First, contrary to popular belief not all WLA's were MP bikes. It's true
that most of the WLA's were sent abroad as part of the Lends-Lease Act
(as mine was in 1945 to the Soviet Union), but many used by the U.S. were
dispach bikes as well as for recon use. The standard markings included a
6" white star on both the side of the gas and oil tank, the military
registration starting with a 6 on the rear fender infront of the luggage
rack and usually the unit the bike was attached to on the front fender.
For example if a bike was the fourth bike in Company D, 2nd Recon
battalion of the 4th infantry Division the front fender would look like
this:
4-2R
D-6
One interesting point which has caused a lot of confusion is that the
Harley-Davidson serial number 42WLAXXXXX was stamped on the left
crankcase for all '42 thru '45 WLA's. This was done to prevent the enemy
from figuring out the production figures for each of the years. So if
your s/n is 42WLA19458 , that does not say that it was manufactured in
1942.
On your question of Lends-Lease motorcycles, I have found an addendum to
Robert H Jones book "The Roads to Russia" which shows that of the 35,170
motorcycles sent to Russia, 1,870 were lost in route. Not all of these
were H-D but I would imagine that a very high percentage were (a few were
probably Indians).
I wrote a history of my WLA which came from Russia back in 1992. It was
published in the MVPA's Army Motor magazine. You may enjoy reading it as
it has had quite an interesting jouney!!!
I've now finished restoring it and it turned out really nice. Parts are
a little tough to find and expensive compared to jeeps, etc., but it is
worth the effort.
I hope this has helped to shed some light on a fairly unknown history of
H-D.
Regards,
Jamie Neal