Army Lingo

C`mon Brum,,,,I gave you the link yonks ago...Age and memory just dont go to gether

cartav wrote:

brum wrote:

I dimly remember being told that when Blanco first came into use it was considered to look like that which emerges from the wrong end of a cow. s".

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Nay lad, must be a Midlands fairy tale or folk lore......... I've told, thee !
Gerron t' Google ( or in this case Wikipedia).........

Blanco, it says, implies something "white" (as I always thought, being a three star Smart Arse), it was first used in 1880 to smarten up that "Zulu" style Slade Wallace buckskin belt & things. The greenish powder blocks were introduced when 1908 webbing equipment arrived. It'd be an odd cow that defecated white or coloured blocks wrapped in brown paper.

Maybe i heard it wrong.

Mind you, we were busy at the time, the Iceni were pushing us out of Camulodunum.

MIKE targets all day !

friends romans countrymen lend me your ears, batteries gone on me earing aid,

Lucky you.....

Just remembered one which crept in to some of our Sigs Info. Don't know if it was invented, or acquired. End of exercise was often codeworded "PUFFO".
( Pack up and eff off).

Strictly against recommended practice, of course.

Remember this one "It's your own time you're wasting now"

I'm sure many of you will remember the catch phrase in use in the 70s, "It's good 'ere, innit ?". One that seemed to have developed in N Ireland and usually uttered when "it" wasn't.

A similar one was common in the 60s

Realising that the end of National service would result in a shortage of trained soldiers the army told NCOs to encourage men to sign on as 3 year regulars. (as if !!).

It was not unusual, when there was a bunch of squaddies enjoying themselves at some activity or other, to have a sergeant point out that "they" wouldn't be able to enjoy themselves like that when they were out of the army.

The catchphrase "You can't do this in Civvy Street !" came into common usage and would be shouted when men were doing some sort of onerous job that they hated.

I remember when re-assembling the Bren we were informed when putting the barrel on to the main body that "The first four inches don't count. Another thing, does anyone know anybody who completed the Guard Report without reference to a previous Guard Report and was a hot cup of Tea/Coffee really given to the Guard in the early hours?

Shelldrake wrote:

"The first four inches don't count.

Sounds like bishop & actress thing............ Tea ? No way. Coffee ? What's that ?
And is it true the RAF got a day off after an all night guard duty ?

Back to Lingo........ What always irritated was the interjection of "Alright ?" 0r "OK?" into an order given by some half competent JNCO. It came out of a mouth with little thought, OK ?, it implied that a simple task needed detailed instruction, Alright ? and a subservient response was demanded . OK?

I usually tried to get away with a grunt, it didn't always work.

PS And BRUM ! Welcome back ! Alright ? Attempts to establish comms have been rejected for two days , OK?........

Shelldrake wrote:

was a hot cup of Tea/Coffee really given to the Guard in the early hours?

spent many a long night in the Guardroom, front of house that is, but don't remember ever getting treated to tea or coffee, maybe I was just unlucky with the regiments I was attached to.

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does anyone know anybody who completed the Guard Report without reference to a previous Guard Report and was a hot cup of Tea/Coffee really given to the Guard in the early hours?

Always cribbed off previous guard reports..Couldn`t have filled it in otherwise.

At 7 Sigs always had tea /coffee and sarnies.At 19 Sigs had a full meal courtesy of the RAF

Guard commander and I/C reliefs were supposed to have the following morning off but were almost allways summoned by the RSM to explain something in the guard report or diary

we had tea whenever we wanted it, mind you it was put in the urn at teatime about 5-30 pm . it did not taste too wonderful about 3 in the morning, YUK, ginger

Deleted

gingerjim wrote:

we had tea whenever we wanted it, mind you it was put in the urn at teatime about 5-30 pm . it did not taste too wonderful about 3 in the morning, YUK, ginger

Same here.

It was the duty of the Stick Man to get the guard's supper from the cookhouse.
This was usually a dixie of tea and also dry tea, sugar, cans of evap milk, loaves of bread, compo marge and probably a huge chunk of "Cheese, Inedible, ORs, for the use of".

It was the unexpired portion of the guard's supper that stocked up the Brew Kit in our room.

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It was the unexpired portion of the guard's supper that stocked up the Brew Kit in our room.

A bit of a tealeaf were we Brum

What's all this "we" stuff, white man ?

Having exhausted opinion & argument on other topics, it's time to kick another tit bit around & see what sort of response that invokes......... Ready ?...... Go !.

Why do the Brits pronounce "Lieutenant " as " Left-tenant" ? Intelligent or witty opinions only, please... That should limit one or two !

No reason other than to piss off the frogs I guess .... I have to go now as I am running behind skedule, sorry, schedule .. Canadian speak.

Len (Ciphers)

cartav wrote:

Having exhausted opinion & argument on other topics, it's time to kick another tit bit around & see what sort of response that invokes......... Ready ?...... Go !.

Why do the Brits pronounce "Lieutenant " as " Left-tenant" ? Intelligent or witty opinions only, please... That should limit one or two !

Well, it's not just the Brits....Canadians do as well, as do Aussies, I believe.

But it's an interesting question...it is certainly written as "Lew-tenant" and, and I'm guessing the root of the word, the meaning, is tied in with the "lieu" part...as in "in lieu of". What is the role of a Lieutenant? To act on behalf of senior officers, in part, so -- not to encourage the American butchering of the language -- "lew tenant" does rather make more sense, although I continue and will continue to use Left-tenant.....

I'd be interested in the history of this, however.

loo tenant. the occupier of the carsie, ginger

I don't know why but saw something on the box recently or heard on the radio? We evidently say it wrongly and the yanks are correct. Well they have to get something right I suppose?

Pronunciation of lieutenant is generally split between the forms (lef-ten-ənt) and (lew-ten-ənt), with the former generally associated with the United Kingdom, Ireland and Commonwealth countries, and the latter generally associated with the United States. The earlier history of the pronunciation is unclear; Middle English spellings suggest that the pronunciations existed even then. The rare Old French variant spelling luef for Modern French lieu ('place') supports the suggestion that a final [w] of the Old French word was in certain environments perceived as an [f]

Well done Gordon ! We live & learn, but that's killed that one off pretty smartish ! Damn those Scottish beer mats with answers to quiz questions on the back !.............

And might have known the W..KING French would have had something to do with it.

Teabag wrote:

I don't know why but saw something on the box recently or heard on the radio? We evidently say it wrongly and the yanks are correct. Well they have to get something right I suppose?

Really? Must have been an American program! Or is that 'programme'? This from a population that says VE-hick-ell instead of vehicle, ruff instead of roof and zee instead of zed and who drop the 'u' from words such as neighbour, harbour, arbour, etc.

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Damn those Scottish beer mats with answers to quiz questions on the back !.............

Damn your friend Mr. Google, Dave