Members of the German light-machine-gun bicycle corps wear gas masks while standing beside their bicycles in a lineup in Austria, circa 1939. Note the machine gun attached to one of the bicycles at lower right. #

Cyclists volunteer as ARP (Air Raid Precautions) messengers in Liverpool, England, in 1939. Original caption: "Many of Merseyside's club cyclists are showing the way in volunteering for the new corps of cyclist ARP messengers. There are now 500 members in the ARP messenger corps." #

A Belgian family of four rides a tandem bicycle with some of their belongings strapped to their backs as they flee from the advancing Nazis into France, on June 14, 1940. #

Original caption, from April 11, 1940: "The famous Dutch bicycle regiment at attention, ready to speed toward the German frontier should danger from the Nazis threaten Queen Wilhelmina's kingdom. The low countries now fear a blitzkrieg like the one that has just been visited upon Norway and Denmark." Photographed outside of Amsterdam. #

Original caption: "The most universal form of transport in Paris on June 1, 1941, under Nazi rule, is the bicycle taxi. In the old day Paris taxis were famous the world over for the furious way in which they were driven, but all that is now at thing of the past owing to the tremendous scarcity of petrol, which has all been requisitioned for the Nazi war machine. The Paris taxi-drivers now pedal their fares around in these quaint contraptions, the one on the left holds three travelers." #

Three Air Cadets from the Royal Air Force's Coulsdon and Purley Squadron practice flying in formation, using bicycles with wings over the handlebars, on September 29, 1942. #

Original caption: "There's a sharp upswing in the use of bicycles. Restrictions on automobiles, gasoline and rubber tires to conserve materials for the waging of war have college kids finding alternative ways of getting around. Wellesley College freshmen are two-wheeling their way over the campus in Wellesley, Massachusetts, March 20, 1942." #

U.S. Air Force pilots at a bomber command station in England use bicycles to travel the mile-long tarmac from their headquarters to their giant planes, on June 8, 1942. #

Original caption, from 1943: "Soldiers of the Bicycle Patrol push their vehicles along a partly frozen lake on an alpine pass. Switzerland's narrow, hilly passes make bicycles the most practical means of transportation." #

From left: Corporal Willis T. Anthony, Private First Class Emmitt Shackelford, Private First Class Eugene Purdy, and Private First Class Horace Boykin (on bicycle), all members of the U.S. Marine Corps, take time out from supplying ammunition to the front line in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, in June 1944. #

Original caption: "Canadian soldiers from the 9th Brigade land on June 6, 1944, with their bicycles at Juno Beach in Bernieres-sur-Mer during D-Day, while Allied forces were storming the Normandy beaches." #

Original caption: "Down the gangway of an LCI of the Royal Canadian Navy, troops from Canada scramble into the surf near a town on the coast of Normandy on June 12, 1944, with their bicycles in the invasion of Europe." #

Thousands of American troops and armored vehicles took part in a grand parade in Paris on August 29, 1944. American troops paraded down the Rue de la Paix, watched and cheered for by Parisians, many of whom rode to the scene on their bicycle. #

At a submarine-refitting station in the United Kingdom, members of the British, French, Dutch, and Norwegian navies were able to rest and refit their submarines between long tours of duty. Here, French sailors disembark with bicycles they brought along in case they docked a long distance from their quarters, seen on on August 31, 1942. #

Original caption: "First Lt. John W. Upchurch, right, of Chicago, Illinois, points pistol at German soldier leaving hiding place in the cellar of a house in Oiselay, France, near the Swiss border, on September 14, 1944. In the center are bicycles which were stolen from the French and used by the fleeing Germans." #

Original caption from September 23, 1944: "A group of Dutch men sort through a pile of bicycles abandoned at one end of a bridge in Nijmegen by retreating German troops after its capture by Allied forces." #

Original caption from Nagasaki, Japan, on September 13, 1945—just five weeks after the city was struck by an American atomic bomb: "A Japanese civilian pushes his loaded bike down a path which has been cleared of rubble. On either side of the path, debris, twisted metal, and gnarled tree stumps fill the area. This is in the center of the devastated area." #