The Great War
The Tommy's Tongue
H - Harry
- Hairy:
- A horse.
- Hard Tack:
- British army biscuit ration (iron rations), eaten cold, usually with bully beef.
The biscuits, if kept dry, also served as useful firelighters.
- Harness:
- Infantryman's equipment. This was of two basic types: brown leather and khaki webbing.
Neither was particularly popular; although the webbing did not cut into the shoulders as much as the leather,
it was considerably heavier when soaked with rain.
- Harry Tate:
- The RE.8 aeroplane.
- Hate:
- Bombardment. The morning hate at dawn and the evening hate a dusk were common occurrences.
- Hipe:
- Rifle. Derived from many a drill sergeant's habit of malforming the last word of an order on the parade ground
as a way of achieving a crisper, sharper delivery.
Slope arms!
became, in some cases, slope hipe!
.
- Hitchy-Koo:
- Itchy from louse-bites. From the chorus of a popular pre-war music hall song.
- Hom Forty:
- French railway carriage used for troop transportation, average speed one and a half miles per hour.
From the capacity stenciled on the side of the carriage - Hommes 40, Chevaux 8 - the horses being an alternative not an additional load!
- Hooks:
- Spurs.
- Hun:
- A German. A barbarous or destructive person. Offensive slang used as a term of insult for a German soldier.
Kaiser Wilhelm II urged his troops to behave like the Huns of old in order to instill fear into the enemy.
The name was further popularized when British soldiers discovered that Germans wore belt buckles with the words
Gott Mit Uns (God is with us).
- Huntley & Palmer:
- Royal Flying Corps term for twin Lewis machine guns. Named after a well-know biscuit manufacturer.
- Hussif:
- Housewife, a small canvas roll containing needle, thread, buttons etc, used for the personal maintenance of a soldier's kit.
Often used during interior economy.
