The Great War
The Tommy's Tongue
P - Pip
- Packet:
- Wound. To cop a packet was to be wounded, often fatally.
- Padre:
- Battalion Chaplain. From Latin pater, father.
- Pals Battalion:
- Soldiers raised in the same locality with the promise they would serve with their friends.
- Panzer:
- German tank. From German Sturmpanzerkampfwagen, originally from the Old French panciere, a coat of mail.
Term first used in the Great War, but did not become popular until WW2.
- Parados:
- The crest of the side of a trench farthest from the enemy.
- Parapet:
- The crest of the side of the trench facing the enemy.
- Parnee:
- Water. From Hindustani.
- Pavé:
- Stone-paved roads and tracks found in Belgium and France. Very hard on the feet and ankles when marching.
- P.B.I.:
- Poor Bloody Infantry.
- Perisher:
- Trench periscope.
- Picket:
- (1) Metal post used for staking out barbed wire. (2) Sentry-party or patrol.
- Pickled Monkey:
- An unknown species of meat served as food to prisoners of war by the Germans.
- Piggy - Stick:
- The wooden handle or shaft of the entrenching tool.
- Pillbox:
- Reinforced concrete gun emplacement, usually German and armed with machine guns. So called because of the cylindrical shape.
- Pimple:
- Hill.
- Pineapple:
- Mills bomb. From the chunky shape. Also applied to a certain type of German trench mortar bomb.
- Pip, Squeak, & Wilfred:
- Trio of Great War campaign medals (1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal).
Named after the popular Daily Mirror cartoon characters of the time, created by A B Payne.
- Pip Emma:
- Afternoon. PM (post meridiem). From the phonetic alphabet.
- Pipped:
- To be hit by a bullet.
- Pipsqueak:
- A small calibre shell (sometimes a gas shell) or a rifle grenade.
- Plonk:
- Wine. From French vin blanc, white wine, although the expression may also be derived from the firm of Plonques,
importers of a particularly reprehensible brand of Algerian red wine.
- Plug:
- To shoot, to plug with lead.
- Plugstreet:
- Ploegsteert, Belgian village north of Armentières.
- Plum Pudding:
- Heavy trench mortar shell.
- Poilu:
- French soldier. From the French hairy one. French soldiers themselves disliked the term, instead referring to
themselves as les hommes or les bonhommes.
- Pomade:
- A scented ointment, especially one used for the scalp or for dressing the hair.
To dress with pomade; apply pomade to.
- Pongelow:
- Beer.
- Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard:
- The Royal Scots, the senior British Infantry Regiment of the Line, so named on account of their history going so far back.
They were, in fact, raised in 1633.
- Pop:
- Poperinghe, Belgian town in West Flanders. Captured from the Germans in October 1914,
it remained in British hands until the end of the war.
- Pork and Beans:
- Portuguese. From the observation that British army ration pork and beans contained very little, if any, pork,
and therefore alluding to the fact that the Portuguese had very few troops on the Western Front.
This, however, is a myth: the Portuguese (one of Britain's oldest allies), sent 120,000 men to the Western Front,
as well as having 80,000 troops serving in Portuguese East Africa at that time.
Their determination and gallantry was second to none - General Ludendorf's surrender speech praised the Portuguese,
stating that had Portugal been on their side, they would have won the war. Also vaguely onomatopaeic.
- Posh:
- Smart. From obsolete English posh, a dandy, but often said to be an acronym of 'Port Out, Starboard Home',
the optimum (i.e. shaded) position of a cabin in British ships sailing to and from the East.
- Potato Masher:
- German stick grenade. From the shape - the handle enabled the grenade to be thrown further.
- Pozzy:
- Jam. Issued as part of the British army field ration, tinned plum and apple pozzy was much in abundance in the early years of the war,
being supplemented later on by such exotic mixtures as gooseberry and rhubarb.
- Press Gang, The:
- The Royal Engineers. From their reputation of enforcing the services of other regiments in the building of dug outs, roads, etc.
- Professor:
- Senior Army officer.
- Prussian Guard:
- A flea.
- Pull - Through:
- A tall, thin person. From pull-through, the device used to clean inside the barrel of a rifle.
- Pump Ship:
- Urinate. From the naval expression.
- Push:
- A large-scale attack on enemy positions.
- Pusher:
- A young woman. See Square Pusher.
- Pushing Up Daisies:
- Dead and buried.
- Puttee:
- A long strip of cloth wound spirally round the leg from ankle to knee, as part of a
soldier's uniform to give additional support for the ankles.
