bomb disposal terms

[Wilson Gray]

On Jul 16, 2005, at 6:08 PM, James A. Landau wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: bomb disposal terms
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> In a message dated Thu, 14 Jul 2005 11:27:20 -0500
> "Mullins, Bill" _Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL_
> (mailto:Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL)
>   writes:
>
>> Mulvaney on Bomb Disposal, Supplement to Intelligence  Bulletin No.
>> 85,
>> Sergeant Robert Vittur, dated 15 September  1945.
>> online at:  http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mulvaney.html
>>
>> p.  1
>>
>> B.D. (= Bomb Disposal.  Not in OED)
>> "These Russians  are very secretive about there B.D. methods."
>
>
>
> A. B. Hartley _Unexploded Bomb_  New York: W. W. Norton &  Company,
> 1958, no
> ISBN
> This book gives numerous jargon terms from British bomb disposal work
> in
> World War II, unfortunately with few datable quotations.
>
> page 24 "a Bomb Disposla Directorate formed <snip> The office of
> directyor
> was taken over by the Inspector of Fortifications and Works at the War
>  Office,
> the new combined appointment being known as I.F. and D. B.D. (or, more
> familiarly, Ifs and Buts). <snip> on teh very day---August 29
> 1940---that  this
> essential administrative measure came into effect and [Major-General
> G. B.  O.
> Taylor] took control, the storm burst over London."
>
> This strongly suggests that the abbreviation "BD" existed in August
> 1940.
>
>> p. 3
>>
>> Chewning (Not in OED.  I can't find any  other uses of this word
>> anywhere
>> else, but it is clear from context that  it has some meaning within
>> the
>> bomb disposal community. It is a  moderately common surname, though.)
>>
>> "I don't give a hoot if it is  "just as good", Mulvaney -- you get
>> down
>> and work that Chewning  right!!"
>
> Obviously some kind of tool or perhaps procedure for taking care of a
> certain type of unexploded bomb, and very likely named after somebody
> named
> Chewning who invented it.  Hartley's book doesn't seem to include
> "Chewning" but
> lists other tools named after thier developers.
>
>> p.  4
>>
>> UXB (= Unexploded Bomb; OED has 1955)
>> "Danger  UXB"
>>
>> p. 10
>>
>> Fire in the hole (Not in OED; means "an  explosion is about to
>> happen")
>> "Fire in th' Hole!!"
>
>
> It should be noted that one way of disposing of a bomb (if it is
> acceptable
> to blow it up where it is lying) is to set fire to the TNT inside.
> TNT  burns
> without exploding, and with luck as much as half the TNT can be gotten
> rid
> of before the heat of the fire causes the fuze to detonate the
> remaining  TNT.
>
>> p. 18
>> Shaped Charge (OED has 1948)
>> "You needn't be  quite so meticulous with those shaped charges,
>> Hubert."
>
>
> 1948 is dubious.  The principle of the shaped charge ("Munro effect")
> was
> discovered by Munro in I think the 1880's.  Shaped charges were used
> in  the
> warheads of the US Army's bazooka during World War II----I don't know
> if the
> contemporary British PIAT and German Panzerfaust also used shaped
> charges.
>

I've never heard of the British term before, but, as a former avid
reader of Popular Science, I can vouch for the claim that the
panzerfaust had a shaped charge. Given that it took a shaped charge to
pierce through the armor of WWII tanks, I'd bet a fat man that the
British arm also had a shaped charge. FWIW, PS was also my pre-1945
source for the term "blockbuster" as the name of a bomb.

>> p. 21
>> propeller head (OED has 1983.  The term is not  used, but a cartoon
>> of a
>> man with a propeller sticking out of his head,  asking a doctor "Is my
>> case uncommon, doc?" is shown, implying that the  term may go back to
>> 1945 and originate with bomb disposal  technicians.)
>

I'm not particularly familiar with the term, "propeller head," but I
remember propeller beanies from when I was still in elementary school,
pre-1950.

-Wilson Gray

>
> two uses similar to "propellor head"
> 1) a helicopter pilot is a "rotorhead"---this usage is unlikely to be
> earlier than the late 1940's since helicopters were rare in World War
> II and did
> not become common until the late 1940's.
> 2) propellor beanies, which for reasons beyond my knowledge were
> associated
> with science fiction fans since sometime before 1974 (during the 1974
> Worldcon
> I  told off a Washington Post reporter for having referred to propellor
> beanies  and/or their wearers in a story he had published in the Post
> the day
> before.
>
>      - James A. Landau
>