Bicycles were used quite extensively by airbase personnel to get around the facilities in both the American and British air wings stationed in Europe.
Don't know whether it was the case with our airbases here in the Continental US.
Rosie Rosenfeld - one of our famous B-17 pilots first learned to ride a bicycle at his assigned airbase.
=8-)
Quoting Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>:
>
> Never heard of it. Have to remember the US mainland was never really in
> danger of serious attack. I think there may have been blackouts of major
> cities early on, probably mostly on the West Coast out of exaggerated fears
> of Japanese attack - they had after all successfully attacked Hawaii. But
> the closest thing to an attack on the mainland was attacks by German U-boats
> on shipping off the coast.
>
> My impression is that the biggest role of the bicycle in the US war effort
> was a few people may have taken up cycling due to wartime rationing of
> gasoline. May also have been a few mobile units that used bicycles in the
> fields, but I think this was more widespread in the armies of the other
> nations invloved than in the US military.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, TX, USa
>
>
> --- On Tue, 3/24/09, Daniel Dahlquist <daniel.dahlquist@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > From: Daniel Dahlquist <daniel.dahlquist@gmail.com>
> > Subject: [CR] Civil Defense Bicyclists???
> > To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> > Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 1:41 PM
> > Dear Group, No doubt many on the list are familiar with the
> > British couriers
> > and civil defense bicyclists with their black out lamps
> > during the Blitz of
> > World War II...Does anyone know if we had a counterpart
> > here in the states
> > during WW II? I know we had a corps of Civil Defense folks
> > with helmets,
> > uniforms, etc...but did any of these individuals ride
> > bicycles?
> >
> > Daniel Dahlquist
> > Galena, Illinois
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> _______________________________________________
>
>
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