1940 Norton 16H WD

[PPCLI]

Hello Forum Members,

I'm new to MLU just having been introduced to it a week ago. I've joined the forum hoping someone might be able to help me with some research I've been doing on a 1940 Norton military 16H motorcycle that was just donated to the Canadian Military Heritage Museum, Brantford, ON, Canada. See our website at www.cmhmhq.ca I’m a volunteer at the museum and have been helping with some restoration on the bike and I have also been trying to research its history.

The bike (frame &engine #W2172) was built on Oct.-Nov. 1939 as 1 of 6,000 16Hs built for the British Army’s 1st contract of WWII.

See this Photobucket URL for pictures of the bike. http://s900.photobucket.com/albums/a...%20Norton/

It came to the museum this summer through a local military enthusiast. He bought it in Seattle, USA. From inquiries I discovered that before Seattle it was part of the WWII Victory Museum in Auburn, Indiana, USA. collection

Further inquiry caused me to discover that the Auburn museum had obtained it in 2001 as part of the collection they bought from the Victory Memorial Museum, Messancy, Belgium when it closed.

And that is where I’m at right now. I was hoping there was a member of the forum that could help me get in contact with former members of Belgium’s Victory Memorial Museum. The only name I have been able to obtain so far is the former organizer Guy Franz Arend. He also helped organize the Bastogne museum and wrote a book about the battle of Bastogne. Does anyone know where he is presently living or the names of any other former members?

Perhaps someone may know another Internet Forum or organization I could contact to make inquiries.

Any help you can offer would be very much appreciated and would be a contribution to WWII military history.

You have a very interesting Forum,
ROGER SHARPE
Canadian Military Heritage Museum
Tele: (home) 519-302-0369