The Great War
The Tommy's Tongue
B - Beer
- Baby's Head:
- Meat pudding. Part of the British army field ration.
- Balloo:
- Bailleul. French town near the Belgian border, 20km south-west of Ypres.
- Banana Skins:
- Duckboards. Wooden slatted planks laid down to allow soldiers to cross muddy ground in and out of the trenches.
After sandbags, perhaps the second most common item of the trench system of the Western Front.
They were extremely slippery and treacherous.
- Bangalore Torpedo:
- Explosive tube used to clear a path through a wire entanglement.
- Banjo:
- Spade, entrenching tool (Australian). From the shape. See also Grubber.
- Banquette:
- Fire-step. The step incorporated into the base of a trench which enabled it's occupants to fire over the parapet.
- Bantam:
- Member of a battalion made up of men between the heights of 5'1" and 5'4", normally deemed as too short to have previously enlisted.
- Barker:
- (1) A pistol. From barking iron, early 19th C. From the noise a pistol makes when fired.
(2) A sausage. From the uncertainty surrounding the meat content.
- Baron:
- Army commander.
- Base Rat:
- A soldier perpetually at the base, therefore maintaining comfort and safety. Also known as a base wallah.
- Battery:
- A group of six guns or howitzers.
- Battle Bowler:
- Steel helmet, first introduced in numbers to British troops in February 1916. Named after the civilian hat.
Term used mainly by officers.
- Battle Order:
- British term for reduced infantry equipment.
The pack was removed and the haversack put in its place, to reduce weight and facilitate movement in action.
- Battle Police:
- Armed military police patrols deployed in the trenches following an attack to deal with (often by summary execution)
stragglers and men who had refused to go over the top.
- Bayonet:
- A daggerlike steel weapon that is attached to or at the muzzle of a gun and
used for stabbing or slashing in hand-to-hand combat.
- Beer Boy:
- An inexperienced person; a poor flyer. RFC/RAF expression, possibly derived from the phonetic alphabet.
- Before Your Number Was Dry:
- Expression used by more experienced soldiers to rookies as a form of put-down:
I was killing Germans before your number was dry.
- i.e. before the ink on the junior soldier's enlistment papers was dry.
Alternative usage: Before you was breeched, before you nipped, and I was cutting barbed wire while you was cutting your milk teeth.
- Belgian Rattlesnake:
- The Lewis gun, a .303 caliber light machine gun.
- Bellied:
- A term used when a tank's underside was caught upon an obstacle so high that its tracks could not grip the earth.
- Berm:
- Ledge on a trench parapet sometimes used for storing ammunition and other equipment.
- Bert:
- Albert. Large town in the Somme region of France. Well-known for the Leaning Virgin on the tower of the Basilica.
- Big Ack:
- The Armstrong Whitworth FK8, a general-purpose British aeroplane. From the phonetic alphabet.
- Big Bertha:
- Originally the term used to describe the German 42cm Morser but later used to to identify any German artillery.
- Big Push:
- The Battle of the Somme
- Billy:
- Australian nickname for a cooking-pot or can.
- Billjim:
- An Australian. A composite word formed from two popular Australian forenames of the time.
- Bint:
- A young woman. From Arabic bint, daughter.
- Biscuits:
- Small, hard mattresses, 2ft 6in square. Three made a bed for one man in a barracks.
- Bivvy:
- Bivouac. A form of temporary shelter. To bivvy up - to set up shelter, usually for the night.
- Black Hand Gang:
- Trench raiding party.
- Black Maria:
- Heavy German high-explosive shell, so-named because of the black smoke it produced when exploding.
- Blanco:
- (1) Block used to whiten full-dress webbing. Khaki blanco was used on service equipment.
(2) Nickname for person with the surname White.
- Blighty:
- England, home. From Hindustani Bilayati, foreign land.
- Blighty One:
- A wound serious enough to require the recipient to be sent home (to England).
The German equivalent of the time was a Heimschuss, and Australian troops in Gallipoli referred to the same as an Aussie.
Interestingly, the Americans had a comparable term during Viet Nam: the USA was known as the world,
and a Blighty one was know to US soldiers as a ticket to the world. See Blighty.
- Blimp:
- RAF slang for the small, white, dirigible airships used chiefly for submarine reconaissance over the English Channel.
- Blind Pig:
- Mortar bomb.
- Bluebell:
- A popular proprietary brand of metal polish.
It was often said in jest that the motto of the Brigade of Guards -
honi soit qui mal y pense
- could be freely translated
as after you with the Bluebell, Rupert,
due to their excessive use of bull.
- Bluecaps, The:
- The Royal Dublin Fusiliers. From the regiment's time in India, at a time when the blue cap was the symbol of an elite force,
much as maroon or green berets are today.
- Blue Cross:
- German respiratory irritant gases. From the marking painted on the delivery shell casing.
- Boche:
- German. From French tete de boche, obstinate person.
- Body Snatcher:
- (1) Stretcher bearer.
(2) Member of a trench raiding party, often tasked to bring in prisoners for intelligence purposes.
- Boko:
- Much, plenty. From French beaucoup.
- Bollocks:
Nonsense
; or conversely to mean top quality
or perfection
;
an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, and an adjective to mean
poor quality
or useless
.
The common phrases Bollocks to that!
or That's a load of old bollocks.
expresses a distaste for a
certain task, subject or opinion; the dog\'s bollocks
expresses the opposite, namely admiration, pleasure
or approval.- Bombardier:
- Potatoes. From the French, pommes de terre.
- Bombardier Fritz:
- Chips, a favorite estaminet meal when accompanied by egg. From the French, pommes de terre frites.
- Bomber:
- One trained in the use of hand grenades; known as grenadier early in the war.
The Grenadier Guards, however, protested to the War Office about the use of the term grenadier,
claiming that the title was exclusively theirs. In May 1916 it was officially announced that it was His
Majesty's 'express wish' that the description 'bomber' should be substituted for that of grenadier.
- Bon:
- Good, fine. When off duty, men would often be found having a 'bon time' at the local estaminet. The opposite was no bon(!). From French.
- Boojum:
- Tank.
- Box Barrage:
- Artillery bombardment upon a small area.
- Brass:
- High-ranking staff officers.
- Brass Hat:
- High-ranking staff officer. From the gold decoration on the peaked cap.
- Breeze-Up:
- Variation of Wind-Up.
- British Warm:
- An overcoat, knee-length and close fitting at the waist, worn by mounted troops and officers.
- Brock's Benefit:
- Night bombardment. After the well-known firework manufacturer.
- Brodie:
- British steel helmet, introduced (originally for snipers only) in February 1916.
Early examples of the helmet were officers' private purchases and differed slightly from the regulation pattern.
The design can be traced back to the type of helmet worn by English archers at Agincourt in 1415.
Named after the inventor, John L Brodie.
- Buckshee:
- Free, spare. From Arabic/Hindustani baksheesh gratuity.
- Bugwarm:
- Small trench dugout.
- Bull Ring:
- British army training establishment such as those base camps at Rouen, Harfleur, Havre and Etaples.
Men were posted here from the front line for refresher training, and to
inculcate the offensive spirit
.
The Bull Ring at Etaples was infamous for its severe discipline.
- Bully Beef:
- Tinned corned beef. The principal protein ration of the British army.
From French boeuf bouilli - boiled beef - but in popular usage long before the Great War.
- Bumf:
- Toilet paper, or newspaper used for that purpose. Later on came to mean any excessive official documentation.
From bum fodder, an 18th Century expression.
- Bundook:
- Rifle. From Arabic/Hindustani for firearm, originally a crossbow. Native Egyptians once called Venice
Bundookia
, place of the big guns.
- Burgoo:
- Porridge. From Arabic/Turkish/Hindustani burghul, oatmeal porridge.
- Bus:
- Royal Air Force expression (affectionate and facetious) for aeroplane. From the abbreviated form of omnibus.
- Buzzer:
- Electric device used in signaling to tap out and transmit Morse code.
