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WW1 Digger History Podcast


WWI Digger Stories Podcast reproduces the diaires, memoirs and letters of the real participants in the war that changed the course of the 20th Century. What was it like to be in the trenches, on the ships or behind the big guns where death stalked in infinite ways and it was impossible to make friends unless you were prepared to lose tham at any moment.

This podcast is formatted with each diairy or memoir forming a series, usually taking the listener through the war from beginning to end, from raw recruit to returning veteran, as it was experienced by the soldier and in his (or her, when I include Nurses stories) own words.

Episode 1.4 Definitions

May 6, 2016

Mob’ means group.

A ‘Salvo’ is a round from an artillery battery

5.9s, 75s etcetera are various artillery shells. These are commonly known by the calibre with a few exceptions like the ‘whizz-bang’ and ‘coal box’.

‘Cherio’ means goodbye (like ‘hooroo’).

‘Strafed’ means to get a dressing down from a superior.

Anzacs’ in this case refers to a crunchy biscuit or a ‘cookie’ if you are a ‘doughboy’ rather than a ‘digger’. Anzac biscuits remain very popular today.

'Cawnpore Angels' refers to a monument in Cawnpore, now Kanpur, India to commemorate a massacre which occurred during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

A ‘sap’ is a trench constructed toward the enemy line.

‘Tucker’ means food.

‘Good night nurse’ is from a 1918 comedy by Fatty Arbuckle. It means ‘death’ here

‘Pioneers’ or 'neers' are the engineer corps. These men rarely, if ever, saw combat, but were very important.

‘Jocks’ are Scotsmen.

‘Whips of scran’ means a lot of food. The AIF provided enough food for the whole battalion, but they were less than half in camp to enjoy it. My apologies, I missed a few of these definitions in the recording.