train troops there. He was involved in the "D" day landing but not the first day on the beaches. HE was wounded in the " Battle of the Bulge". He was shot through the meaty part of both legs. He had a field medic fix him up and he fought on through the battle. He shot himself up with Penicillin and did not go to the hospital. He said that is where the guys that died went. LOL He is not a pretty site in shorts.

Twenty years ago he was in an auto accident where a guy hit him. The other driver was all mad because my Uncle did not stop at a green light. (The other driver had run the light red.) The other driver was going to beat up the old man that ruined "HIS" car. The other driver was not hurt in the wreck but he did need the ambulance after he swung at my Uncle. He was 72 at the time the attacker was 35. He still runs/walks five miles three time each week. He is in better shape than I am any more.

Like I said great pictures of a great generation.

Jump school trainer? Yeah, don"t you just love those Airborne guts? I remember getting into Special Forces Tng Center, Ft. Bragg, March 1965, right after jump school....seeing all the pics on the walls at the old Tng Center, Smoke Bomb Hill- the old and original SF, pics from WWII- Salerno, Sicily, St. Mere Iglese, Market Garden in Holland, etc. Wondering then if I could live up to the legacy of those heroes. Truly inspirational to all of us trainees. But, between jump school and SF, 3 percent of us survived.

Don't think any motorcycles that made it overseas were repatriated. Most of them were distributed to foreign police depts. Eventually those bikes were re-sold to citizens. There are alot of them today in Europe and Australia. Many Harley XA NOS parts come from Australia.

The Harley WLA (V-twin 750 cc) of your uncle's almost certainly came from US stocks. I suppose it could have been stolen but was most likely liquidated as Govt surplus. I am a second owner (civilian) of a '42 WLA. Paid $75 for it in 1968 and rode it home. The seller probably paid less 20 years earlier. Also own a '42 XA. Jay Leno has one too. That model was designed for desert conditions. My bike has disc wheels so that sand would not reach the inner tubes from the spoke holes.

I remember seeing ads in the back of Popular Mechanics in the '50s where new WLA engines were offered for $25 from an outfit in Chicago. Those engines are probably worth $3000-$4000 now.

Neat. Great pics.

A guy from our church does these re-enactments. He may have been there, he goes all over the country for them.

The motorcycle pictured is a BMW R12 . The R75s had a rubber fork boot and were not a flathead. Both were produced during the war. When the Germans drafted guys that had bikes they drafted the civilian motorcycle and the man. There were German soldiers on Triumphs too because before the war those Bitish bikes were imported to Germany. The German Zundaps, BMWs, and NSUs all had the third wheel of the sidecar driven by shaft and could go through alot of mud. Looks like the guys at the re-enactment are having fun.

Them jackboots look like they'd be noisy.

Were was that jim?
bill