welbike Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Came across this picture, unusual to see a Squarial in the army, and even rarer in the German army!! The other 2 bikes are DKW NZ 350's Cheers, Lex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Blimey Lex, I bet they couldn't believe their luck! Certainly not a military bike. Either it was already on the Continent or maybe impressed and captured. Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alixcompo Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Blimey Lex, I bet they couldn't believe their luck! Certainly not a military bike. Either it was already on the Continent or maybe impressed and captured. Ron Not very hard to capture; just follow it until the rear cylinders overheated and seized.!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdbikemad Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 It's often an eye-opener to see the variety of bikes impressed into German military usage, the majority of which were acquired following the fall of the low countries and France in 1940......the German's appear to have run the refurbishment of such vehicles with typical efficiency, in many cases with NSKK units tasked to deal with the jobs en-mass..........and British bikes apart, large numbers of French and Belgian machines were also utilised....... After 1941 a great number of impressed bikes and other vehicles of all descriptions went east following the invasion of Russia.......the majority remained there.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welbike Posted August 3, 2012 Author Share Posted August 3, 2012 Ah Yes Steve, but also after Dunkirk hundreds and hundreds of french garages were set to work to get the bikes, cars and trucks running again, have seen many pictures of that in the Koblenz nat. archives in Germany. And with most of the spare parts captured too, it was not too difficult to rebuild the seized engines. Cheers, Lex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hardman Posted August 6, 2022 Share Posted August 6, 2022 On the other foot, I've travelled pillion on a 'civilian' version of a German bike (a DKW) which was pirated for a Dutch company to get round Nazi restrictions just pre-war. Wirh a larger bore (125c.c.) rhan the German original, the same lightweight bike was militarised for British forces and could be airdropped (I think): it was known as the "Flying Flea". We had a second-hand civilian one, registered in 1947 and which lasted until a crankshaft bearing-failure in about 1962. Those bikes must be extinct today, apart from an odd army-museum example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welbike Posted August 8, 2022 Author Share Posted August 8, 2022 John, the story is a bit more complicated, but you got the gist! first there was the RT100 DKW, then the Royal Baby, and then the Flying Flea, as it happens I have all 3 of them, but the Royal Baby still unrestored, of that one there are only maybe 5 survivors. Cheers, Lex 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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