Thought this might interest some of you guys! I know we have a few motorcycle enthusiasts.
In October 1941 British ship 'SS Thistlegorm' was delivering vital supplies to the British 8th Army, the 'Desert Rats' in North Africa.
She was anchored in the Red Sea when she was attacked by two Heinkel 111 bombers of II/Kg26 Squadron from Crete, and was hit in the munitions hold by two 2000Kg bombs.
Two locomotives she was carrying on her decks were blown into the air by the explosion, and she went down in around 10 fathoms, together with vast amounts of munitions, cars, trucks, Lee-Enfield rifles, aircraft spares, armoured Rolls-Royces, tanks, medicines, loads of rubber 'Wellington' boots.... and scores of Norton 16H and BSA WD M20 motorcycles, stored in the back of trucks six deep to save space...
Jacques Cousteau found her in the early 50s, and retrieved one of the motorcycles, but didn't disclose where he found it. It lay undiscovered again until the late 90s, and has been plundered and vandalised ever since.
