MILITARY MISSION

To better understand the Indian Model 741 U.S. Army World War II motorcycle featured here, we need to start with a bit of background.

During the years preceding World War II, Harley-Davidson and Indian emerged as the two main U.S. survivors in an industry that earlier in the century consisted of hundreds of motorcycle manufacturers. The post-Depression, pre-World War II U.S. motorcycle market was in terrible shape due to the advent of mass production and low-cost automobile manufacturing. Motorcycles had fallen out of favor as basic transportation. Harley-Davidson and Indian both catered to the police and civilian motorcycle markets, but sales were very low. When the Army asked Harley-Davidson and Indian to develop motorcycles for military use, neither manufacturer was in any condition to support a massive buildup. Indian was operating at about 5 percent of capacity, much of its equipment had been sold during the Depression, and that which remained was old. Indian was in terrible shape and might have gone out of business; Harley was only a little better.

The military need

World War II changed Harley and Indian fortunes even before U.S. involvement. The armies of other countries needed