Harley-Davidson XA: The Secret WW2 Motorcycle Harley Copied From a German BMW

In 1941, the US Army had a desert problem. German BMW and Zündapp military motorcycles with shaft drive were crossing the North African sand, while American chain-drive bikes like the Harley-Davidson WLA and Indian 741 wore out their final drives in days. So the Army turned to two bitter rivals, Harley-Davidson and Indian, and asked each to build around 1,000 secret shaft-drive military motorcycles. Harley took a German BMW R71 apart bolt by bolt and created the Harley-Davidson XA. Indian refused to copy anyone and designed the Indian 841, an original sideways V-twin built for the Army's desert war. This is the forgotten WWII story of Harley vs Indian, two classic American motorcycles built to beat BMW, and the race against time that followed. In this motorcycle documentary, you'll see how Milwaukee and Springfield raced to engineer shaft-drive machines under wartime pressure, from Pearl Harbor to El Alamein, Operation Torch and the battles in Tunisia. You'll learn what made the XA's flat-twin run cooler, why the Indian 841's transverse V-twin was decades ahead of its time, and why a small four-wheel-drive machine on the same Army test grounds changed everything. If you love vintage motorcycles, classic Harley-Davidson history, Indian Motorcycle history and true motorcycle stories from World War II, subscribe to Classic American Motorcycles for more forgotten stories from the golden age of American riding. Tell us in the comments: Harley XA or Indian 841, which would you ride?