World War II Database

During WW2, nations conscripted men to fill the ranks of their ground forces. These young men came from all walks of life and spoke with all sorts of regional words and slangs. Given that some of these men were not so happy being forced to fight on the front lines, some of the slangs were rather colorful in nature. FUBAR, for example, was one of the slangs that became popularized by mass media, and author Gordon Rottman chose that word as the title of his compilation of slangs used by the men fighting on the ground in WW2.

Many of the terms listed in the FUBAR were well-known, such as bazooka, dogface, and monkey suit, but the author also did a good job digging up rarer slangs that were used by a smaller fraction of the US Army or US Marine Corps population. Short articles such as "What not to call your CO..." shed light on how these terms were used, while also provided breaks to relieve the otherwise dry dictionary-like presentation. By the way, if you were a soldier, you probably wouldn't want to be caught calling your commanding officer a chump, a dead battery, a screwball, or a zero.

Although the chapter on American slangs was the largest, the book was not limited to American terms. The second chapter was dedicated to slangs of British and Commonwealth troops, which was particularly interesting as Commonwealth troops brought slangs from cross the British Empire. "Bandook", for example, was used by some of the British officers who commanded Hindustani-speaking troops who used this term to refer to their rifles. Meanwhile, Australian troops introduced the term "bombo" to their British and Commonwealth comrades who shared this cheap wine with them during the lull of combat. Rottman did not limit the book on slangs of English-speaking armies, either. A good portion of the the book was on the slangs of the German soldiers. "Post bekommen", as the author shared, meant more than receiving mail; those who were said to be receiving mail were often actually on the receiving end of an Allied artillery barrage. Finally, in the appendix, Japanese and Russian soldier slangs each occupied seven pages. They are far too small and sadly inadequate in my opinion; I could only hope that they would inspire the author to dedicate a future volume to them.

As the title suggests, some of the slangs, regardless of language, were dirty. Some of them were sexual, crude, or just simply derogatory. Rottman chose to spell out all profanities in full. "The author makes no apologies for the language used in this book - nothing is gained by sugar-coating the language of soldiers", said Rottman in a note at the very beginning of the book. By listing even the dirtiest words in full, he hoped to bring forth a more realistic understanding of the mind common soldier of WW2.

FUBAR: Soldier Slang of World War II was a fun book to flip through. When HBO's "The Pacific" goes on the air, I am going to keep this book nearby; I am thinking that it just might be useful!