Army Lingo

Shelldrake wrote:

Brum, you forgot CRAC!

Doh !

And me ex-RAC too !

JPW wrote:

brum

to complete your bluebell initials

there was beemy and feemy

I don't think I ever came across those two.

to go with crayoc there was bowo, somewhere along the line there was also brasco

... but who could forget good old BOWO !

In Belize we had the FATWO (and he was) and the FOWO. In Units we had FAMTO, FATSO and FAACO.

This thread's getting like the bloody Dog Show !

and DOWO. (You can tell it's raining).

brum wrote:

"Military Small Arms of the 20th Century" by any chance ?

It looks like we were both in the same military book club !
(In the 80s, I think ).

Nope.........." Infantry Weapons of WW2", but it's Mil. Book Club surplus. I'm not a member, this is dated 1997 & I picked it up ( and many others similar) from a discounted book shop. Good value if you can get in before everyone else who has similar reading tastes. Not more than about £3, I would guess, for a couple of hundred lavishly illustrated A4 pages. .

brum wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

Brum, was that the one that the Gny Staff issued you when you did your AIGs Course at Larkhill?

Me Sir ? A Gun Bunny Sir ? How very DARE you Sir !

There is a RSA connection to this book, though Shelldrake.

The author was Ian V Hogg. He did 27 years with the RA, 20 of them as an instructor on ordnance and ammunition at the Royal School of Artillery.

I remember ending up in the Caravan Site behind The Bustard on one or two occasions - nothing to write about, 'though!!

CSO chief signals officer
CAFSO ?????????? not for the scaleys

Gordon, surely (don't call me Shirley), that should read "Chief Scaley Office"?

Shelldrake wrote:

I remember ending up in the Caravan Site behind The Bustard on one or two occasions - nothing to write about, 'though!!

Eh Up ! Shelldrake.......

You mix in exalted circles ! What sort of badges of rank do Master Bustards have on their sleeves ? Anything to outsmart that Scaley regalia recently displayed ?

Now now Dave....Do i see little green eyed monsters?

Maybe Gordon! More likely just curiosity........... This Bustard is a very rare bird.

Not as rare as some of the ones i knocked about with

Cartav, I left the Royal Regiment 25 years ago on the 17th of this month (had to do my nick time), but if memory serves the Master Bustard badge of rank is a Kiwi upon a Gun surrounded by Chicken Wings. They were normally appointed Ships RSM on the Woolwich Ferry.

Must be some secret NZ lot......... Fern leaves on theirs, Kiwis on ours.
Hope you didn't see an old biddy hanging about on the ferry. Arranged to meet a local on board next night whilst in Draft Pool, awaiting a posting. Got shipped tp BAOR smartish next day immediately after first parade. As we marched, kit laden, out of the gate, the lad I'd lent ten bob until pay day grinned at me & pointed two fingers of scorn. Haven't seen him, my ten bob or the old biddy since. It's a cruel world. ;

Don't know about your mate and the 10 Bob, but the old biddy's still there.

so where did 'bull' originate? as in "get those toecaps bulled up boy"

I once heard it had something to do with "John Bull" but who knows?

The Household Division use the term "Bobbed"?

Shelldrake wrote:

Cartav, I left the Royal Regiment 25 years ago on the 17th of this month (had to do my nick time), but if memory serves the Master Bustard badge of rank is a Kiwi upon a Gun surrounded by Chicken Wings. They were normally appointed Ships RSM on the Woolwich Ferry.

Have you been on the meths again ?

Good starting point is always Google...........

They (not me ! ) tell the exact origin is unknown, but "bull" alone could go back to
17th Century & "Bull shit" is recorded in US slang of 1915. Seem to recall (from TV progs. etc.) Yanks also use "Horse Feathers" which may be a toned down version.

"Bull" is possibly connected to the French "Boul" meaning Fraud or Deceit. No similar foreign language terms are quoted except German "Bock-Mist"...... Goat crap. ( what I'd call Frankenwurst !).

"Bull", as meaning Army polishing, seems to be Brit military only. Oxford English Dictionary is quoted as the source for much of this, anything else can be regarded as bullshit.

brum wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

Cartav, I left the Royal Regiment 25 years ago on the 17th of this month (had to do my nick time), but if memory serves the Master Bustard badge of rank is a Kiwi upon a Gun surrounded by Chicken Wings. They were normally appointed Ships RSM on the Woolwich Ferry.

Have you been on the meths again ?

A little!

BigJock wrote:

so where did 'bull' originate? as in "get those toecaps bulled up boy"

When I was No 2 on a Ballista, 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. I suppose "bullshit" rolled of the military tongue easier than "cowshit". (not a good image to conjure up !)

The forerunner of the beret, that flat, brown thing you see soldiers wearing in WW2 photos was considered to resemble a cowpat and eventually became known as a "craphat". I personally heard Paras and Greenjackets referring to those of (what they considered), inferior regiments, as "craphats".

Funny how these nicknames survive, long after they cease to relevant.

Ballista server, eh? You may have come across Septimus Polonius who was Ack I. B with the 6th Cohort of the XIX Legion........ famous he was as an instructor. It is said he was given to some exaggeration but the Sengalese recruits he was lecturing were truly amazed when he assured them that the weapon could kill at 600 paces. They shook heads in wonder at Roman technology and praised him with the muttered tribal chant of, "Umbala ! Umbala ! "

As he gathered up his instructional scrolls to leave, the Chief called out "Be careful by the river path ! The cattle come to drink and there is copius Umbala !

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".

.

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.