Talk Among the Flying
A Dictionary of R.A.F. Slang. By.Eric Partridge. (Michael Joseph. 6s.) THE inherent joie de vivre that happily infects the R.A.F. is reflected in its slang, which invariably provides light-hearted expressions for serious subjects. Who, for instance, can fail to be touched by the expression gone for a Burton, which means that a comrade has been killed? To go to the movies is to go into action ; a fight in the air is described as a party ; and a pilot who has escaped death by parachuting to -earth might be heard telling a friend that he had to jump out of the window. Those minutes of extreme tension when a pilot is trying to identify his target by circling round in a probably well-defended area are, in R.A.F. slang, employed in boning around ; and when a pilot suffers the anxiety of being lost in fog— this must be experienced to be appreciated—he thinks of himself as being tangled in the soup. Perhaps more obviously expressive is the solid lump of blitz, which is what the fighter pilot will refer to when he tells of the close-flying formation of enemy aircraft he encountered. • The R.A.F. has discarded several normal words as-being inadequate in meaning and has replaced them with short monosyllabic words of considerable power. To take off in a hurry, for instance, is to scat ; to bomb a target heavily is to prang it ; to cancel some- thing is to scrub it ; to turn quickly is to link; to be excessively nervous is to flap ; and can anybody think of a better name for a jet-propelled aircraft than a squirt?
Much of the slang naturally relates to the pursuit of female companionship, and some of the words are, shall we say, picturesque to say the least. Having conducted a skirt patrol a young officer, if he is lucky, will have fixed up his target for to-night. If the latter is a pretty Waaf he will refer to her as his queen. But normally he is not allowed to take out a non-commissioned Waaf, so that probably she would be a ladybird, or Waaf officer. Possibly she might even be the Queen Bee, or Waaf officer in charge of the Wad detachment. She might become his girl-friend, in which case he will be referring to her as his bride, but it is important to point out that that appellation does not imply sexual intimacy. Out of hearing-of his ladybird he may be heard to remark on her black-outs, or uniform navy-blue winter-weight knickers. If he was courting his cat in the summer season she would be wearing twilights, or summer-weight knickers lighter coloured than black- outs.
Mr. Partridge has collected some seven hundred and fifty slang expressions into his valuable and amusing book • and perhaps it is not without interest to remark that although this reviewer has had over five years in the R.A.F. as flying instructor, staff officer and operational pilot, he is familiar with only two hundred and fifty of them. Only a comparatively small proportion of the expressions in this book have a common use throughout the Service. The remainder are confined to sections each of which is virtually the property of one of the Commands. There is only one complaint to make to Mr. Partridge. He habitually talks about a 'plane when he means an aircraft. NIGEL TANGYE.
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