The Adj: adjutant; the superior officer’s assistant – handles communications and orders, correspondence. Like a military secretary or personal assistant.
AG: Air Gunner.
ASR: Air Sea Rescue. Small ships which rescued aircrew from the waters around Britain.
ATS: Air Traffic Service (i.e., Air Traffic Control).
Australia House: On the Strand, handled all Australian service personnel.
AVM: Air Vice-Marshall.
Batman: Servant to officers, usually shared between several.
Bods: service personnel (from ‘warm bodies’).
Boffins: backroom experts.
Boomerang Club: excellent Australians-only service club on the ground floor at the rear of Australia House.
Boston: the Douglas Boston III, an American RAF twin-engined bomber. The Havoc was the American variant.
Bought it: killed (Americans used to say ‘bought the farm’; see Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos, Yeager: An Autobiography, Century Hutchinson, 1986, p. 28).
Buckleys: ‘Buckley’s (chance)’. A forlorn hope: Australian: from c. 1875.
Chief, Chiefy: Chief Mechanic.
Circus: RAF term; ‘to harass the enemy … by bombing and to destroy enemy aircraft in the air …’ or on the ground and to harass enemy aerodromes.
CO: Commanding Officer.
Combats: attacks from fighters, attacks between fighters and other aircraft.
Dicing: flying on operations. From ‘dicing with death’.
Dirty Dick’s: a somewhat contraband-y cafe in London.
DFC: Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded to officers.
DFM: Distinguished Flying Medal, awarded to non-commissioned officers.
Dingo: Australian slang; one who is reluctant to contribute to the group.
Do: an operational sortie.
Drongo: Australian slang, an idiot or fool.
EATS: Empire Air Training Scheme, initial training of aircrew in colonies such as Canada or Australia.
Erks: RAF ground crew.
Fiddly: Australian for a pound note (i.e., as a bribe).
FIDO: Fog Intensive Dispersal Operation. Pipes pumped with oil lit at strategic points to ‘burn off’ fog on a runway.
Flak: Anti-aircraft fire. Cannon.
Flight: place of assembly for aircrew, short for Flight Dispersal.
Focke Wulf; Focke Wulf 190: German single-engined fighter made by Focke and designed by the delightfully named Kurt Tank.
Geordie: someone, usually a man, from the north-east of England, usually near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Their accents (and other things) are unique.
Gen: top rate. Also; information, or knowledgeable (for example, a ‘gen crew’).
Get the chop: shot down in flames (or, more commonly, killed in action).
Gong: a flying decoration, a medal.
Groupy: Group-Commander, commanding officer of a station.
Halifax, Hally or Hallibag: RAF four-engined bomber.
Hampden: early RAF twin-engined bomber.
ITS: Initial Training School.
Kiwi Squadron: 487 Squadron, one of six New Zealand squadrons in the RAF.
Kodak House: On Kingsway, RAAF Headquarters in England.
KRs: King’s Regulations – summary of RAF law.
LAC: Leading Aircraftman.
Lancaster: RAF four-engined bomber.
Land Army: Women who worked on the land, helping farmers, breeders etc.
Line-shooting or Line-slinging: boasting.
LMF: Lack of Moral Fibre. RAF code for cowardice or a victim of battle fatigue. Still a controversial subject.
mea culpa: Latin for ‘through my fault’.
Messerschmitt 109: German single-engined fighter.
Met, Met boys: Meteorological staff, Meteorological Officer.
Mitchell: Douglas B-25, RAF twin-engined bomber.
Mossie: De Havilland Mosquito, RAF twin-engined bomber which flew fast and high.
MP: Military Policeman.
MO: Medical Officer.
Nav: navigator (formerly observer).
Night Fighter: (1) a fighter that flies at night; (2) a prostitute.
NCO: Non-Commissioned Officer (a sergeant).
Ned Kelly: well-known Australian bushranger.
Operations, Ops: bombing sorties.
OTU: Operational Training Unit.
Pathfinders: New bomber group which marked targets with precision.
Popsie: a young, attractive woman. From poppet, nursery slang for youngster.
Pot: A Brisbane or Melbourne term for a glass of beer (10 fl oz or 285 mL). The same glass is a middy or half-pint in Sydney, Canberra and Perth, a schooner in Adelaide, a handle in Darwin and a ten in Hobart.
PR: Photo Reconnaissance.
PTI: Physical Training Instructor.
Quid: Australian slang for a pound note.
RTO: Rail Transport Officer.
Second Dickey: co-pilot.
Short Arm Inspection: medical inspection of the privates.
Six O’Clock Swill: The licensing laws in Australia allowed pubs to be open only between 5 and 6 pm, which meant that everyone attempted to cram an evening’s drinking into a very short space of time. Women were segregated from the front bar at this time.
SL: Squadron Leader.
Smooey: The vernacular for either women’s genitalia or the women themselves, similar to the American term ‘pussy’. Possibly from ‘smoot’: a narrow passage (Lincolnshire, arch).
Snappers: enemy fighters.
Sprog: ‘n. A recruit: RAF: since c. 1930; by c. 1939 also – via the Fleet Air Arm – used occ. by the Navy … Origin obscure and debatable … In the Navy the term means an infant.’ Partridge, op. cit.
Stirling: RAF four-engined bomber.
Sunderland: RAF four-engined long range flying-boat/ bomber used by Coastal Command for Air Sea Rescue and anti-U-Boat work.
TAF: Tactical Air Force, usually referring to the Second Tactical Air Force, a bomber and fighter group designed to get the Luftwaffe up into the air to be destroyed prior to D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe.
Tannoy: public address system.
TOT: Time scheduled to arrive On Target.
Trips: ops.
Twirp: Beede’s original definition is ‘a spiteful person’, an interesting variant meaning distinctly different from that of someone weak-minded and silly.
U/S: Unserviceable; also, useless.
Ventura: RAF twin-engined bomber.
VC: Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry that Britain can bestow.
Wellington (Wimpy): Vickers Wellington, early RAF twin-engined bomber.
WAAF: Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (referred to as Waffs, and their places of residence, Wafferies).
WAG: Wireless Air Gunner.
Whitley: early RAF twin-engined bomber.
Wingco: Wing Commander.
Winter’s: Australian Initial Training School station.
W/O: Warrant Officer; between a non-commissioned officer and a commissioned officer, a W/O holds their office by warrant.
WOP: Wireless Operator.
WRNS: Women’s Royal Naval Service (who were referred to as Wrens, and their places of residence, Wrenneries).
In every branch of military service, and increasingly in modern workplaces, there develops a kind of ‘masonic dialect’. For further elucidation, see Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of RAF Slang, Michael Joseph, 1945 (and recently republished by Pavilion), and Bernard and Jean Beadle, War Speak. A Collection of Slang and other words used in the RAF during the 1939–45 War.