A few months into the war Bob was called up and spent the next four years serving naturally as a “Don R” - a motor cycle dispatch rider with the Royal Regiment of Signals. Much of the time he was with the British Eighth Army, better known as The Desert Rats. Amazingly, details of Bob and his comrades’ motorcycle activities in the deserts of North Africa survived the war and were published in “Motor Cycling” magazine just before Christmas 1951. In addition to their collection of veteran British bikes that were almost worn out through constant use in the Sahara’s sand, they had acquired from the Germans a big side valve BMW outfit and lots of little Puch two-strokes – all bearing the palm tree symbol of Hitler’s proud Deutsches Afrika Korps led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. They relieved their then Italian enemies of a sports Moto Guzzi and a Benelli that Bob, a skilled fitter, had spent many hours of patient labour putting into full working order. They even had a Harley-Davidson although they never did manage to quite work out how that came to be in the desert in 1941 at a time before America had troops in North Africa. It was three long years before they saw England again and longer still before they got out of khaki.
Amazingly the National Rally, or National Road Rally as it’s known today, survived the war. It must be one of the oldest events for road riders in the motorcycle calendar! It’s often known jokingly as England’s best kept secret,” as although entries today are greater than in pre-war days, so many motorcyclists seem to know little or nothing about its joys. In 2008 the Rally will take place on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th July and ironically the Final Control will be at historic Blethchley Park – “Britain’s best kept secret.” In the Second World War Hitler’s belief that his coding machine Enigma was unbreakable was proved wrong by crypto-analysts at Bletchley Park who developed the World’s first electronic digital computer to aid their work. Churchill was passionate about BP and called its workers the “geese that laid golden eggs that never cackled.” This year there will be controls dotted across England – just as in pre-war days. If you want to get the feel of the Rally, then enter the medal competition and have a gentle Saturday afternoon and evening circular ride round some of the controls not too far from your home. Alternatively get up early on the Sunday morning, ride in the National Sunrise Rally and finish at Bletchley Park. If you are a beginner but are a bit more adventurous, try the Bronze Award where you will be asked to ride 200 miles and finish at our Final Control that this year will be at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes. Of course if you’re experienced and wish to try something more challenging you can ride in other categories. Whatever award you aim for you’ll enjoy one of the great events in motorcycling and you might even emulate the achievements of old Bob Humble, 69 years after he first rode in 1939.
