The Happy Warrior (44 page)

Cpl:
Corporal

CQ:
 
(Short for CQMS - Company Quarter Master Sergeant) 

Dvr:
Driver

Ft/Lt:
Flight 
Lieutenant

FO:
Flying 
Offi
cer

Gnr:
Gunner

L/Cpl:
Lance 
Corporal

Lieut Col:
 
Lieutenant Colonel

Lt:
Lieutenant

L/Sig:
Lance 
Signaler

Maj:
Major

Pte:
Private

RSM:
 
Regimental Sergeant Major

Sgt:
Sergeant

Tpr:
Trooper

WO:
Warrant Officer

GLOSSARY

Note: the compilers of ‘The Happy Warrior' would welcome further information regarding the terms listed below, or in relation to other terms mentioned in the book. Such information would be included in future editions.

AASC: 
Australian Army Service Corps

ack-ack:
 
Anti-Aircraft guns (slang)

AEME:
 
Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers 

AIF:
 
Australian Infantry Forces

AOs:
 
Admin Officers or Admin Orders or Area of Operations depending on context.

AWM:
Australian 
War 
Memorial

Aust. Gen. 
Trans. Coy:
 
Australian General Transport Company

Batt.:
Battalion

Bangalores:
 
An explosive device used to clear obstacles 

Beast:
 
Cannot find specific reference indicating anything other than savage animal 

bint:
 
A girl or any female (slang) 

blighty:
 
England – “to cop a blighty” – to be injured seriously enough to warrant being returned to England for hospitalisation or rehabilitation 

boobies :
 
Booby 
traps

Brens:
 
A type of machine gun (British) 

Brownings:
 
A type of machine gun (British) 

bumble:
 
(v) to stumble around ineptly, (n) an inept person 

CAP:
 
A type of toxic gas

Caribou:
 
A type of military aircraft

chocos:
Reservists

Claymores:
 
a type of mine

CTO:
 
believed to be a form of leave or time-off 

DME:
 
thought to be Department of Maintenance Engineering 

Foux:
 
thought to be slang for Focke (?) or Fokker aircraft 

HE:
High 
Explosive

hicks:
Locals

HQ:
Headquarters

Hun:
Germans

Itie:
Italians

Jap:
Japanese

Jerry:
Germans

Kitties:
 
Kitty Hawk aircraft

LO:
Liaison 
Offi
cer

Mungaree:
 
generic term for food - from middle-eastern (possibly arabic) expression 

NEI:
 
Netherlands East Indies

Number Nine:
 
Form of medication - may have been a laxative or placebo.

OC:
Offi
cer 
Commanding

OPSO:
Operations 
Offi
cer

Pippers:
 
Young or junior, Officers

P40:
 
A type of aircraft

P51:
 
A fighter aircraft (Mustang, United States) 

QX man:
 
A Queenslander — soldiers who joined up in Queensland had QX 
as a prefix to their regimental numbers 

RAF:
 
Royal Air Force (Britain)

RSL:
 
Returned and Servicemen's League 

Stuka:
 
German Bomber Aircraft

Tommies:
 
British Soldiers (slang)

UXB:
Unexploded 
Bomb

Ulu:
 
In the bush; in the middle of no-where; beyond the black stump.

UNIIMOG:
 
United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group 

Verey candles:
 
Flares

Vickers:
 
A type of machine gun or a type of aircraft depending on context 

Wog:
 
person of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern extraction or appearance (slang) 

wop:
 
Italian, or person of Italian appearance (slang) 

Zero
: 
A Japanese fighter plane

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders' fields,

Sleep sweet - to rise anew,

We caught the torch you threw,

And holding high we kept

The faith with those who died,

We cherish, too, the Poppy red

That grows on fields where valour led.

It seems to signal to the skies

That blood of heroes never dies,

But lends a lustre to the red

Of the flower that blooms above the dead

In Flanders' fields.

And now the torch and poppy red

Wear in honour of our dead

Fear not that ye have died for naught

We've learned the lesson that ye taught

In Flanders' fields.

An American, Miss Moira Michael, read “In Flanders' Fields” and wrote “We Shall Keep The Faith” in reply.