Golf, George, Gravy or what????

[iwalkedaway]

I apologise for intruding upon this wonderful Military forum, but I hope there might be some veteran readers who can throw light on the following.

Can anyone help? I am writing something about an aircraft built in 1937-38, but how would its identifying registration have been spoken using the phonetic alphabet of the period? If, for example, its registration was 'G-ABGG' would it then have been ID'd as:

'Golf - Alpha - Golf - Golf'?

Or would it perhaps have been uttered:

'George - Alpha - George - George'?

Or wot???? The reason I ask is that it appears the original WW1-era phoentic alphabet used 'Gallipoli' for 'G' - and the NATO alphabet using 'Golf' was not current until 1951. Yet we hear so much of wartime 'G-for-George'.

I have also placed this conundrum on the PPrune Historic Forum. As I say, sorry to take up some of your electrons here, but can anyone definitively put me right????

[ACW599]

Any advance on George Able Baker George George?

[aviate1138]

G-ABGG


G-INFO Record Number: 1 of 1
Search Again
Registration: G-ABGG Current Reg. Date:
Previous ID: First Reg. Date:
Status: De-registered De-Reg. Date:
Reason: To:
Manufacturer: AV ROE AND CO LTD
Type: AVRO 621 TUTOR
Serial No.: 476
ICAO 24 bit aircraft address: (hex):
Popular Name: TUTOR
Generic Name: -
Aircraft Class: FIXED-WING LANDPLANE


http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn77/aviate1138/Picture23.jpg

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn77/aviate1138/Picture24.jpg

[taxydual]

Aviate

Spot on.

BZ.

:D

[Gainesy]

I'd suggest that very few civilian aircraft in that era would have RT (voice) and those that were wireless-equipped would use WT (morse).

Or hand signals.

[Sven Sixtoo]

So the survivors to modern times are Charlie Mike Victor and X-ray.

And the Zulus have killed off the Zebras.

And Whiskey has been approved by ICAO:ok:

[buoy15]

"Broadsword calling Danny Boy - Broadsword calling Danny Boy";)

[rvusa]

In the interests of historical accuracy, I seem to recall that in the 1943-1956 list in post #3, certainly at the 1956 end, we used NAN rather than the examples shown. Or maybe it's another brain failure? :confused:

[dallas]

So, based on Aviate's post, it was Edward Company in Band of Brothers - sounds more like a detachment of adminners to me...

[effortless]

Hoo no, easy was always spam talk. They just took a little while to catch up. I heard that it was a film unit that started te e - easy thing and that the GI liked it and adopted it but that could just be spitefull spam bashing.:}

[Yeller_Gait]

So

Queen Fox Easy was not a myth?

Y_G

[GreenKnight121]

Easy company was an American unit... we used slightly different words than you Brits.

[Blues&twos]

"Interrogatory".

Who the hell came up with that?

[BEagle]

It sounds like an Americanisation wordwise.....:suspect:

[iwalkedaway]

Fantastic! Thank you so much. Don't take 'G-ABGG' literally - the actual reg no of our late associate's aircraft simply included those particular letters. We're talking about 1938 so such an ID (if theTudor had existed then) would have been - according to Aviate's wonderful listing 1924-1942:

'George-Ace-Beer-George-George' - Right?

[phil gollin]

aviate1138

I have N = "Nan" for 1945 (from "Signal, A History of Signalling in the Royal Navy")

[aviate1138]

" We're talking about 1938 so such an ID (if theTudor had existed then) would have been - according to Aviate's wonderful listing 1924-1942:

'George-Ace-Beer-George-George' - Right?"

The pedant in me points out.....

Avro Tutor not Tudor - Right? :)


http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn77/aviate1138/Picture25.jpg

P.S. It's airworthy - still, I hope.

[denis555]

The excellent Dambusters site http://www.thedambusters.org.uk/index.html
refers to P-Popsie and L- Leather and lots of other 'unofficial' phonetic code names so I guess there was some variations even at the height of WW2.

[GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU]

I'm not sure how well the BBC researched this but, for what it's worth:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A8245910



The one used by the Royal Air Force during WWII and which is used in war films especially those based in the era, was as follows:

A - Apple
J - Johnny (or Jug)
S - Sugar
B - Beer
K - King
T - Tommy
C - Charlie
L - Love
U - Uncle
D - Dog
M - Mother
V - Vic (or Victor)
E - Edward
N - Nuts
W - William
F - Freddy
O - Orange
X - X-Ray
G - George
P - Peter
Y - Yorker (sometimes Yoke)
H - Harry
Q - Queen
Z - Zebra
I - Ink (or Indigo)
R - Roger (or Robert)

[teeteringhead]

One can certainly remember when one was a baby pilot, aged controllers still speaking about Queenie Nan How ..... although 'twas already out-of-date then.

[Tricorn]

Sorry, GBZ - couldn't resist soring.........

A - Apple
B - Beer
C - Charlie
D - Dog
E - Edward
F - Freddy
G - George
H - Harry
I - Ink (or Indigo)
J - Johnny (or Jug)
K - King
L - Love
M - Mother
N - Nuts
O - Orange
P - Peter
Q - Queen
R - Roger (or Robert)
S - Sugar
T - Tommy
U - Uncle
V - Vic (or Victor)
W - William
X - X-Ray
Y - Yorker (sometimes Yoke)
Z - Zebra

[Gainesy]

Tsk,Tsk.
Now Jerry will be able to break our code, damn it.

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!]

Spot on.
I beg to differ. I've seen enough films and read enough books to know it was P for Popsie :*








"Allo Deutschland. Here ist der nadle" :cool:

[buoy15]

"Broadsword calling Danny Boy, you are weak, barely readable, with lots of interference, can you change thread, over":bored: