Darkest Hour

Glossary

Choky - prison

CIGS - chief of the Imperial General Staff (head of the armed services)

croaker - badly wounded or dying

CQS - Company Quartermaster Sergeant

dekko - look around, observe

DLM - Division Legere Mechanique, i.e. a Light Armoured Division

GSO3 - General Staff Officer 3 - a British staff officer

HMG - His Majesty's Government

housewife - small standard-issue linen wallet containing needles, thread, spare buttons, darning wool and thimble

iggery - get on with it, move it

Irvin - thick sheepskin flying jacket made by the Irvin company for the RAF

IO - intelligence officer

Maggie - RAF slang for a Miles Magister aircraft

MO - medical officer

M/T - motor transport

O4 - German divisional general staff officer

OC - Officer Commanding

OCTU - Officer Cadet Training Unit

On the peg -under arrest

OP - observation post

ORs - other ranks (i.e. not commissioned officers)

poilus - old First World War name for French infantry

puggled - drunk

QA - Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service

RASC - Royal Army Service Corps

RTR - Royal Tank Regiment

R/T - radio transmitter

RV - rendezvous

sitrep - situation report

Spandau - German light machine-gun; in May 1940, most were MG34s, but British troops tended to call all such weapons 'Spandaus' after the location stamp marked on the German Maxim guns of the First World War

Snowdrops - RAF Military Police

Stonk – a sustained artillery barrage

vic – V-shaped formation of three aircraft, with the lead plane at the point of the ‘V’