Over the course of World War II, countless challenges made basic transportation difficult, costly, and dangerous. The need for fast, efficient, and quiet ways of moving people from A to B—despite fuel shortages, damaged roads, and ongoing battles—led many soldiers and civilians to take advantage of bicycles as transport. Troops in some areas became more nimble, refugees used bikes to carry their family and belongings to safety, air-raid wardens could cover more ground on two wheels, and many civilians had no other options available. Gathered below are a handful of images of some of the many ways people put bicycles to use during the Second World War.
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Members of the German light-machine-gun bicycle corps wear gas masks while standing beside their bicycles in a lineup in Austria, circa 1939. Note the machine gun attached to one of the bicycles at lower right. #
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Original caption: "Headed west through a forest somewhere in France, these French bicycle troops are making their way toward the front, on September 25, 1939." #
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Cyclists volunteer as ARP (Air Raid Precautions) messengers in Liverpool, England, in 1939. Original caption: "Many of Merseyside's club cyclists are showing the way in volunteering for the new corps of cyclist ARP messengers. There are now 500 members in the ARP messenger corps." #
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Original caption: "A one-man anti-gas ambulance and resuscitator, designed and made for use by the Home Guard." Photographed in England on July 29, 1941. #
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Members of the German bicycle corps participate in a parade past Adolf Hitler, which was held in celebration of his 50th birthday, on April 20, 1939. #
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A Belgian family of four rides a tandem bicycle with some of their belongings strapped to their backs as they flee from the advancing Nazis into France, on June 14, 1940. #
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Original caption, from April 11, 1940: "The famous Dutch bicycle regiment at attention, ready to speed toward the German frontier should danger from the Nazis threaten Queen Wilhelmina's kingdom. The low countries now fear a blitzkrieg like the one that has just been visited upon Norway and Denmark." Photographed outside of Amsterdam. #
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Original caption: "A policeman cycles through London’s streets with a 'raiders passed' notice, on September 3, 1939, after the first air raid warning of the war." #
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In the area near the Dnieper river, on the Russian front, a unit of German cyclists passes over a gangway of logs built by engineers in August 1941. #
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Japanese troops enter Saigon on September 15, 1941. #
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Original caption: "The most universal form of transport in Paris on June 1, 1941, under Nazi rule, is the bicycle taxi. In the old day Paris taxis were famous the world over for the furious way in which they were driven, but all that is now at thing of the past owing to the tremendous scarcity of petrol, which has all been requisitioned for the Nazi war machine. The Paris taxi-drivers now pedal their fares around in these quaint contraptions, the one on the left holds three travelers." #
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Three Air Cadets from the Royal Air Force's Coulsdon and Purley Squadron practice flying in formation, using bicycles with wings over the handlebars, on September 29, 1942. #
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Original caption: "Members of the Hitler Youth who are trained to report airstrikes repair their bicycles." Published in 1942. #
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Original caption: "There's a sharp upswing in the use of bicycles. Restrictions on automobiles, gasoline and rubber tires to conserve materials for the waging of war have college kids finding alternative ways of getting around. Wellesley College freshmen are two-wheeling their way over the campus in Wellesley, Massachusetts, March 20, 1942." #
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U.S. Air Force pilots at a bomber command station in England use bicycles to travel the mile-long tarmac from their headquarters to their giant planes, on June 8, 1942. #
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Original caption, from 1943: "Soldiers of the Bicycle Patrol push their vehicles along a partly frozen lake on an alpine pass. Switzerland's narrow, hilly passes make bicycles the most practical means of transportation." #
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Members of the Women Army Corps (WAC) that were stationed at a U.S. medium-bomber station in England ride bicycles on their way to work on December 22, 1943. #
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A Civil Defense air-raid warden stands beside a street sign during a blackout, circa 1943. #
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American servicemen ride a five-seater bicycle in England on May 19, 1944. #
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From left: Corporal Willis T. Anthony, Private First Class Emmitt Shackelford, Private First Class Eugene Purdy, and Private First Class Horace Boykin (on bicycle), all members of the U.S. Marine Corps, take time out from supplying ammunition to the front line in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, in June 1944. #
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Original caption: "Canadian soldiers from the 9th Brigade land on June 6, 1944, with their bicycles at Juno Beach in Bernieres-sur-Mer during D-Day, while Allied forces were storming the Normandy beaches." #
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Original caption: "Down the gangway of an LCI of the Royal Canadian Navy, troops from Canada scramble into the surf near a town on the coast of Normandy on June 12, 1944, with their bicycles in the invasion of Europe." #
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Thousands of American troops and armored vehicles took part in a grand parade in Paris on August 29, 1944. American troops paraded down the Rue de la Paix, watched and cheered for by Parisians, many of whom rode to the scene on their bicycle. #
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Parisian people buy French flags on August 26, 1944, to celebrate the liberation of Paris. #
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At a submarine-refitting station in the United Kingdom, members of the British, French, Dutch, and Norwegian navies were able to rest and refit their submarines between long tours of duty. Here, French sailors disembark with bicycles they brought along in case they docked a long distance from their quarters, seen on on August 31, 1942. #
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Original caption: "First Lt. John W. Upchurch, right, of Chicago, Illinois, points pistol at German soldier leaving hiding place in the cellar of a house in Oiselay, France, near the Swiss border, on September 14, 1944. In the center are bicycles which were stolen from the French and used by the fleeing Germans." #
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Original caption: "Nazi cycle troops, still carrying their arms, arrive for their surrender on September 19, 1944, in France." #
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Original caption from September 23, 1944: "A group of Dutch men sort through a pile of bicycles abandoned at one end of a bridge in Nijmegen by retreating German troops after its capture by Allied forces." #
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A Soviet soldier looks across a war-damaged square in Budapest, Hungary, in 1945. #
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Original caption from 1945: "A Russian soldier involved in a misunderstanding with a German woman in Berlin, over a bicycle he wished to buy from her." #
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Original caption from Nagasaki, Japan, on September 13, 1945—just five weeks after the city was struck by an American atomic bomb: "A Japanese civilian pushes his loaded bike down a path which has been cleared of rubble. On either side of the path, debris, twisted metal, and gnarled tree stumps fill the area. This is in the center of the devastated area." #
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