Vintage Saturday: Parade Gear

Hotchkiss 1914 on a police motorcycle, Rio
“But Sarge, how do I reload this thing?”
“Eh, we’ll stick Garcia on the back of the bike to do it”

Motorcycle of the Guanabara Police Department, sporting a Hotchkiss 1914 heavy machine gun. Rio de Janeiro, 1960. Thanks to Ronaldo Olive for the photo!

2 Comments

  1. That is a pretty sturdy and substantial sidecar platform — they would have needed it given the weight and recoil of the Hotchkiss. It also looks as if the whole platform was designed to take the gun as-is, complete with its original tripod, which would have added to the overall bulk. Quite different from the light and compact World War II-era BMW and Zundapp sidecar combos with a pintle-mounted MG-34 or MG-42.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*