I am a Dutch owner of a British built wartime Norton WD16H since 1977. Searching through quite a number of books, magazine articles and internet sites on Norton's, it makes me wonder why the military WD16H and WDBIG4 motorcycles are so very underrated. There is lots of information on model 18, 19, ES2, CS1, Manx, International, Atlas, Dominators and Commando's to name a few. Apparently the pre war poor man's Norton does not bring the "grand feelings/illusions" that racing motorcycles do.
Many books and articles seem to have a black-out over the World War 2 period (1939 to 1945). In these years however, numerically most Norton's of a single model were produced! Nearly 100.000 bikes were made for the military, almost 1/4 of the total British military motorcycle production, and only surpassed by BSA.
I started this website in the hope to give the humble 500cc Norton (WD)16H and more potent 633cc (WD)BIG4 military sidevalve models more recognition in the motorcycle world.

I want (WD)16H and (WD)BIG4 owners (past, present and future) to communicate and learn from each other and have an informative site altogether. I would be most pleased with information from those countries where the Norton's were used by British, Commonwealth or other Allied forces. 
To see the Norton's biggest wartime competitor, have a look at Henk Joore's  BSA M20 site or Edwin and Jork's Triumph  site (see links page). I would like to challenge people to start similar sites on Matchless, Velocette, Ariel, Royal Enfield, James and Excelsior Welbike to name a few of the British motorcycle brands used in the second world war.

Have fun, regards, Rob van den Brink, the Netherlands. 

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