Landships II

Hi Carl!

the Osprey booklet says that the piping on the carabiniers trousers was yellow (if any, most trousers weren't piped at all). But the leaflet of the JMD figure says (French) 'passepoil vert' and that's green. I am confused...or in Flemish: ''k vin da wel straf van die gasten, ze speulen toch nie met mijne voeten zeker?"

regards, Kieffer

Rectalgia wrote:

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Talking of which, I see the French 'redingote' (does that really come from the English "riding coat"?)

Hi Steve, thanks again!

The French, and the Germans have that nice habit of incorporating foreign words into their own lingo, at least they pronounce them in their own way. So it would not surprise me that redingote comes from the English riding coat. In Dutch you don't see that very often, though they sometimes come up with English words an Englishman would never use: 'band recorder' for tape recorder, 'stretcher' for camping bed to name a few. You probably might have noticed the habit in my writing too...and when it's coming to the point of defining national identity by language things can become touchy..

regards, Kieffer

kieffer wrote:

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...In Dutch you don't see that very often, though they sometimes come up with English words an Englishman would never use: 'band recorder' for tape recorder, 'stretcher' for camping bed to name a few. ...

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"Stretcher" or "stretcher-bed" as a camping bed is familiar to me and I dare say most. Because of its resemblance to the collapsible ambulance/rescue stretcher. Well, even in Australian English there are "dialects" though the regional words/usage will generally be understood all over. Bathers, swimmers, cozzie being one example all meaning bathing/swimming costume in the elder lingo. Budgie-smugglers is a special variant (you really don't want to know ...).

Tanga? Not necessarily that brief, just snug, and worn by males (indisputably).

Boot-laces - Aussies always used leather ones. It is rumoured that when medical supplies at the Regimental Aid Post ran low, the medics would sometimes prescribe boot-laces. For the inconvenience of diarrhoea, chew off one inch each morning before eating or drinking, masticate thoroughly and swallow, repeat before retiring at night. Three weeks after receiving this prescription the suffering soldier comes back.

"You don't look so good," says the RAP Sergeant, "how did it go?"
"Well," says the man, with baleful glare, "the thong is gone but the malady lingers on!"

There, we are back on topic now for sure.

aha, that's a budgie smuggler: in the late 50's it was very hip for the angry young man to put a hair comb half visible (no dirty talk, serious) at the back, always at hand because the hair cut needed a lot of attention when showing of to the bathing beauties. It was the 'brillantine' era, or Brylcreme pommade. Almost every male put the grease on his head.
My dad's car always had a greasy circle on the 'ceiling' because he was a tall fellow, his head touched the vinyl lining..car..little Fords like the Anglia he needed for his work.
Budgie: wasn't that a brand too, toys like Dinky? (a known brand was Spot-on, Australian that was if I am right).
My soldiers bathing trunk was a real budgie: it almost ended under the arm pit and it looked pathetic, not even clown like anymore but very very sad.

Reseda and mignonette are the same thing - a plant. The trial uniform was supposed to be the same shade of green. Some pics here: http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?aBID=63528&p=3&topicID=14154961

I worry a little about Keegan's book. It is a monumental and all-encompassing work, and I suspect none of us could match its overall scope. However, when it comes to one or two particular areas in which we have some expertise it contains some major flaws. As I've mentioned before, his references to Tanks are full of mistakes, the worst being the claim that the Renault made its debut in April 1917. He also states that the Belgian Garde Civique outnumbered the regular army, which is equally untrue. These errrors are still in current reprints of the book, 12 years after the original publication.

So if we can find errors in matters that we know about, how many are there in areas that we don't? I much prefer Martin Gilbert's version.

 

Hello Kieffer

This is Belgium ! confusion is obligatory

Royal Decree of 19/09/1911 piping for carabineers " gros vert" on ............. gris fer/gris Belge trousers

Carl

Don't start me on the Garde Civique ! I once published an (700 pages long) inventory on it for the period 1830-1870