Motorcycles in the Polish People's Army 1943-1989

Motorcycles in the Polish People's Army 1943-1989

In the 45-year history of the Polish People's Army, motorcycles have played an important and useful role. Although the role of two-wheelers in modern European armies was rapidly declining in the post-war period, for economic reasons this process was much slower in Poland, and until 1989 motorcycles were still used quite often.

The Second World War is a turning point for the concept of combat use of motorcycles. During the thirties of the last century, their role and importance in modern armies grew. In 1939-1941, motorcycles were massively used on the battlefields in Poland, Norway, France and the USSR. However, in practice it turned out that their usefulness and effectiveness are debatable.

In the subsequent years of the war, army motorcycles began to seriously compete - and in a short time to replace them. Of course, we are talking about cheap, light, versatile SUVs such as: jeep, rover, gauze, kyubelvagen. Six years of war and the dynamic development of a new group of vehicles have led to the fact that the role of motorcycles in the armed forces has been significantly reduced. The conclusions on the actions clearly showed that the motorcycles did not cope well with the combat missions (moving firing point with a light machine gun). The situation was somewhat better with the tasks of patrolling, communications and reconnaissance. The light SUV turned out to be a more versatile and cost-effective vehicle for the military. From that moment on, the role of motorcycles in military plans was rapidly decreasing. In the sixties, seventies and eighties, in the armies of Western European countries and the United States, they were used only slightly, for third-rate full-time or special tasks, and - somewhat more - for courier and reconnaissance tasks.

The situation was somewhat different in Central and Eastern Europe, which were in the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. The economy played a big role here. Yes, Soviet strategists appreciated the role of light all-terrain vehicles on the battlefield, but the industry of the USSR was not able to fully meet the needs in this regard - neither its own army, nor those controlled by the USSR. With the options of a constant shortage of an appropriate number of passenger cars or taking over part of their tasks by less than perfect motorcycles, motorcycles were abandoned due to economic and strategic constraints.

Due to the insufficient supply of light SUVs from the Soviet Union (we did not have our own production of such machines), the transport role of a motorcycle with a sidecar in the XNUMXs, XNUMXs and XNUMXs remained quite important for us.