FUBAR F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition: Soldier Slang of World War II (General Military) - Hardcover

English-speakers working in Russia generally go through a stage where they jokingly refer to a restaurant as a pectopah. The joke consists in pronouncing the cyrillic letters as if they were Roman. I was surprised to discover that the Germans fighting in Russia in the second world war made a joke on the same lines with the Russian for a barn (in which soldiers might well be billeted), calling it a capau (whereas the Russian would be transliterated saraj). This I discovered from a new book on slang from the war called Fubar by Gordon L. Rottman (Osprey, £9.99). Unusually, in addition to two sections on British Commonwealth and American slang, he devotes 70 pages to German slang. Naturally, German servicemen exhibited some of the same weary humour as British soldiers or schoolboys. So the Italian-issue tinned beef stamped AM (for Amministrazione Militare) was known to German soldiers as Arsch Mussolini ('Mussolini's Arse') or alte Mann ('old man'). The Italians said it stood for Arabo Morto or Anale Mussolini. Along the same lines, Blutwurst (blood-sausage) was known as Churchill-Pimmel ('Churchill' s Prick'). Food figures large in military thought. Boiled cabbage was known convincingly enough as Fusslappen, 'foot-cloth', or 'toe-rag' as an English tramp might have called it. Soya beans, promoted by the German government, were Nazibohnen ('Nazi beans'), which indicates that the German army and Nazi forces were not at all the same thing. The retreat from Moscow was called by some the Napoleon-Gedächtnis-Renne - the Napoleon memorial race. The Luftwaffe were known as Schlipssoldaten ('necktie soldiers') since they wore ties as part of their uniform; the Pioneers were called Mädchen für Alles ('Maids of all work'); an NCO who had not gained the respect of the men was called a Leithammel ('bellwether'). The last-ditch Dad s Army Volkssturm was nicknamed the Krüppelgarde ('cripple-guard') or HJ-Spätlese ('late-vintage Hitler Youth'). Quite a complicated nickname was attached to the age group born in 1900 (since groups were designated by year of birth): Scheisshausjahrgang, because a 00 on a door indicated a lavatory. Lice were called Kleiderpartisanen ('clothes-partisans'); fleas leichte Infanterie ('light infantry'); bed bugs schwere Infanterie ('heavy infantry'). Understatement is not solely an English trait if I understand the term Rabatz ('fuss') aright; it referred to any really unpleasant situation or heavy enemy fire. I have no idea how widespread these slang terms were, but the worst of times always spawn grim wit. --The Spectator

Every 14 days, another language dies. A recent joint National Geographic-New York Times report asserts that by 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth - many of them never yet recorded - will likely disappear, taking with them a wealth of knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment, and how the human brain works. Gordon Rottman's new dictionary, FUBAR - an acronym for F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition - carries with it the subtitle 'Soldier Slang of World War II'; National Geographic's warning comes coincidentally amidst a rise in the death rate of World War II veterans. What Rottman accomplishes here is to pick up the cultural slack while doing essentially the same linguistic preservation work with this exhaustive, essential volume. Slang, in its way, is infinitely more transient and ephemeral; today's 'tubular' and 'trippindicular', for example, may not be tomorrow's 'wicked' and 'bad'. And yet, as the Information Age expands in scope - and another war drags on halfway around the world - preserving these methods of human communication becomes that much more vital. Hence the importance of soldier slang of the Second World War. Ironically, their ongoing themes are those of despair, pessimism and impatience with the S**t and the people driving it. Language, even as bombs explode and tongues are shot away, ultimately remains the keystone of the diplomacy through which the conflict ultimately ends. Conversely, the nuances and subtlety that are diplomacy's lifeblood are useless on the battlefield; one knows instinctively that when Douglas MacArthur said 'War is hell', he wasn't talking about a card game. The subtext here is that, had this handy volume been available during the war, perhaps lives could have been saved because of the ability to understand the enemy and anticipate his next move as it comes hollering from trench to trench. Likewise, another necessary point Rottman makes is that of the salty nature of what you are about to read. The author, he promises, makes no apologies for the language used in this book - nothing is gained by sugar-coating the language of soldiers. Profanities are fully spelled out, as are numerous words that are racially or sexually derogatory by today's standards. A dictionary such as this, striving to provide an accurate record of how soldiers really talked and thought, is no place for hollow 'political correctness'. And he's right. Just as one cannot punch a man for telling the truth, so too is one prohibited from assailing the Oxford English Dictionary for publishing words with which one doesn t particularly agree. Along with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps' side of this oral history, Rottman also includes British Commonwealth Army (covering Australia, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand) slang, as well as the guttural argot of German, Japanese and Russian Armies. There's also an appendix for armored fighting vehicle nicknames, in case you'd wondered. Unfortunately, air force and naval jargon isn't covered, nor is the slang of Italian armies or the French Resistance - topics for which the reader may have to wait in a second volume. The overwhelming implication of FUBAR is that this remarkable reference book, a unique witness to the language of war, represents a class of men passing away with inexorable force. Dove or hawk, it makes no difference: If one truly wants to understand this important aspect of the fighting men one supports or condemns, it would be infinitely myopic to ignore their words, how they said them, and why. --VC Reporter: Ventura County's Newspaper

For those who have seen Saving Private Ryan you will be fully aware of the meaning of FUBAR. FUBAR is the slang Private Mellish uses to confuse the young battle-inexperienced Corporal Upham whilst on the march to save Private Ryan, the final meaning coming about on the discovery of downed gliders and disorientated paratroopers across the French countryside, FUBAR -F***ed Up Beyond all Recognition. Slang is an important part of every soldier's vocabulary. These words were so ingrained into the soldier's vocabulary that their use was continued by a new generation of soldiers and by the end of the war some terms had even passed into standard everyday use. This book is a detailed survey of the slang of WWII as used by US, German and Commonwealth fighting men and women. It lists hundreds of these distinctive and evocative words with their definitions and origins, but also includes cartoons and images, allowing the reader to place himself in the typical WW2 soldiers boots. When I opened up FUBAR I thought this was going to be just another G.I. slang book. Much to my surprise I was looking at strange sounding words. I was reading German army slang and much to my astonishment, a good deal of it was funny, although somewhat dark. It was also serious and some of it opened a window to a darker side. The British and Australian slang was nothing but audacious and funny. The American soldiers' slang covered more than just G.I. words and nicknames, but included the Marines and a diffident nautical link. Even more surprising were the sections of Soviet and Japanese soldiers' slang, each of which offered its own brand of humour. It has a great Appendix to the rear of the book including AFV nicknames from both sides. Reading through the book was an eye-opener showing just how much soldiers the world over had in common and at the same time, how different they were. I was surprised too at how many of these words have survived today, although the soldiers who coined them may have had a somewhat different meaning in mind. A mild word of warning, this book tells it as it was. For some it will bring back memories, for others it's a great insight into terms used from the drill square to the battlefield. I would highly recommend this book. --militarymodelling.com

The soldier slang of World War II was as colourful as it was evocative. It could be insulting, pessimistic, witty, and even defeatist. From 'spam bashers' to 'passion wagons' and 'roof pigs' to 'Hell's Ladies,' the World War II fighting man was never short of words to describe the people and events in his life. F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition takes a frank look at the British, Commonwealth, American, German, Japanese and Russian slang used by the men on the ground, and shows how, even in the heat of battle, they somehow managed to retain their sense of humour, black though it might have been.