1942 CANADIAN ARMY FILM UNIT " MOTORCYCLE TRAINING " WWII INSTRUCTIONAL FILM NORTON 16H 16314
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- čas přidán 29. 11. 2019
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This 1942 training film (Prod. No. 169) from the Canadian Army Film Unit and narrated by Gerry Wilmot shows the training of dispatch riders at a training school in England. The film opens with a scene of an officer showing soldiers a motorcycle engine in a room at a training school in England. Men are assigned a Norton 16H motorcycle out in the yard and must maintain the bike during the entirety of the course (01:12). The soldiers work on their bikes. An instructor shows the students how to kickstart a bike (01:50). Students ride the bikes in single-file line around the barracks square. The film then shows the students riding out on an open highway and practicing hand signals, going around turns, and riding through a forest on a dirt trail. The riders go over a series of small ridges like what is found on a dirt bike course (03:37). They ride across a river; an engine stalls on one of the bikes and the rider gets off and pushes it to shore. Next, viewers see the students practicing on sandy terrain, as they navigate sand dunes and small bluffs (04:40), possibly riding Norton motorcycles at a training course near Bordon, England. Several men crash their bikes as they attempt to climb a small bluff. A student is tested during a training simulation, carrying a message between a field unit and headquarters (05:30). The rider passes through water, across fields, and down a highway (all terrain showed earlier in the film) as simulated shelling and gunfire go on around him. The student completes the simulation and then lies down in the grass and smokes a cigarette, concluding the film.
The Norton 16H is a designation given to British motorcycles made between 1911 through to 1954 with various modifications and refers to a single cylinder Norton 490cc side valve engine with a bore and stroke of 79 x 100 mm. The H denotes the Home model as distinct from the Colonial export model.Norton was the main military motorcycle supplier prior to WW2 and one of the main suppliers of motorcycles to the British Army in World War II with a total of nearly 100,000 produced. British Army Nortons were also supplied to the Commonwealth forces such as Australian, New Zealand, India and the Canadian Army.
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My grandpa was one of these Canadian motorcycle riders. RIP Harris Conklin.
Mine too! Had the front blown off while riding by the Germans. He said he hit the road rolled and ran like hell!!!
thank you for your service Harris Conklin.
Mine as well. Went over in '39 and returned in late '45. RSM Ernie McNamara.
Awww my grandfather was a motorcycle code runner in ww2 too fer the Germans though just immigrated to Canada after the war when my Mom was little still hung out with bikers in Toronto though. He was the scariest man I ever met he was nice to me but something about him was terrifying. He was a master carpenter too I lived in his house for a while after he died there were dozens of rusty axes hammers etc. in the basement...
This is my bike, this is my gun,
this is for riding, this is for fun.
My father was a member of 1st Can Para. They had a lot of training, here in Canada, and in England. The MC training was overseas. In a bit of an understatement, he told me that to successfully complete the motorcycle training, all they had to do was ride out of a "gravel pit". This film backs up his statement 50+ years later on. Thanks so much. He also mentioned they lost buddies when the Bren Gun (Universal) Carrier they were training in, rolled on top of them in the same gravel pit.
My uncle was a sgt in the 1st can para. Sgt charles edmund hanlon. Kia in france 1 month to the day afteranding on d day.
You know when I first started watching this video I though wouldn't it be great to back in time with my way more advanced cycle and show them a thing or two.After watching the whole video I tip my hat to these men as even with primitive motorcycles they handled hills and the terrain like it was nothing.Thanks for posting.
Yeah I assumed it would be with a foot clutch and jockey shift - but I didn't see a hand shifter on any of the bikes.
And ya Get a Smoke when you're job's Done. Loving it
bansheemania smoke em if you got em
The bigger issue was how he hid his bike & laid down as not to give the enemy spotters the location of his comrades or to get shot by the enemy...
Haha yeah!
and "a kipper for breakfast" if can ride like George on his Shuttleworth snap ?
I thought he was going to eat a sandwich not burn a cancer stick ..
My grandfather joined the US Army Cavalry in 1933 at the age of 15. He completed the 6 month Cavalry school, and was assigned to the 3rd Cavalry Division. During his time there, the 3rd Cavalry was commanded by Colonels Patton and Wainwright, Patton would go on to fame in Europe, while Wainwright had the dubious distinction of surrendering the Philippines to the Japanese after the Battle of Corregidor.
A few years after my grandfather joined the Cavalry, it switched away from horses, and switched to motorcycles. My grandfather always called that moment "The time they took the horses away." The Cavalry adapted, or tried to adapt their tactics and methods to the motorcycle, but it was not successful. Believe it or not, a horse was easier to control on a combat obstacle course, and troopers could use both hands to handle weapons, and control the horse with their knees. In time, the motorcycle idea was abandoned, and the Cavalry became mechanized.
In 1942, when the above video was made, my grandfather was already fighting in the Pacific. By the end of the war 3 years later, only 2 members of his entire troop would be alive to return home, him and one other.
Watched this 01/01/2020... these old boys are showing excellent riding and maintainance skills required for the DAKAR RALLY.😉👍🤙🏍🌎
This was so much fun to watch! I was Dispatch rider, finnish army 2013. Training was awesome, riding in beautiful forests, getting stuck in swamps, surviving in middle of dark and snowy environment with beef jerky and map, jumping over ditches with full gear, fixing bike in the battlefield etc. Dam i miss those days
jerryypie now that is true adventure riding! What bike(s) were you issued?
We got 2012 Yamaha WR 250R with cool army green color. Good handling, light bike and enough power (30hp) for hill climb
My Grandfather Ernest Metham was a Dispatch Rider for the Canadian Army I guess that's were I get My love for 2 wheels..
And he owned a Norton! ^_^
There's nothing like a British bike to learn maintenance on, they always need it..
My father has a rigid/tele fork trials bike he built himself. Although bits of it are older than these Norton's it's definitely better suited to off road riding. But it's still bloody hard work, half a days trialing and you're absolutely knackered.
... and the oil will leak from here, here, here and here
Some of the WWI bikes had total loss oiling system...
jajajajaja , es verdad .
That is actuallly a good thing! This way you never need to change the oil. You just fill the oil tank every once in a while just like you do with a fuel tank.
The funnyest comment of the year!
@@Kirillissimus Yup! and if it ain't leaking, you know it's out of oil! Saves the weight and fuss of a dipstick ;-)
After WW2, my dad bought one of these one-lunger Nortons through Crown Assets Disposal. I remember him telling us that the thing was indestructible, but not very comfortable to ride. He got rid of it and bought a Harley to replace it. Too bad he didn’t keep it, I would have loved riding it.
My old Clerk of Works told me he would volunteer for anything in WW2 that gave him extra pay (wife and 2 girls back in the UK). Did a stint as a dispatch rider in the north African desert and would never use goggles until he took a speck of dust that blocked the tear duct and left him with tears permanently trickling down his face.
Fortunately there was a consultant surgeon from London's Moorfields Eye Hospital out there on a training mission and he cleared the duct by poking it clean with a very fine wire.
Bob always wore goggles after that because "It effing well hurt!"
My uncle, on the other hand, who had the same job up through Italy always blamed the Norton kickstarter for problems he had in later life with his right hip.
Great Norton riding and ... even Harley-Davidson WLC ... Great shot of the instructor on the WLC wading a river and using the additional hand clutch.
My stepdad was signal corp. He rode those old Norton Commandos (great bikes) I wound up getting a '74 Interstate 850. More power and torque than a Sportster and didn't leak a drop of oil.
The Signal Corps didn't use Commandos, which are drastically different from the singles. (I have a '71 750 and '74 Interstate.)
1:31 learn to care for the machine for which his. Life may one day depend on ... Yeah...my sanity and relief from stress depend on my ability to ride
L Montoya no truer words said my friend FTW
I've had cars since 1991, but I got a bike only in 2014. I learned how to change oil, an oil or an air filter, and spark plugs, on my Honda CB-750 bike. It's a good thing to have a bit of knowledge in mechanics.
Really like all these movies but since I'm a rider, I really loved this one...one thing though, they have the goggles on the helmet yet noone used them. It was very funny. As a rider I feel eye protection is extremely important. How often have I been hit by anything from small pebbles to insect around the height of the eyes but thankfully my visor or eyewear shielding my eyes..and when something hits you, even the smallest of things, it does make a lot of noise so imagine if that was your eyeball...So kids, always use protection, on the eyes and safe riding.
Strangely enough I have goggles on my old pudding basin helmet just like the ones in the film .I only use them in the rain or dusty conditions.
@John Smith hahaha A wasp went down my man cleavage. I noticed something went down there and let my throtle go and start fishing for it thinking it's just some pebble etc and it stung me around the heart. Never had any sort of sting before. Didn't swell but crap it hurt for a long time.
because thats the cool way for cafe racers riders. goggles up on helmet and sun glasses over the eyes
Riding across a 3 mile bridge at 50mph in a rain storm. Really appreciate the eye protection.
@John Smith I got nailed by a wasp once, and used a full face helmet from then on...
There was a great story on the DR's in the Legion Magazine recently and talked about their terrific loss rates..Bless em'.
The best part is when buddy lays out and busts out a smoke not 20 feet from where he was dodging arty 🤘🏽
I just subscribed to your CZcams channel, this video is history recorded, great job saving and sharing, thank you. I am now 64 now in 2020, and still remember seeing these films in the early 1960's on TV as a kid.
This is my motorcycle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
My motorcycle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my motorcycle is useless. Without my motorcycle, I am useless. I must ride my motorcycle true. I must ride faster than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must outrun him before he shoots me. I WILL…
My grandfather was a dispatch rider with the 4th armoured in Ortona. I'm sure he would have seen this
My father-in-law was a motorcycle riding instructor at Camp Borden in Ontario before going overseas with the Cdn. 5th Armoured Division fighting in Sicily then up the Italian boot to Rome. He had been a motorcycle racer in the 30's plus was a mechanic so was given the instructor job. He talked about the training course they created; things like how to lay the bike down quickly if you came under fire which was practiced on wet grass to make it easier and with less damage to bike and rider.
Gosh darned blankety heck, I've fallen oft again. 😳. Brilliant film, thanks for uploading.
And not just the Norton 16H. Some of these scenes also show the Harley-Davidson WLC, the Canadian version of the WLA that American forces used.
These guys had to know a lot. Great men.
And thus Motocross was born thank God for our sport
Wow!!! That was cool!
Love the engine noise overdub
Twenty four years later this film was still part of the motorcycle training that I had in the British Army. It was still relevant at the time. Motorcycles were different, but we still wore the Don R’s full motorcycle clothing and helmets, which were useless in a crash.
Great flim! I flipped a quad and a bike on a similar hill!
The Norton is one of the most badass motorcycles ever built, but off road, well, that's a great way to break your neck.
That was all they had in those days; those boys were doing some stellar riding considering they were riding hardtails with a girder fork.
And foot clutch!
@@dazjams1 No foot clutch on Nortons
Not having a pop but have you ever ridden a big single, rigid back end Brit bike? They are very capable 'off' road. If you get the chance do have a go, I think you'll be surprised.
@@iangrimshaw1 I'd love to, but I got old. If I fell down, I'd shatter like a glass pitcher.
The balls on these lads. Going up that sand incline on those bikes is no easy feat!
Wow... how good was that!
That was great!
Back in the 60's early 70's they were selling brand new dispatch bikes for around $50 from army surplus.
That was a weeks pay back then.
I bought one of those Triumph TRW back in the 70's.
Yea and a jeep for 100 bucks lol
@@1955gaylord at a buck fifty an hour, that's almost 2 weeks pay (after taxes) in 1970. I think VWs were still about $1800 new. Everything was solid metal.
i would have told you to buy and keep it for me if i was born before that
Imagine being paid to ride bikes and shoot guns. just imagine it
It would be a dream job if not for the fact that it has average mortality rate a bit on the high side even in peacefull times.
Davey Bernard
I was paid to shoot guns and drive a tank..... “best job I ever had.”
Derrick Flyr
Ever since women’s suffrage, there have been men (usually, but not always, of the ‘Citiot variety’) who want to get by doing only what is required of women... they don’t want to hunt, fish, build, explore, compete, provide, or take on any other manly experience... they want to lay around and be kept like a girlfriend or a cat....
@@Rick_Sanchez_C137_ Well, Uncle Jed, not ever'one kin roust 'emself in th' mornin' an shoot an gut a possum fer brekfist! That is, if ya bother ta commence ta gut it!
@Derrick Flyr - Most? Get a grip. No they aren't. Even if a guy eats differently than you do, why do you give a shit?
Norton! Nice, I didn’t know that.
What a great movie. John Sebastian Roy and Darcy Lange's great grandfathers could be in this movie.
Nice, big whopper single cylinder.
Cross country riding. Gotta be able to take a spill, get up, remount, and keep going.
Harley Davidson's V-Twin was designed to make the equivalent of a very large single, but that wasn't as poorly balanced....
pepsicola can piston
great!
Very interesting vintage film, i like motorcycle.
Time travel. thank you
Beautiful Norton's..
Complicated Electronic's👈 He said it...
Sign me up
bansheemania
Lol.. it’s a motorcycle! Not that complicated
@@robertmoore4637 i know.. from points to ECU. Give me points and old school all day. Love anything 70s and Older
Something about Norton bikes that is sooo classically British which I like...For those that watched MASH, BJ Hunnicutt once found a motorcycle, I think on the final show. It looked very much like those on this film unless Harley Davidson was providing the US Army with motorcycles too.
H-D made 750cc bikes for the U.S. Army, while Indian made 500cc bikes for some Commonwealth nations.
I mean, yeah the war must have been horrible in so many ways I can't even begin to imagine.. But everything about being in this motorcycle course seems like an absolute blast.
Some of these comments show how "out of touch" most motorcyclists are with actual history and 1942 machines.
That goes for any mechanical devices. Technology changes
@Jerry Hall I had a 1942 WLA for23 years. It was an actual veteran of WW2. Bought it when I was stationed in the Philippines and brought it back to the states.
I'm amazed they didn't know about counter steering and think you steer by shifting weight.
11 men were killed in the making of this training film.
Woaf!!!
@paul beenis joke
5:13 Graham Jarvis’ grandad
The country had been ravaged by 3 years of war, blitz and shortages, yet still the roads looked better (no pot holes or crumbling surfaces) than they are today...
@@mikeb1039 No . nothing to do with that! They were all ok until the 1970s onwards. I was there!
The country has been ravaged by 10+years of the Torys! I dont see pools of blood either! Though I have to step over them every time I go to London these days!
At least they're wearing helmets. Also, I bet the military would've loved to have modern day dirt bikes back then.
Truly Infamous TW 200
Truly Infamous
I want one of the army’s Kawasakis with the diesel motor.... in 2006 I even tried contacting the company the army contracts for the motors.... those guys don’t answer phones or emails....
@@Rick_Sanchez_C137_ who makes them
Story time. My great grandfather a WW2 veteran. Before getting shipped off too Italy as a tanker he was in England on a Motorcycle. He crashed into a mail truck and broke his arm. In the hospital he met a very young hospital volunteer who became his love interest. He said that he was gonna marry her when he came back. He recovered in time go to Italy. When he returned too England before D day he married her. She became my great grandmother.
Interesting that the narrator said the rider was not to steer the m.c., but to lean with body weight to change direction. By the 1960’s US Army m.c. training was teaching counter stearing. Once you try it, you will never go back to the leaning thing.
"counter st-EE-ring" is mastered by many at a young age on their first "push bike" after a few elbow scabs and skinned knees ....to be placed deep in the old "grey matter" under how to ride a bike ...not a dark art unless find front brake on a "moto-sickle" and "stick" in a car a bit like how to use a knife a fork .....and find the worry of "target fixation" means you spend more time looking where you've been than going ...."knock it down , chuck it in , scrag it out " be the order of the day back then after a "kipper for breakfast".....Geoff Duke's time as a DR didn't hold him back with the lack off "buzz" words .
at lower speeds you are using counter weight (leaning away from the turn) at higher speeds, counter steering.
Awesome 😆
Looks like a fun day at the motocross park ... maybe not the bombs and bullets lol. Love it, dude smokes and takes a nap : )
.......and electrical power is provided by Lucas, The Prince of Darkness.
And all Clark(e)'s was Nobby ......
My grandfather was a despatch rider in Papua New Guinea for the Australian army...almost no sealed roads, and back then almost no roads at all. I’m pretty sure he had an Indian. It’s amazing he survived.
Good riders
I think just about all training in the 60s was done with British manuals. We had to learn to throw grenades using the English cricket pitch instead of our familiar baseball type pitch. It was stupid, but watching how much it unhinged our instructors when we pulled the pin was somewhat amusing.
My Great Uncle, John Harper, drove a Motorcycle combination in the First World War. He died in 1997, aged 100.
Jerry Palladino would eat those courses for breakfast!
They were even "weeded out" back then!
I thought the mill at 4:05 were they're ford wide water, was Eling Tidal Mill in Southampton, but I've checked, and it isn't. It's almost certainly a tidal mill. Anyone know which?
6:23 calmly fording some water when taking cannon fire, no biggie
No shock on the front forks must have made for one dangerous ride. I got to see one the last motorcycle groups from our military out for a ride one day. Not sure what brand of bikes they had as all the markings were off them and they were painted all green. They were on/off rode bikes perhaps about 500 cc. . We don't have bikes in the tiny military now
It had this 'isolastic' suspension going for it, with these rubber washers in all the right places. It's known as the first superbike. But I can't think of anything worse to ride on anything but a well maintained paved road.
They were Nortons. The girder forks were sprung and had friction damping plates.
Girder forks and a sprung seat.
His hair looked awesome just after coming out of his helmet at the end. Lol
It’s the Brylcream...
Brylcreem bounce
I almost thought in the start that the narrator said “the men must take the same care of the machine the same way they do their wife and pack”…not rifle and pack😂
Yeah And go read “war is a racket” by Smedley butler
This is too rich. Great stuff.
Who needs the latest KTM or BMW GS, these were just as capable, just like the Model T will show many modern-day 4x4 who's boss.
Simplicity imo is always better. If it breaks down you fix it. Nowadays it breaks down you need a computer programmer to come look at it first. I'd rather have something old over something new any day and I'm not that very old....
Midnight here in Australia & I'm in bed watching a 1942 Canadian army film.
Where did it all go wrong. lol
the moment you turned on the internet
It's 4 AM and here i am too.
Cool. Canadian tanks.
I had one of these 500 cc Nortons in 1960? I beleive they sold throught Princes Auto?? Bullet proof.
Brappp Trapp!
I learned the art of bushwhacking.
my uncle Russ Overholt was a rider
Complicated electrical systems!!!.HUH?
7:20 "i'm restin'" here?! Yer restin'??
What motorcycles were these ?? What make??
And Harleys
I was weeded out on a motorcycle once.
Around 3,49, they are taking some barly drops.
Very good for ThroatSore !!
And the dirt bike was born . Loved it .
No real suspension
And they did it all 😂
Some bikes had front shocks but all had no rear shocks...
Hence why they were taught to stand up and let their knees absorb the shocks.
The Germans made extensive use of motor cycle combinations with a machine gun equipped side car rider - think of the great escape and Steve McQueen. I wonder why we never used this technique ourselves?
That smokes probably a Player's.
yo is this a good starter bike.
I was hoping to see someone do a Superman off a 20 foot mound!😃
Those brave men were, unkowingly, the precursor to the X-Games and Nitro Circus
@@irvan36mm I'd like to see Josh Bender dropping in on one of these 40's bikes. Though he'd probably break it, animal.
So much smoke from engine why??
The WLA as dirt bike....who knew?
I've been told by an old WW11 DonR (Despatch rider) that when the Yanks came over to Britain before D Day their HD WLA riders were very impressive off road riders.
Steve McQueen was Canadian?
we should bring back these bikes with made in japan quality
Norton.
It would be funny if they had the same training for a motorcycle license today. Bombs going off and guns shooting around the rider. Might make for better riders today lol.
👍
"corners are taken by swinging the body to one side or the other " ye try that at higher speeds and see how far u come 😅
A couple of Carmicheals and Stewarts would have changed history!
no bikes were damaged making this film .
Oh yeah, a Players smoke after a hard days ride......
Canadian soldiers specialized Harley-davidson CVO
Before counter steering was invented
Old snortin Norton
Do they still use bikes in the military?
tocatchasnark 1
Yes, but rarely, and definitely not needed as they are “used” by the divisions..... SOC uses them as mounts in weird places, that makes much more sense.
Yes but only against civils and generaly in the same contry they come from.france,south america,china
As a retired Air Force member an life long motorcycle rider I kind of keep up on this subject, like the other gentlemen have replied not so much anymore, drones, internet and satellites have taken over recon and communications.
I remembered this article
www.wearethemighty.com/articles/heres-the-motorcycle-of-choice-for-special-operators
WW II Motorcycles for the allies were mostly used as support vehicles, Despatch Riders aka Messengers, Military Police use them to escort convoys and set up traffic control points, and some were used by Scouts, I'm sure they're used for lots of other function official and unofficial as Soldiers tend to be inventive when it comes to equipment use.
A few years ago the USMC got Kawsaki Dual Sports Converted to Diesel Engines, easier to find fuel for them and gives the bike long range. I can't find anything so far if they are still using them I did find this from 2008, so its 12 years old, I'm hoping they found something more modern.
www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/automobiles/24KAWASAKI.html
I imagine somewhere, at some base, their are Soldiers looking at Electric Motorcycles, imagine being able to silently go somewhere and do a mission. If they are not already, probably want to keep that a secret.
I have a lot of respect for the WWII motorcycle riders.
The Germans used motorcycles to good effect, they had sidecars with machine guns.
Ive seen SpecOPs use 250cc Kaw for airdrops in the 80's for Recon