The old RAF telephone system (before the demise of local operators) was often highly amusing... You could be connected to Bawtry or Bawdsey when you wanted Brawdy, or Llanbedr instead of Lampeter.....
In the good old days at RAF Brawdy (1975-6), the phones didn't even have dials. You just picked up the phone and some aged Druid connected you to the appropriate extension. If said Druid didn't answer quickly and you rattled the cradle, an aggrieved voice would suddenly ask "Are you flashin'?" - it seems that this was the way to signal an emergency!
Cross-country calls involved a series of progressively fainter old biddies chatting to eachother ("Central...click, click, Rothwell Haigh please, dear...click, click...Machrihanish please....click, click...."Hullooo, RAF Machrihanish here...."), interspersed with the occasional screech of "ARE YOU WORKING??!!" if you dared to pause for thought in mid-call!
A mate using this system once got annoyed when it seemingly went dead "Ah f*ck it, the bastard telephone's gone t*ts up. Bolleaux!" he muttered to no-one in particular, only to be chastised by some vexed harpy who retorted "There's no call for language like that, young man, I'm trying to connect you!".
The 'Dial-a-mate' system worked fine in the 80s and 90s. But getting rid of station operators in favour of failed burger-flippers at call centres proved a total disaster.
Thank heavens for cellphones!