As early as May 1913, the British Army was making contingency plans in the event that it would become involved in a war in Europe. These plans involved an initial deployment of six divisions, which along with support troops totalled more than 165,000 men of all ranks. The inventory list included almost 1,200 motor vehicles and 179 motorcycles.
Interestingly, the list also included more than 7,000 horses and almost 2,500 bicycles.
Sixteen months later, in August 1914, Britain declared war against Germany and despatched six divisions to France. This was the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), a title it would keep throughout WWI, with almost the exact figures of May 1913. When the war ended in November 1918 there were more than 55,000 trucks in service and 14,328 solo motorcycles and sidecar combinations.
During the war, all belligerent armies used motorcycles, with some copying the British move and mounted machine guns on the front of sidecar combinations, a feature which would continue into WWII. When the United States entered the war in 1917, its armed forces placed orders
