JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Posts 

I’ve posted a number of times in this blog on military uniforms/what-they-carried for WWI and WWII and thought to add this top that small collection. It is difficult to imagine climbing into a plane and dropping down behind enemy lines in the middle of the night by parachute carrying a bicycle. Equally difficult to imagine is the thought of actually being able to use it, that you would be delivered to an area where there was a possibility for you to survive the drop and with the rest of your stick expect to find a usable Nazi-free road to peddler your way someplace on your 23-pound bike. Man. My hat is off to these men for trying this. 

“British WWII Airborne BSA folding bicycle was used from 1939-1945 in WWII by British paratroopers. A folding bicycle was developed as a small size was needed to enable it to be taken on parachute jumps from aircraft. The War Office called for bike weighing less than 23lb + which would withstand being dropped without protection by parachute so BSA abandoned the traditional diamond design. The frame weighed 4¾lb. The bicycle was used by British paratroopers on  D-Day landings and at the Battle of Arnhem.”