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Finding out what a Motorcycle was used for during ww2.


casperboat

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A chap I know has a 1942 Royal Enfield CO, he can find the contract number on the frame and has found it in a book listing all War Department contracts, but the book doesn't say where the bike order was going. With other listings the book specifies where the bikes are headed. The bike is black all over and looks to have always been that colour. He's always assumed it was a dispatch rider's bike. He doesn't use the internet so I thought I would see if there was a way of finding out. The log book states it was first registered in 1946 but built in 1942.

Thanks.

Gary

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I'd suggest a post in the motorcycle section, detailing the information and numbers that you have.

 

Information from Ministry of Supply files is haphazard. Some contracts were partly or mainly sent to named RASC or RAOC depots for further distribution but from there onwards, little information remains.

 

Many of the Enfields sold off just after the war were professionally refinished (sometimes at the factory itself) and no trace of the original colour remains.

 

Given photographs of engine (including that under the magneto) and frame numbers, it is likely that one or two of the regular posters here could extract some more information.

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The contract number was only lightly pantographed on to the crank cases. If the number he has found on the frame begins with a C, it is a model WD/C 350sv bike. A Model WD/CO would have no prefix or an M.

The contract number is C12425, but the bike is overhead valve and has matching frame and engine numbers 6794, but one of the numbers has an M as a prefix. There is also an M244 stamped on it.

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The contract number is C12425, but the bike is overhead valve and has matching frame and engine numbers 6794, but one of the numbers has an M as a prefix. There is also an M244 stamped on it.

 

That ties up, the contract was allocated census numbers C5104201 to C5109200, frame number 6001 to 11000 according to the Chilwell list

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That's very close to my own M6973.

 

i thought he may have been getting his contract and frame numbers mixed up as you said he found the contract number on the frame.

 

I just assumed he got the contract number from the frame, I must be wrong. I'm reading through all the information i have been sent, so far it's shown that all the bikes would have been green, with this one being Standard camouflage colour no 2. Signed off by M244 in 1943. 32% of the 5000 bikes in that contract survived the war, with most then being civilianised by Royal Enfield, who fitted new parts where needed, including engines and new paint, mainly black or maroon.

Gary

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  • 1 year later...

Well, not been on for a while, but as an update to this, before I could let my mate know what had been found out on his bike, he had sold it.. The new owner told him he was going to paint it olive green.. I would have bought it if i'd known..

Now my brother has bought a 1943 Matchless G3L, in green with panniers racks etc. Looks to be well looked after and rides very well. We have just had to clean the tank and the carb and he's done quite a few miles on it without issue..

I'm now looking to buy a Royal Enfield Flying Flea, if anyone knows of one about..

Gary

Edited by casperboat
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