MILITARY RANKS
Bdr: Bombardier
Capt.: Captain
CO: Commanding Officer
Cpl: Corporal
CQ: (Short for CQMS - Company Quarter Master Sergeant)
Dvr: Driver
Ft/Lt: Flight Lieutenant
FO: Flying Officer
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 Officer
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: Officer Commanding
OPSO: Operations Officer
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