John Norris - The Military History of the Bicycle: The Forgotten War Machine

The Military History of the Bicycle

To my granddaughters Harriett and Olivia, with whom Ive enjoyed many bicycle rides.

John Norris

First published in Great Britain in by

Pen & Sword Military

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright John Norris 2021

ISBN 978 1 52676 351 8

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Mobi ISBN 978 1 5267 6353 2

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The more I see of war, the more I realise how it all depends upon administration and transportation

Field Marshal Lord Wavell

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the many people who have assisted me in compiling this work, by supplying images, answering my questions and various emails and giving so freely of their time. Firstly, to my very good friend Chris Lay, thank you for supplying images of the cap badges for the Army Cyclist Corps. Thanks also Andrew Watson and Charles Skinner for answering so many questions. I am grateful to the National Cycle Collection in Wales where the staff answered my emails and identified a most unusual object. To the many and various owners of bicycles I spotted at military shows, thank you for allowing me to photograph your machines. And to all the reenactors and owners of vintage bicycles who gave their time so freely to arrange photographs, I extend my sincere gratitude.

D espite the adage that an army marches on its stomach, the simple fact is that it marches on its feet. Over the centuries it has been proved that whoever moves their troops fastest gains the edge over his opponent. Unfortunately, moving fast does have the effect of tiring the troops on the march, but by being in place first allows some time to recover and, more importantly, the opportunity to deploy ones troops in good order. Speed is of the essence in war, but to move fast, and over a long distance, an army must have strength and stamina to keep going. Throughout history, armies across the world used many modes of transport during their campaigns, from camels to horse-drawn wagons, until arriving at the point of motorised transportation. Towards the end of the nineteenth century another mode of transportation was added to that list in the shape of the bicycle. Requiring neither fuel or fodder, and capable of remaining operational with only basic maintenance, it was to show itself to be more economical than any other method of transportation and come to prove its worth many times over.

Armies have completed feats of incredible endurance by marching great distances to engage in battle. During the campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars all armies marched everywhere, from Spain to Russia and Italy to Sweden. One of the greatest feats of endurance of any military campaign, either before or since, began on 24 June 1812, when Napoleon Bonaparte, leading an army of over 600,000 men and 200,000 horses, invaded Russia in the most ambitious campaign of his military career. Over the coming weeks his army advanced further, the Russian army avoided battle, and any engagement was far from being conclusive. As the Russians retreated, they destroyed everything that could be useful to the French, including all food stocks and fodder for the horses.

On 14 September Napoleon entered the city of Moscow, having marched his army more than 500 miles. The victory was to be short-lived, because fire broke out and the city was destroyed, forcing the French, with little in the way of supplies, to leave in mid-October. By now winter had set in and the remains of his army struggled to retreat in harsh conditions. The last of the troops made their way back in early 1813. Napoleon had marched his army over 1,000 miles on a campaign which lost him more than 500,000 troops and was, in the end, all for nothing.

In 1908, 104 years after the Moscow debacle, the British army announced the formation of a new mobile force made up of cyclist troops formed into battalions. The unit comprised several thousand infantrymen riding bicycles, each of which could cover up to fifty miles a day, carrying the burden of his equipment on the same machine. The creation of this new force arose from successful field trials over twenty years earlier which proved the bicycle had a useful military application. The infantry now had a new and independent mode of transportation, but the force was not to remain alone for long because several European armies were creating similar bicycle forces, including France and Belgium.

The idea was picked up further afield. The Japanese and Russian armies investigated the potential of the bicycle, and in America soldiers engaged in a marathon military exercise to demonstrate the usefulness of the machine by riding bicycles to travel almost 2,000 miles in forty days, an average of 50 miles a day.

The first practical bicycle was developed in the early nineteenth century and it was not long before its value to the military was recognised. In fact, within only a very short time bicycles were in limited service with several armies, being viewed as cheap, effective means of transportation for the infantry. During the Franco-Prussian War of 187071 French army messengers rode machines known as velocipedes to carry orders between units. However, it was not until the Second Boer War of 18991902, that the British army and the Boers proved how useful bicycles could be in war, with both sides using them as transportation and as means to transport supplies and equipment. By the end of the twentieth century, the bicycle would be used in warfare on six continents.

Like other innovations, once the influential armies of the world, such as the British, French and Prussian, led the way in the use of bicycles, other armies were quick to follow. Using bicycles, soldiers could cover many miles without becoming overtired and transport surprisingly heavy loads to keep them operational in the field. The bicycle was something even the smaller armies could afford, and countries such as Spain, Portugal and Belgium saw the benefits of using bicycles to move troops. As the years passed so the importance of the bicycle continued to increase so that by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, several European armies had cyclist units and the British army had formed whole battalions in the Cyclist Corps.