Bicycle Troops

This report presents a history of the use of bicycles for transportation by combat troops prior to World War I, during World Wars I and II, and more recently the use of bicycles in guerrilla warfare. It was developed in the Vietnam War as a special study for the Pentagon and in this edition it has been enlarged and supplemented with new materials. The armament, mobility, speed, distance, design, and load-carrying capacity of bicycles for transportation in remote areas and guerrilla warfare are discussed, The effect of terrain on the utilization of bicycles, the organization, strength, and tactics of bicycle units, and the training of combat troops using the bicycles are also considered. This volume also contains a rich trove of anecdotes of cyclists in combat and detailed training exercises for bicycle units.

Almost as soon as a viable metal-framed bike was invented, it was put to military use, offering a much cheaper, less fragile and less logistically demanding alternative to horse transport. Widely used in many armies from the late 19th century, through both world wars and beyond, the bicycle really is the forgotten war machine. John Norris traces traces the development of military cycling from first experiments, including early (often flawed) designs for armed and multi-passenger versions. He explains how any why bikes were used for rapid movement of infantry units as well as carrying messages and other tasks. First used in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, then by both sides in the Boer War, they were widely adopted throughout Europe before the First World War. In the Second World War, the Japanese used over fifty thousand bicycles in the conquest of Malaya and the German army used over three million, relying on them increasingly as petrol shortages immobilized motor transport. The Allies famously made use of folding and air-dropped bikes in Operation Market Garden and in Normandy. After WW2 bikes were used extensively in Vietnam, particularly along the Ho Chi Minh trail and some European armies maintained specialist bicycle units throughout the Cold War and into the 21st century. Specialized military bikes, collapsible for use by parachutists, are still being made for Special Forces units. John Norris examines the whole history of pedal-powered warfare and illustrates it with an array of high-quality photographs.

Translated literally as "War Speak," Kriegsprache is a glossary of WWII German military and period specific words, phrases, abbreviations, and Landser slang. Over 7,000 abbreviations and more than 17,500 words and phrases have been collected to aid the student, historian, and researcher in translating and understanding German documents, letters, and reports from WWII.

The untold story of how Canadian Cyclists came into their own during the Hundred Days campaign of the Great War. Canada’s Cyclists spent most of the First World War digging trenches, patrolling roads, and delivering dispatches. But during the Hundred Days campaign at the end of the Great War, Canada’s cycling troops finally came into their own. At Amiens, Cambrai, and especially the Pursuit from the Sensée, the Cyclists made pioneering contributions to the development of the Canadian Corps’s combined arms strategy and mobile warfare doctrine, all the while exhibiting the consummate professionalism the Corps became renowned for.

Examines the military use of bicycles.

This landmark study, first published by Cornell University Press in 1966, shows how Hitler's elite army grew from a praetorian guard of barely 28,000 men at the beginning of the Second World War to a combat-hardened army of more than 500,000 in 1945. George H. Stein examines in detail the structure and organization of the Waffen SS and describes the rigid personnel selection and intensive physical, military, and ideological training that helped to create the tough and dedicated cadre around which the larger force of the later war years was built.

The report presents a history of the use of bicycles for transportation by combat troops prior to World War I, during World War I and II, and more recently the use of bicycles in guerrilla warfare. The armament, mobility, speed, distance, design, and load-carrying capacity of bicycles for transportation in remote areas and guerrilla warfare are discussed. The effect of terrain on the utilization of bicycles, the organization, strength, and tactics of bicycle units, and the training of combat troops using the bicycles are also considered.