On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 17:09:34 GMT, "Madra Dubh"
<ccaine@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>
>"Murchadh" <murchadh@shaw.ca> wrote in message news:4007739b.5806629@news...

>*****************************************************
>> When I was in the Army, the workings of the Lewis machinegun (used
>> extensively in WWI) was still classified as a military secret.
>
>Highlander, please be more careful what you write.
>I was sore tempted here.
>   ;=)

Feel free! 

I remember when the Army revised its manuals to bring them up to date.
Those fancy uniform 21-gun salutes they lay on for state occasions in
Hyde Park, London came under scrutiny and the committee wanted to know
what the man who kneels behind the gun but never does anything was
there for. 

They finally dug up some Boer War veteran who remembered that he was
the bloke who held the horses' reins...

These days the army is so pressed for helpers like that that they're
reduced to tipping small boys in Iraq to keep an eye on their tank
while they whip into the nearest shop for pop and crisps. (Crisps are
what you call chips!)

I was musing about British Army slang. 

I'll bet there are very people today who could translate this into
good English - it was the sort of thing soldiers would shout before
WWI if they saw a woman bend over.

"Bus with your pichi, love, let's have a dekko at the dusra chiz!"
(Up with you skirt, dear, let's have a look at the naughty part) 

To which the corporal would shout, "You chuprow, Smith!" (You shut up,
Smith! or whatever the soldier's name was.) 

In those days most soldiers' slang was based on Hindustani and some is
still used, like Dekko, which is from the same root as Dik, the Romani
word for Look. (Dik the grai! - look at the horse! I once heard a
traveller shout.)

After WWII, a lot of Army slang was Arabic-based (Let's have a shufti
- let's have a look) as a result of the North African campaign, but
little or no slang seems to have been brought home from France or
Germany. 

Today the slang sems to be more British centred: "Smith did a complete
Jones"  (Smith totally lost control) or slang continued on from WWII:
"Chinless wonder" - officer from a public (i.e. private) school
background. Words like "Gat" (firearm) and "Panzer" (Tank) are
familiar. A few new terms are, as always, intrinsically amusing, like
the Headshed (HQ), Ratpack (Ration pack) and Rotty Botty (Diarrhea, or
severe flatulence).





Murchadh.