The Great War
The Tommy's Tongue
L - London
- L Pip:
- Listening post (LP), usually located in a sap. From the phonetic alphabet.
- Lance-Corporal Bacon:
- Not very lean bacon, with only one strip of mean running through the fat.
An analogy to the one chevron worn on the sleeves by a Lance-Corporal.
- Lance-Jack:
- Lance-Corporal, a junior NCO having one chevron. This was an appointment and not a rank.
- Land Creeper:
- Tank.
Sunday 10th September, 1916: Walked...to see the Land Creepers.
They look wonderful things but rather vulnerable.
Capt Sir Iain Colquhoun, 1st Scots Guards.
- Landowner:
- Dead. To become a landowner was to be dead and buried.
- Land Ship:
- Tank.
- Leap-Frog:
- System of assault in which the first wave took the first objective and the second wave pass through them to take the second objective.
- Lid:
- Steel helmet.
- Lifting Barrage:
- An advancing bombardment.
- Linseed Lancers:
- The Royal Army Medical Corps.
- Listening Post:
- Advanced post, usually in no-man's land, where soldiers tried to find out information about the enemy.
- Loophole:
- Gap in the parapet of a fire trench enabling shooting to take place whilst providing head cover.
May be constructed from sandbags, steel plates or other materials.
- Loose:
- Larceny, a thief. From Hindustani lus, thief.
- Loot:
- Subaltern. A one pip Loot was Second Lieutenant, from the pip or star on the shoulder or cuff.
Officers below the rank of Captain were always addressed and spoken of as 'Mister ____'.
- Lorry Hopping:
- The practice of moving about the country by cadging free lifts from ASC drivers.
- Lorry:
- Truck. (British - English)
- Lousy:
- Feeling poorly. Associated with being louse covered. See crummy.
- Lozenges:
- Small arms ammunition used in hand guns.
- Lucifer:
- Friction match. From a popular brand name, but originally from Latin 'bearer of light'.
While you've a Lucifer to light your fag, smile boys, that's the style
- It's a Long Way to Tipperary, a popular marching song.
- Lukri:
- Wood. From Hindustani.
