The Winged Wheel Patch: A History of the Canadian Military Motorcycle and Rider

Sidney Allinson is a Victoria-based communications consultant, Canadian
news correspondent for Britain’s The Army Quarterly and Defence, and
author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

Just when one despairs of seeing published a book that deals with a
fresh aspect of military history, along comes this study of the Canadian
military motorcycle and rider. The winged patch in the title refers to
the design of a winged wheel and “DR” shoulder-flash worn by
motorcycle dispatch riders.

Motorcycles now seem an almost quaint form of transportation in modern
armies’ high-tech world, where even the jeep has been replaced by
Hummer vehicles. But as these two enthusiasts convey, the motorbike
played an important military role for most of this century.

The richness of detail shows how well the authors know their subject,
and how much research they must have done. Their well-organized text is
supported by numerous photographs illustrating a wide range of vehicle
types over the years, and Canadian motorcyclists on military duty from
1914 to recent times. Though the emphasis is on machines, the rider also
gets full coverage; personal anecdotes told by veteran DRs reveal
emotions akin to those that earlier troopers once felt for their horses.

The wealth of mechanical detail in this book, which will be of
particular interest to vocational students, reflects the background of
Ken Messenger, a technical studies teacher and an officer in the Army
Reserve. Co-author Max Burns is a former feature editor of motorcyclist
magazines, and an award-winning writer on the topic.