Identify the Aircraft
1
2
Both #1 and #2 operated briefly in small numbers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. During the Norwegian campaign of 1940, 801 Squadron brought three of the #1 turret fighters aboard along with its #2s although they were little used due to their low performance and poorer endurance.
I have difficulty believing that they were worse than the Fairy Swordfish, but they were. Evolution cast off aircraft left and right during the world wars as some were useful and others were flying coffins.
3
Yeah, too easy, but it’s here.
Bullet Point:
*** Silicon Graybeard received a nastygram from Google/Blogger. Read about it here. I’ve received them from some of my old blog posts too. I abandoned Blogger and we have virtualmirage.org. That’s why.
Military Terms/rates on their way out:
** Master – Master Sergeant, Master Chief Petty Officer, etc. (Implies master and slave)
** Chief – Chief Warrant Officer, Chief Petty Officer, Chief of Staff, etc. (insults indigenous people)
From the Days of Fighting Sail
Naval Slang
Anchor or to get one’s ass to an– to sit down.
Ant’ bollock on the beach – something is extremely hard to locate.
At loose ends – there is little to do. The ends of ropes at sea were easily untangled and formed loose ends. So if there was little to do, the captain could instruct the crew to check the ropes for loose ends and repair them.
Beam ends – When the ship is almost at the beam ends, it means that it is capsizing and in danger of sinking, with the deck beams almost perpendicular to the sea surface. Today it means – to be in a hopeless situation.
Bite the bullet – Men who were flogged with the lovely cat were often given a piece of leather and later a bullet to bite on so they would stop screaming in pain. If he did, he was scornfully called a nightingale.
Boom and Mizzen– Cockney rhyming slang for prison.
Brace of Shakes – I’ll be with you in a brace of shakes, literally means I’ll be with you before the sail has time to shake twice, in other words I’ll be with you almost immediately.
Bread hook – finger
Colors tied to the mast – Give up ? Forget it, this one will be fought to the bitter end.
Cranky– She’s hard to sail and unstable. The modern version means awkward, eccentric or hard to understand – often used in connection with women.
Deck Cargo – Women’s Breasts
(I’m going to) deck (you) – I’ll punch you so hard in the face that you’ll see the deck up close. But since such acts were forbidden at sea, they waited until the opponents were in port and could settle it there.
Donkey Wallopers – Royal Navy slang for members of mounted cavalry regiments.
Don’t spoil the Ship for a ha’porth of tar – To half-finish a job by not filling the planks properly with hot tar when lapping. Ships will leak if too little tar is applied, so a little extra effort is well worth it.
Goose without gravy – a flogging without blood.
Grass combers – seamen with an agricultural background.
Hit the deck – When a swivel gun or cannon was to be fired at close range, sailors would dive onto the deck to avoid being hit.
Carry three red lights – reeling drunk, being not under control
Checkered Shirt – the diamond-shaped pattern of scars left by the cat o’nine tails
Chimney’s afire – a whaler’s term to describe the fountain of blood a dying whale spouted after being successfully lanced
Cootie – lice
Full Moon– The attempt of Italian sailors to calm a storm with the help of their bare asses
Galley pepper – smut and ash from the galley blown into the sailor’s meal
Gamming – a mutual visit between the crews of whaling ships when they meet abroad
It’s a washout – the order to wipe clean the slates to record flag signals and messages
Jaw tackle – you talk too much
Johnny Hawbuck – an officer who dressed himself as a dandy at sea
Man – eater – a ship that hates her crew and will do anything to get rid of them
Night Hawk – a long black streamer flown at the masthead of homeward bound American vessels while in a foreign port.
Nightingale – a sailor who screams loudly while the cat o’ nine tails strokes his back
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Blackburn Roc
2. Blackburn Skua
3. Junkers G.38
The AI never sleeps – and STRIKES when you least expect it.
Correct on all counts. I thought that the Skua might have taken you a moment.
Interesting note on the Junkers G.38. It had two different engines but all were diesels developed by Junkers.
That would explain the different blade counts on the props.
I remembered its heyday sinking the Königsberg during the Norwegian campaign.
They were reduced to training roles after that. Blackburn kept making aircraft. The Buccaneer was their last and it wasn’t a bad aircraft, but the low-altitude nuclear attack role made it a suicide mission in combat IMHO. After the F-111K was canceled in early 1968, due to serious cost escalation and delays, the RAF went for a replacement that was available, and affordable, and they reluctantly selected the Buccaneer.
I saw the Buccaneers flying in the theater during Operation Desert Shield/Storm/Saber. Each attack formation comprised four Tornados and two Buccaneers; each Buccaneer carried a single laser designator pod and acted as backup to the other in the event of an equipment malfunction.
So, we went from bread hook to booger hook? Is this progress?
Deck Cargo – overheard at a training Q&A session where the question asked for the difference between a fort and a fortress: “A fortress has breastworks.”
They used to make all the difference but these days you need to check the plumbing and even then.
So, I can no longer enter thenMASTER bedroom and announce the CHIEF has arrived? All my preferred monikers are being taken away.
Sometimes the older language terms are just better…hypersensitive uptight easily offended types (aka nightingale’s) be damned.
Best to annunciate if you want to be understood, or as my dad would say “Speak up and get the marbles out of your mouth.”
No more Hail to the Chief when President Trump enters a room.
What’s daft is that ‘chief’ comes from Old French ‘chef’, derived from Latin ‘caput’ or head. That’s what early explorers called the head man or big man of the tribe. It’s what they were. It’s not Indians driving this insanity, though, except for a number of radical activists. It’s the AWFLs and their obediant soiboi tois.
AWFLs: Affluent White Female Liberals
And possibly biological males who self-identify as AWFLs and steal luggage at the airport.
so, what, vagina sergeant?
mangina sergeant
I retired as a Master Sergeant.
USAF term: Box Office – that is when you have an all female flight crew.
A flight from PHX to FAT, they gleefully announced ‘an all wimmin crew’ (save for the cabin, who was a faggot).
I replied, its a box flight deck. Most within earshot reacted with disdain. A few deadhead pax smiled, on the verge of hearty laughter.
As to ident the aircraft, I’m not too good with Brit prop aircraft.
Interesting to me, at least, is the Vulcan was rendered redundant by the Polaris project. Yet in the early 1980s she proved her worth. Guess why/how?
The Falklands war. They flew from Ascension Island and did many aerial refuelings to/from the bombing of the Port Stanley airfield.
X2
Vulcan was cool, but the F-111 made it’s obsolescence obvious. Same thing for the also cool Hustler.
The newer versions of the F-15E make them all look pretty bad.
-Kle.
Darn, I retired from the AF as a Chief Master Sergeant, then when I retired from Civil Services I was a Flight Chief, that must be double plus ungood. I will probably be excommunicated or something. Wonder what they will change the names to?
Surly is astounding.
Vulcans were pretty cool airplanes, even sounded different. One did a low, low, low pass at Mildenhall, when I was stationed at Lakenheath so early to mid 90s. One of the last flights of the airframe I believe. If the plane was 6 feet above the ground I would be surprised and it was hauling.
A big ground effect from that delta wing.
Deck cargo….they had a sense of humor back then. Not a bad description.