| Ack Willy |
AWL; Absent without leave. |
| Airships and clouds |
Sausages with mashed potato |
| Animal |
a term of contempt for a man (usually
an Officer or NCO) |
| Armchair commando |
desk bound soldier,
clerk |
| Atta-boys |
Atebrin pills for malaria prevention,
taken daily under supervision of NCO |
| Bangers (and mash) |
sausages (with mashed potato) |
| Biscuit
bombers (or bully beef bombers) |
Allied planes
dropping supplies to forward areas, food and ammo usually. |
| Betty (also
Betties) |
Japanese
bomber of a particular type originally, but later any Jap bomber |
| Blot |
bum, arse, posterior,
as in "sitting on his blot doing SFA" |
| Blow (or blow through) |
leave, go away |
| Bombo |
cheap wine,
plonk, any low grade alcohol product |
| Bomb-happy |
shell shocked |
| Bull, The Bull |
the boss, the best, usually the CO |
| Bull shit (BS) |
untrue, lies, propaganda,
unnecessary |
| Bumper sniping |
cleaning up (including
or especially cigarette
ends, called bumpers) |
| Burgoo |
porridge |
| Bush artillery |
captured artillery reused against
it's former owners, usually by infantry men |
| Castor |
good, fine, OK |
| Charley the Bastard |
Boyes tank attack rifle; because of the
savage recoil it had |
| Chook chuff |
powdered egg |
| Cut lunch Commandos |
Junior cadets (12 to 14 years old)
(school cadets) and Senior Cadets 14 to 18. |
| Dead meat tickets |
identity disks;
one to be left in the mouth of the corpse, one returned proving death |
| Done over |
wounded, tired, exhausted, beaten |
| Doughboy/s |
American
soldier, originally (from WWI); dough as in soft, puffy, unbaked, not
yet put to the fire but later in WWII to refer to the amount of money
the Yanks had. The complaint was that they were "over-paid,
over-sexed and over here" |
| The Deuce |
The Unit
Second in Command OR 2 i/c, second only to the Trump (CO). Both are card
game names. |
| Emu parade (Emu bob) |
line of soldiers,
under the control of a junior NCO, side by side, almost shoulder to
shoulder, walking slowly forwards cleaning up an area,
therefore bobbing up and down to pick up litter. |
| February |
the Commanding
Officer (CO), as he can inflict 28 days
punishment or detention |
| Fart-arse about |
to waste time |
| Free chewing gum |
chin strap on hat |
| Fruit salad |
medal ribbons |
| Front the Bull |
be paraded in front of the CO,
usually for a misdemeanor of some sort |
| Fuzzy wuzzy or
fuzzy wuzzy angels |
Papuan native
litter carrier or bearer who carried supplies up to the front line and
wounded men back to base. Did great work and were paid almost nothing. |
| Get your finger out |
stop loafing, get busy, hurry |
| Get off my back |
leave me alone, go away, ease up on me |
| GI (or Gi), gee eye |
American fighting soldier (Gii or G2
was intelligence corps) The I, or i, was actually from the roman numeral
i meaning one. So Gi was really G one (fighting corps) and GII was G two
(intelligence section). |
| Giggle-suit |
army fatigue suit, loose untidy
looking work dress |
| Give us a break |
ease up, give me a chance, stop pushing
me |
| Give the game away
1 |
stop, leave, give up |
| Give the game
away 2 |
prematurely
expose a plan |
| Gong/s |
medal/s |
| Gyrene |
American marine (USMC) from Gi + marine |
| Homer |
serious wound
(bad enough to get you sent home) |
| Jungle juice |
home made
wine, usually very high in alcohol content |
| Lance jack |
Lance corporal
(L/Cpl), the first rank above Private (Pte). |
| Lurk men |
loafers,
bludgers, men constantly
trying to avoid work |
| Mad mile (minute) |
bayonet assault course |
| Mandrakes |
waterproof capes, after Mandrake the
Magician, a popular comic hero who always wore one. |
| Nip,
nips (also Japs) |
Japanese |
| On the nose |
unpleasant, disagreeable,
bad, smelly |
| Panic hat |
steel helmet |
| Panic artist |
excitable or unstable person,
particularly if an officer or NCO |
| Piss-pocket |
crawler, insincere person, flatterer
(also 'pissing in my pocket'; insincerely flattering
or misleading me ) and ('don't
piss in my pocket'; don't try to get your way by
flattering me) |
| Pull your head in |
shut up, be quiet, back off, stop
bothering me |
| Perve artist |
soldier with more than
a normal interest
in women |
| RHIP |
Rank has it's privileges
(also Rank Hath It's Privileges) |
| Rose bowl |
urinal placed between tent lines |
| SFA |
Sweet Fanny
Adams (or Sweet F**k All); nothing, zip, zero |
| Short arm parade |
inspection of soldiers genitals to
discover any VD infection |
| Shark bait |
disliked NCO or officer who might fall
overboard from a troop ship |
| Shark-shit |
any sailor
also any Digger about to go on a boat |
| SNAFU (snafoo) (snafu) |
Situation normal, all fouled
up
(sometimes another "F" word was used) |
| Snorkers, snags |
sausages |
| Stick-it (or shove it) |
I refuse. No.
As in "stick it up your arse" |
| The two icky |
The 2 i/c,
Second in Command, The Deuce |
| The Trump |
the Commanding Officer |
| Three striper |
Sergeant, from
his badges of rank |
| Tile (Anzac wafer) |
army biscuit,
very hard and difficult to eat. |
| Tin tank, Tin tanks |
American/s (rhymes with Yank/s) |
| Tojo |
Any Japanese.
From the name of the Japanese Prime Minister and Minister for War who
had worked hard to push Japan into the war against former allies. |
| Up shit creek |
in bad trouble
(sometimes "up shit creek without a paddle") also ("up
shit creek in a barbed wire rowboat") |
| Weekend Warriors |
CMF (before they were mobilized) from
the fact that they did mostly weekend only training |
| Woodpecker |
Japanese machine gun,
from the distinctive noise they made |
| Yank, Yankee |
American |
| Zebra |
Non Commissioned Officer (NCO) because
of the stripes of rank |
