Stuart Rumble – 2nd July 2024 at 11:06am
Russian forces have been using a new incarnation of Second World War-style equipment on the frontline in Ukraine – the motorcycle.
War is said to be the mother of all invention, and these motorbike and makeshift sidecar combinations have been fitted with some sort of overhead cover.
These latest Mad Max-style pieces of battlefield tech look like a distant cousin or offshoot of the Turtle Tank family and have been dubbed the Motor Shed.
- Russia’s bizarre anti-drone Turtle Tank believed destroyed by Ukrainian artillery
- Ukrainian soldiers recover Russian electronic warfare tank in minefield close to enemy
- Ukraine said to be withdrawing US-supplied Abrams tanks from frontline as losses mount
A video circulating on social media hints at the value Russian commanders are putting on the manoeuvrability of motorbikes in combat conditions.
Looking more like a WW2 exhibit at a military museum, the ‘sidecars’ – resembling an open-topped rectangular crate – appear to have been designed for either carrying supplies or for casualty evacuation.
The motorbikes themselves appear to be copies of Second World War-era German BMW or Zundapp motorcycles.
These were used to good effect, both with and without sidecars, during Operation Barbarossa – Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
It is unclear how successful the Motor Sheds might be in protecting troops or delivering supplies.
But their presence is further evidence of the desperate search by Russian commanders to find new ways to replace depleted kit destroyed by Ukrainian forces.