- World War One Phrases & Terms
-
- Archie
= anti-aircraft fire (British)
- Banjo
= spade or entrenching tool (Australian)
- Belly flopping
= to hit the ground quickly during attack (British)
- Big Bertha
= German 420mm howitzer, named for a family member of the Krupp
Arms manufacturer. Now a name for a golf club.
- Black Hand
Gang = raiding party or a selected
group engaged in some desparate enterprise
- Boyau
(literally “gut” in French) or Boy-oh (British) =
communication trench
- Brass hats
= enlisted men’s term for officers
- Coal box
= shell burst, generally from a heavy gun, causing a cloud of
black smoke
- Dogfight
= aerial combat
- Duckboard
Trail = as in “someone hit the
duckboard trail” = killed in action (U.S.)
- Duckboards
= slatted wooden planks placed in the bottom of trenches or on
muddy ground, hopefully keeping one out of the water
- Fiche blanche
= white ticket or non-movable casualty (French);
- Fiche rouge
= red ticket or movable casualty (French)
- Frog’s
Paradise = Paris (U.S.)
- Furfie
= rumor (Australian)
- Gasper
= cheap cigarette
- “Gives the
willies” = be frightened, or shell
shocked
- Go West
= used when referring to a comrade who had died
- Gulasch-Kanone
= “stew gun” or German wheeled field kitchen vehicle (German)
- Hayburners
= army horses and mules (U.S.)
- Holy Joe/Skyscout
= chaplain (U.S.)
- Kamerad
Schnurschuh = “pal with laced boots;”
German nickname for Austro-Hungarian troops
-
Kilometerschwein = “kilometer pig;”
German infantryman (German)
- Lakenpatscher
= “puddle splasher;” German infantryman (German)
- Land Crabs
= tanks (British)
- Looey
or Louis = Second Lieutenant (U.S.)
- Monkey meat
= canned beef and carrot mixture ration from South America
(U.S.)
- Mothers
= 5.7 inch British guns (British)
- Over the Top
= to attack, generally from the trenches;
“In the Trenches”
- Poilu
= “hairy one;” French infantryman
- Pozzy
= ration issue jam (British)
- Roughneck
= artilleryman (U.S.)
- Slum or
slumgum = a stew of meat, potatos,
onions and tomatos (U.S.)
- Suicide Ditch
= front line trench (British)
- Synchronize
Watches
- Tommy
= British infantryman, from “Tommy Atkins,” a fictional name
used in instructions for filling out British military forms
- Wives
= 9 inch British guns (British)
- Woofs
= German 4.7 inch high explosive and shrapnel shells (British)
|
|
|
