No other combatant nation employed motorcycles and bicycles on the scale produced by the Third Reich. During Nazi Germanys campaigns, first of invasion, then of retreat that followed, motorcycles and bicycles served a variety of functions: couriers, reconnaissance, medical evacuation, assault shock troops taking the brunt of battle - even as tank destroyers and for delivering hot meals to the frontline. As the Third Reich gained absolute control of Germany and sought to spread its domain by fire and steel, numerous bicycles and 300 different brands of motorcycles had been in production, yet only a select few chosen to join the Wehrmacht in its war of conquest. Among the motorcycles were the vaunted BMW and the now lesser known but `bullet tough DKW, NSU and Zundapp among several others, both domestically produced or confiscated from occupied territories. As with all motorcyclists, there was a kinship among the soldiers on two (or three) wheels who called themselves `Kradmelder. Two-Wheeled Blitzkrieg shares the uniquely personal, largely unpublished, images they took of themselves and their machines as they faced and fought in the crucible of war. Garson also touches upon U.S., British, French, Italian, Japanese and Soviet bicycles and motorcycles, demonstrating the extent to which these vehicles were turned to war.
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