Whole Nine Yards

[Dave Wilton]

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Michael B Quinion
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 1:06 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Whole Nine Yards


>Yes, indeed. My piece yesterday started from the presumption that
>everybody on the list knew the story about the military origin of the
>phrase. As you say, firm evidence is lacking. But I couldn't remember
>ever having seen it stated as confirmed fact that the Spitfire
>machine-gun belts actually were 27 feet long.

Determining the exact armament of WWII aircraft (or those of any era for
that matter) is made difficult by the fact that aircraft types were produced
in multiple versions, and the armament often varied greatly between each
version. For example, there were 13 different types of P-51s manufactured
for the USAAF and 4 for the RAF during the war--not counting reconnaissance
versions which swapped cameras for the machine guns.

Typical armament for the Spitfire was two Hispano 20 mm cannon (120 rounds
per gun) and four Browning .303 machine guns (350 rounds per gun). Belts of
350 rounds of .30-caliber ammunition would be only about 12 feet in length.

P-51 Mustangs, the other aircraft commonly mentioned in the canonical WWII
explanation, were armed with 4-6 Browning .50 caliber machine-guns with
between 280-400 rounds per gun. Still short of 27 feet.

The only aircraft that I've found that carried 500 rounds of .50 caliber
ammunition per gun, which would put belt length at just around 27 feet is
the P-38L Lightning, which was produced starting in June 1944 and was the
last version and the one produced in the greatest numbers. Some earlier
versions carried only 210 rounds per gun. I haven't found ammunition figures
for all the earlier versions of the P-38. The P-38 is sometimes identified
as the aircraft that gave rise to the phrase, so there just might be
something here.

>Well, the Browning machine gun, in land use with the US Army, dates
>back to 1918, so it is just possible it was being referred to. But
>somehow I doubt it, since (I am told) it was a different calibre to
>the one that was fitted to aircraft and so presumably the belts were
>different lengths.

The WWI Browning machine gun was .303 caliber--which was also used in WWII.
The .50 caliber was developed in the 1930s and is still in service with the
US Army. Aircraft carried either .303 caliber (Spitfire) and .50 caliber
(most US aircraft), but the models were different than those used by ground
troops.

For me, though, the chief argument against this explanation is that
ammunition is not measured by the length of the belt. Belt segments can be
attached and detached to create belts of any length--WWII era .50 caliber
cloth belts came in segments of 50 rounds each. Ammunition is typically
measured in number of rounds, not feet of belt. Sometimes, aircraft
ammunition is measured by weight, but never by length.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net
  http://www.wilton.net