CWS M111 Sokół 1000
• some introduction
The Sokół (Falcon in Polish) was a motorcycle produced from 1934 up to 1939 in Panstwowe Zakłady Inżynierii (PZInż.) In Warsaw.
Its design was based on both Harley Davidson and Indian motorcycles, which were also used in Polish military.
(CWS M55, produced prior to the M111, it suffered from low quality materials used for its production, only around 100 were ever produced. Compared with the Indian Scout and Harley-Davidson DL, all from the 1929)
• Some more history
From the very start, it was intended as a powerful, reliable, easy to use and fix military motorcycle capable of going through harsh terrain while still maintaining a reasonably high speed of ~80km/h and carrying both heavy equipment (up to 200kg) and soldiers themselves.
The Motorcycle was as intended, mostly used by the military (around 80% of the whole production run, as stated by most of the sources) however, some were also used by the police, post and of course civilians. Overall, it was well received by its users and most if not all of the issues present in the previous model were fixed.
The bikes were mostly painted khaki green (military) black with gold or white lines (both military and civilian use) and dark red (civilian market).
They were also used almost exclusively with a sidecar.
In total, there were about 3200 produced before the war broke out.
• The engine
The heart of the “Falcon” was a 995,4cc 4 stroke V2 engine based off the Indian’s design, reaching maximum power of 20-22HP at 4000 RPM and a regular of 18HP at 3500, all of it operated by a 3 speed manual gearbox, which could make the whole thing reach the maximum speed of 100km/h.
• Some other specs
Sokół itself weighed 270kg, or 375kg with sidecar attached, and 655kg was the maximal advised weight (bike with a sidecar + passengers + gear)
• History, again
The Sokół 1000 was used during the invasion of Poland in 1939 by the Polish forces, especially by mechanised infantry, often taking the role of the cars, which were scarce at the time.
Up to ~1000 of these found its place in Hungary alongside over 40000 Polish soldiers that managed to escape.
After the Poland’s surrender, Hungarians, Germans and most likely Soviets too came into possession of some surving motorcycles left by the Polish forces and used them before they ran out of spare parts.
Germans with the Sokół
Hungarians (we’ll go back to the third photograph soon enough)
• Epilogue
So, how do we implement it into the game?
Polish forces often used the CWS M111 with the Wz.28 Browning LMG mounted on the sidecar.
Other option could be the Wz.30 MG, intended for AA use.
And third one, which is probably the most interesting one, comes with a Solothurn anti-tank rifle mounted on the sidecar, tested (or maybe even used?) by the Hungarians
I personally think that one or two of those would nicely fit into the game without breaking any balance, bringing only more variety to the game.
Besides, there are plenty of photographs and still a couple of “Falcons” left both in museums and collectors’ garages, so modelling the motorcycle itself shouldn’t be a huge problem considering how well detailed is the TIZ model, which seems to be even rarer than Sokół nowadays.
It’s my first post like that in here, so sorry for being a bit messy with my writing.