Military Use of the Side Car for Motorcycles.

 The side car  is an accessary to a conventional bike. Though the side car is now out of fashion, yet during the Second World War the Germans made good use of these side cars. Such bikes fitted with side cars became part of the arsenal of the German army and served a definite purpose. The Germans converted their heavier machines like Zundapp, BMW into lethel military weapons. The fire power of the army platoons and regiments was greatly increased.

 The side car  is an accessary to a conventional bike. Though the side car is now out of fashion, yet during the Second World War the Germans made good use of these side cars. Such bikes fitted with side cars became part of the arsenal of the German army and served a definite purpose. The Germans converted their heavier machines like Zundapp, BMW into lethel military weapons. The fire power of the army platoons and regiments was greatly increased.

The German army after extensive trials fitted their machines with side cars. They made a further innovation and fitted a light Machine gun on the side car.

The machine gun was fitted on a pivot which could rotate. Behind it sat a gunner who handled the machine gun. Thus the gunner could turn the machine gun through an arc of 150 degrees.

 Such a contraption was ideal for Europe where the flat roads and countryside made these machines an asset for the German army. These bikes fitted with Machineguns were a terror in occupied Europe and the German plotoons with these bikes  roamed the vilages of Europe  searching for opponents of the third Reich. it was not uncommon for a motorcycle platoon to enter a village with bursts of machine gun fire. 

 These machine gun fitted side cars were however not a success in Russia, where the mud and slush made these machines redundent. Most of the machines got stuck in mud and their efficacy was greatly reduced.

The Germans made the greatest use of these side cars as weapons of war. In comparison the Americans and British did use side cars for their motorcycles, but they did not arm them as the Germans did. Their use was restricted to communications and carrying messages and medical equipment.

 The Germans used nearly 100,000 of these motorcycles with machine guns. But once the invasion of Europe was underway these machine gun borne bikes and side cars were easy prey from the  air and suffered heavily. Once the allies obtained complete mastery over the air, the use of these armed bikes beacme almost zero.


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