Artifact of the Month
At the beginning of World War II, the U.S. military found itself searching for a lightweight vehicle that could serve in a variety of roles. They chose to enlarge their fleet of motorcycles, a vehicle they had used with some success during World War I. The Harley-Davidson Company soon received a contract to produce motorcycles for the military.
Harley-Davidson simply modified their civilian motorcycles for Army use. They were shipped with ammunition boxes, a bracket for a machine gun scabbard (mounted left and right of the front tire), and saddlebags (straddled over the rear tire). The first order of what became the Harley-Davidson WLA was for forty-six vehicles in 1939. By August 1942, the company was producing 750 motorcycles a day for use by the Army.
The WLA was not intended for combat use and only four inches of ground clearance made it unsuitable for off-road use. Nevertheless, the solo motorcycle provided the Army with fast, flexible transportation for reconnaissance, messenger service, police operations, and convoy control.
By the time military production ceased in 1945, over 78,000 WLAs had been produced for the U.S. military. Motorcycles were used by the U.S. Army until the early 1960s but were eventually phased out in favor of the “Jeep”, which could do all the same missions and more.