bomb disposal terms

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Fire in the hole ! " is also U.S. usage at least since WW II.

I have nothing in print on "rotorhead" until recently, but it may have been current during the Vietnam War.  Likewise "treadhead" for member of an armored unit.

When I was five, I wore my propeller beanie proudly.  It was some kind of super deluxe model equipped with a plastic tube that enabled me to blow soap bubbles out the top.

It was most impressive and futuristic when the prop was spinning.   But alas, the beanie is long gone.  It would have just covered the patch of thinning hair with which I am now, sadly, afflicted.

JL

"James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> wrote:
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Poster: "James A. Landau"
Subject: Re: bomb disposal terms
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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 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). 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.

>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.)


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


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