Soviet KV heavy tanks counterattack on the Pulkovo Heights, by Peter Dennis © Osprey Publishing Ltd. Taken from Duel 46: Panzerjäger vs KV-1.
If you’re reading this, then you no doubt have felt the joy of watching a battle play out on a tabletop in front of you! There are lots of things you can do to enhance the experience, from wearing an old army cap to simply making sure your dice colours match your army. Another way is by employing the language of the day – to get ‘in character’ as commander of your army.
TALK LIKE A TANKER
Soldier slang has a long history, probably dating back to the first time two or more humans had to work together to overcome an enemy. Here is a list of slang from World War II that you may find useful in your games.
BRITISH
Ack Dum: Hurry up!
Aiwa: From an Arabic word meaning ‘yes’.
Alley: Get out of here!
Anti-Wank: A crass term for ‘anti-tank’.
Bash On: To continue moving under duress.
Beat-up: An air strike. ‘Call in a beat up on that nest of 88s.’
Bloody: An adjective that means ‘very’ or ‘extremely’. Liberally applied to all sorts of situations, such as ‘That was a bloody good stew’ or ‘Aw, bloody hell’.
Blue: A big mistake.
Blue Pencil: A substitute for any swear word. Named after the blue pencil used by mail censors. ‘That’s one blue-pencilled major up at battalion.’
Boko: Plenty or a lot.
Boojum: A tank.
Box Up: To mess things up, to fail.
Brew Up: To catch fire. ‘I’m afraid my tank brewed up back there.’ Also the practice of British soldiers brewing tea at every available opportunity.
By the centre!: ‘I can’t believe it!’
C3: Worthless. It comes from the British Army classification for physical fitness. ‘Holding that hill was C3, mate.’
Crack On: To move quickly.
Doddle: Any easy task.
Dorchester: An armoured command vehicle that was considered luxurious, like the Dorchester hotel in London.
Feet: The infantry.
Heine: A German.
Hitler War: World War II.
I tank: A tank used mainly to support infantry. Usually referred to the Churchill, Matilda, or Valentine tanks.
Jerry: A German.
Kag: Equipment stored on the outside of tanks, usually consisting of the crew’s personal gear.
The BEF and British armour working in unison
Tank Proof: Terrain considered impassable by tanks.
Tin Opener: Any aircraft used to destroy tanks.
Tommy: A British Army soldier.
Type: An officer.
Unstick: To pull a vehicle out of mud or other binding terrain.
Wash-out: A failed mission or battle.
Wolverine: The M10 series tank destroyers.
Wouldn’t it!: An exclamation used when one is frustrated or confounded. Useful when you roll poorly!
Wuff: To kill an enemy tank.
Yank: An American.
Lorry: A truck.
Maggie: A machine gun nest.
Para: A paratrooper.
PBI: Acronym that stood for ‘poor bloody infantry’.
Pencil Line: The shortest distance between two points.
Pixie Suit: The coveralls worn by tank crews.
Pull a Flanker: To do a flanking attack.
Roller Skates: Tanks.
Show: A battle.
Stand on Everything: To stop a vehicle as quickly as possible; slamming on the brakes.
Stonk: A heavy barrage of artillery or mortar fire, or any heavy concentration of fire.
Suicide Squad: Any small unit of troops with a dangerous job, such as anti-tank or recon troops.
Tank Buster: An anti-tank gun.
British M5A1 Stuart
M26 Pershing
US
At Ease!: Stop what you’re doing, stop talking, or cut it out!
Belly Out: When a vehicle has sunk in the mud, it has ‘bellied out’.
Bowlegs: A derogatory term for cavalryman, a carryover from the days when they rode horses rather than tanks.
Buttoned Up: A tank with all of its hatches and ports closed. A tank typically ‘buttons up’ before a battle.
Bought the Farm: Killed in action. The life insurance carried by all US service members was said to be enough to pay off a farm’s mortgage.
Cooking with Gas: On the right track, doing well, being correct.
Deadeye: An expert marksman.
Dogface: An American infantryman.
Double Time: To run, or move at a fast pace. Comes from a marching command.
Kraut: A German.
FUBAR: ‘Fouled’ Up Beyond All Recognition. A situation or condition that is too messed up to fix. ‘That tank’s tracks are FUBARed.’
Full Bird: A colonel. Named for the eagles that a colonel wears to show his rank, and the fact that he is not a lieutenant colonel, he is a ‘full’ colonel.
GI: Stands for ‘government issue’. Officially, it refers to all military issued equipment, weapons and vehicles. As a joke, soldiers started to refer to themselves as GIs as a statement about their perceived level of freedom in the service.
Go Juice: Fuel. Also ‘give it some go juice’ meant to speed up or go fast.
Hit the Deck: To dive down under incoming fire.
Jumbo: The M4A3E2 up-armoured Sherman tank.
Maggie’s Drawers: Used when you miss a target. ‘I must have used up a whole belt, but all I got was Maggie’s drawers!’ When you didn’t get any hits on a target during range training, the spotter waved a red flag. That flag became known as Maggie’s drawers.
Kraut: German. Derived from Sauerkraut, a German cabbage dish.
Ma Deuce: The M2 Browning .50 cal machine gun, still in use to this day.
Meatball: The red circle found on Japanese flags and insignia.
Mobile Pillbox: A tank or some other kind of mobile gun that has been dug into a pit.
Nervous in the Service: To be scared or jittery under fire.
Outfit: A military unit, usually the company level or lower.
Pip: Something that was easy to do. ‘That last patrol was a pip!’
Purple Heart Box: A derogatory term for a half-track armoured vehicle, so named for the supposedly high chance of getting wounded while riding in one.
Repple Depple: Raw or green troops in one’s unit. It refers to the replacement depot, where new recruits just out of basic training would report before being sent out to combat units.
Rommel’s Asparagus: Stakes jutting out of the ground to prevent gliders from landing.
Serenade: An artillery barrage.
Short Round: An artillery round that fell short of its target. Usually indicated a round that fell among friendly troops. Can also mean a messed-up situation.
SNAFU: Stood for ‘Situation Normal, All “Fouled” Up’. A situation that is out of control or a complete wash.
Squared Away: Everything is as it should be; in order or exemplary.
Stovepipe: Either a bazooka or a mortar.
Sugar-Sugar: A term for the SS, derived from the radio phonetic alphabet word for S.
Zero-Zero: Point-blank range.
Zippo Tank: A tank that has a flamethrower.
ISU-122 assault gun
Panzerjäger I tank destroyer
GERMAN
Amis: Americans.
Ausradieren: To completely destroy a vehicle or position.
Bakofen: An armoured vehicle. Translates as ‘baking oven’.
Bepflastern: To ‘plaster’ an area with artillery fire.
Blaue-Bohnen-Eintopf: Heavy machine gun fire. Translated ‘blue bean soup’.
Dauerurlaubs-Schein: ‘Permanent leave.’ Describes someone killed in action.
Die Behandlung: ‘The Treatment.’ Heavy fire, usually artillery.
Die Schwarzen: Tank crew. Translates as ‘the blacks’ due to the black coveralls that tank crews wore.
Faust: A generic term for any shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon. Translates as ‘fist’.
Flammen: To kick someone’s rear, or deliver a beating to the enemy.
Gangster: An American soldier.
Gartenspritzer: A light machine gun. Translates to ‘garden sprinkler’.
Gretchen: The Panzerfaust klein 30, the first model of the Panzerfaust.
Grünhölle: ‘Green hell.’ Fighting in a forest, usually referring to the Eastern Front.
Hausfriedensbruch: To trespass. Used when attacking enemy territory.
Hinrotzen: Running for cover under fire. Translates as ‘evading snot’.
Iwan: A Russian soldier.
Jabo: An Allied ground attack fighter.
Kattun: To receive heavy fire.
Klotzen: To ‘pour it on’, firing everything you’ve got at a target.
Komintern: Soviets.
Landser: A soldier or group of soldiers.
Pakfront: A cluster of anti-tank gun positions used to halt or slow armour advances.
Panzerschreck: The shock an advancing tank causes to ground troops.
Post Bekommen: To receive artillery fire. Translates as ‘getting mail’.
Rabatz: Heavy enemy fire, used as an ironic understatement.
Rattenkrieg: Urban warfare.
Rotkäppchen: French soldiers.
Russe: A Russian.
Scheunentor: The PaK 43/41 anti-tank gun. It translates as ‘barn door’, so named because of the large shield they used.
Schleifer: A tank that needs repairs.
Schlumpschütze: A tank or soldier that can’t seem to hit its target.
Schnatterpuste: A machine gun.
Sohlenschoner: Motorized infantry.
Spargelbeet: An area covered in tank obstacles.
Stiften Gehen: To escape from a tank or other vehicle.
Stoppelhopser: The infantry.
Tee-Salon: The Soviet T-34.
Teufelsgarten: A minefield.
Tommy: A British soldier – the Germans used the British term as well.
Tommykocher: The M4 Sherman tank. Translates as ‘Tommy cooker’ for its alarming habit of catching fire when hit.
Vater: The company commander. An affectionate term that translates as ‘father’.
Verheizen: The needless sacrificing of troops in an attack.
JAPAN
Ameko: American troops.
Arigeta: American AMTRAC or other amphibious landing craft, translates as ‘alligator’.
Batta: An unflattering term for infantry.
Hakuheisen: Close assault.
Heitai: A soldier, in the same vein as ‘GI’ for American troops.
Igirisu: The British.
Rosuke: An insulting term for Russians.
Shomohin: Gallows humour term for a Japanese soldier, since it translates as ‘expendable article’.
Ta Dan: An anti-tank shaped-charge munition.
Tokko: An attack that was so dangerous it was considered suicide.
SOVIET UNION
Amerikosy: An American.
BEF: A common abbreviation seen on tank turrets, it means ‘defeat the fascists’.
Bratskaya Mogila Dlya Semerykh: The US M3 Lee tank, on lend-lease to the Soviet army. A derisive term that translates as ‘communal grave for 7’, owing to the tank’s 7-man crew.
Ferdinand: A German self-propelled gun.
Fritz: A German.
Grob: An armoured vehicle that was nonetheless vulnerable to enemy fire. Translates as ‘coffin’.
Karandashi: A radio code for infantry.
Korobki: A radio code for tanks.
Spichechnaya Korobka: The ‘matchbox’, a derogatory term for the T-34 tank.
Zmeya: The German PaK 40 anti-tank gun.
Zveroboi: The Soviet SU-152 and SU-122 self-propelled guns. Translates as ‘beast hunter’ for their effectiveness against the German Tigers and Panthers.
Y IS FOR…
The British have been parsimonious with their army for many centuries, preferring a small regular professional army and a dominant navy. When they needed extra troops, rather than go to conscription they preferred to pull in soldiers from the militia or what later became the yeomanry regiments, volunteers who did not need to do foreign service. The Boer War saw the yeomanry actually clamour to fight overseas, and this was taken up in World War I and then World War II.
The yeomanry units were nominally cavalry so, by 1939, were all in armoured cars or tanks. They fought as well as the regulars on most occasions and still are in the British order of battle today in what is now called the Army Reserves.
Perhaps the most notable yeoman of World War II was Joe Ekins, a Firefly gunner in the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, who was sent to Normandy after his training that had involved firing only five practice rounds. He ambushed three tigers with his Sherman Firefly and brewed up all three, also arguably killing the famous German tank ace Michael Wittmann.
ITALY
Crucco: A German.
Avanti! Forward.
Naia or Naja: military service.
FRANCE
Bleu: A recruit.
Le Boche: A German.
Soviet lend-lease M10 tank destroyer
TANK RECOGNITION
Germany) 1: Panzer I, 2: Panzer 35(t), 3: Panzer 38(t), 4: Hetzer, 5: Panzer III N, 6: StuG III Ausf. G, 7: Panzer IV, 8: Jagdpanzer IV, 9: StuG IV, 10: Panther, 11: Jagdpanther, 12: Tiger IE, 13: Ferdinand, 14: King Tiger, 15: Marder I, 16: Marder II, 17: Marder III, 18: Marder III M Italy) 19: Semovente 75/18, 20: Carro Armato 14/41 Soviet Union) 21: T34/76 obr.1941, 22: T34/85, 23: SU-100, 24: IS-2, 25: ISU-122, 26: SU-76
France) 27: Renault R35, 28: Hotchkiss 35, 29: Somua S35, 30: Char B1 bis Japan) 31: Type 95 Ha-Go, 32: Type 97 Chi-Ha, 33: Type 97 ShinHoTo Chi-Ha, 34: 7tp USA) 35: M3 Stuart, 36: M5A3 Stuart, 37: M3 Lee, 38: M4A3E8 Sherman, 39: M10 Wolverine, 40: M24 Chaffee, 41: M18 Hellcat Britain) 42: A9 Cruiser, 43: Crusader Mk II, 44:M3 Grant, 45: Sherman V, 46: Sherman VC Firefly, 47: Achilles, 48: Cromwell, 49: Challenger, 50: Churchill