Crabs

[NoSurrender]

Why are RAF types refered to as crabs?

[spekesoftly]

Derogatory term used by the Royal Navy when referring to the RAF. The blue RAF uniform is similar in colour to the grease (known as 'crabfat') used on Navy gun breeches. The grease was so called because it in turn resembled the colour of the ointment used to treat sailors for 'crabs' (genital lice!).

[BEagle]

But why are army types called 'pongos'?

The best anti-RAF nickname I heard was from someone on this site who told of some utter ar$e RAF officer who was on an exchange with the Army Air Corps. Where he earned the nickname 'Lobster'; he thought that this was because he was rather a 'superior crab'. Whereas in fact it was merely because, like a lobster he had a thick shell and had his bowels in his head!

[dwaynedibley]

Please allow me.
Apparently "Where ever the Army goes the pong goes with them". Hence the term Pongo's.
I think it originates from the Royal Marines but I could be wrong.

Incedently why do they call them booties ?
:confused:

[edited because it was early in the morning]

[ 11 October 2001: Message edited by: dwaynedibley ]

[ShyTorque]

I was told that onboard carriers, RAF "crab" pilots walked sideways on ship because they hadn't got their sea legs unlike their fishead colleagues.

Genital lice puts a different meaning on the word "carrier"!

:D

[Herod]

Simple really. The reason RAF types walk sideways on naval ships is that having a solid surface behind you is the only safe way to be. Didn't Churchill say the Royal Navy ran on "rum, sodomy and the lash"?

[spekesoftly]

Continuing the uniform colour theory....
During WW2, another 'affectionate' name used by the RAF, when referring to Army personnel, was "brown jobs". I'll let you decide!

[ShyTorque]

That can't be true these days, Herod.

I understand the lash is no longer used and the rum ration was taken away some years ago and...

:eek:

AHA! That'll be it. RAF types walk sideways onboard ship so they can keep their backs to the bulkhead! :D

ShyT

[ 11 October 2001: Message edited by: ShyTorque ]

[gravity victim]

ShyTorque,

You have stumbled on an old but serviceable joke:

Matelot (visiting MO with unpleasant condition):
"Doc, I think I've got Hermes."
MO: "I think that you mean herpes, don't you?"
Matelot: "No, I'm a carrier."

BOOM BOOM :D

[1.3VStall]

Back in the 1970s there was a flight safety poster around which purported to show all those everyday items that were deemed to be dangerous and therefore forbidden to be carried as a pax on Her Majesty's aircraft. This poster was primarily aimed at brown jobs whose luggage apparently routinely contains matches, cigarette lighters, hexamine blocks, methylated spirit, hand grenades etc, etc.

The wonderful RAF movers had, in their wisdom, decided that aerosol deodorants should be placed on this dangerous items list. (Quite why I have never worked out as in over 30 years of flying as a pax not once has an aerosol deodorant exploded in my luggage).

The poster had a photograph of all these dangerous items, but with "sanitised" brand names. It has always amused me that the aerosol deodorant sported the name "Pong-Go".

[Flatus Veteranus]

Herod, I think WC was more forthright. "Rum, Bum and the Lash" were his words. I believe the pejorative USAF expression for all who are clothed in brown and stamp around in boots is "Grunt", which is far more graphic than "pongo" or "brown job". :D

[Vortex_Generator]

Grunt being a Government Reject Unfit for Normal Training.

[Master baiter]

Gentlemen

Royal Airforce types are so called because of the SAC rank. Sideways Ambling Creatures I believe!!


;)

[KentBrockman]

Ah Master methinks its a bit chicken and egg. Has not the SAC been made into sideways ambling creature because of the nickname CRAB and not the other way round. Otherwise the RAF would simply be known as TW*TS :p

[John Eacott]

Churchill's reference varies with the telling, but I was often reminded the Andrew existed for "Rum, bum & gramophone records".

Anyone heard the expression, and anyone know why the reference to gramophone records? (I remember they're those flat black bits of bakelite that you rotated and dragged a needle over to make a noise similar to a worn CD.... ;) )

[ShyTorque]

Mr Brockman,

Nice to see the fishead subtle wit is still as good as it always was....

Keep it up chaps (pardon the Navy pun). They are beginning to bite.

ShyT

[fobotcso]

ShyT, who's biting? It's all been done before, y'know.

Rum, bum and gramo...? Google found these two sites (amongst others) and these quotes from them.

http://hubris.engin.umich.edu:8080/Beer/Threads/HBD/2 000/3458 (http://hubris.engin.umich.edu:8080/Beer/Threads/HBD/2000/3458)

"In my early years I spent quite some time in the bush and having been used to a city life of wine ,women and song, I was shocked to find there was nothing out there but rum, bum and gramophone records."

http://www.colinp.telinco.co.uk/who.htm

"For some unknown reason I then joined the Lighthouse Service, as a lighthouse keeper. (No Navy type jokes please: They don't have wine, women and song; they have rum, bum and gramophone records)."

[ 12 October 2001: Message edited by: fobotcso ]

[Roy Alflyt]

Apparently sugar is a good cure for Crabs, it won't kill them but it will rot the b***ards teeth!

[T_richard]

If I remember my US history, US Marines got the nick name "Leathernecks" because of the leather thoat pieces they wore to protect them from sabre cuts. Is my recollection correct?

[BarryMonday]

Back in the sixties I served with a large contingent of RN folk, the younger ones said, "Rum, Bum and Gramaphone Records", but the older ones amongst them, some with WW2 medals, said the correct expression which had been in the Navy for years and years was,
"Rum, Bum and Baccy", ('baccy' being tobacco), any really old ex RN types out there who can comment?

[Mac the Knife]

"The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash." (or words to that effect)

The comment was in fact made by Churchill's assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne, not Churchill himself.

[Dan Winterland]

Or 'Rum, Bum and the Cat'. The 'Cat' being the Cat o' nine tails.

[[email protected]]

So to recap then, rum is a constant throughout the variations on the theme; baccy, the lash and gramophone records all appear depending on where you heard the quote, but the one the RN don't seem to have a problem with is the bum (sodomy for the officer types). Apparently it doesn't count after 3 days at sea and you're not queer if you don't push back! And the WAFUs have the cheek to take the p*ss out of the crabs!!
BTW I believe the requirement for uniforms for the newly formed RAF coincided with a cancelled order for uniforms for the Russian Army (due to the 1917 revolution) and the material found it's way to MOD tailors. The colour was 'crab blue' and we have been using it ever since.

[jungly]

Crabbo - spot on!
The colour of the RAF uniform (grey/blue) has nothing to do with the sky etc.
Post WW1 and the formation of the RAF as a seperate service the 1st crab blanket-stackers were sent in search of material for the new uniform. They came upon a shed load of pre-russian revolution material going for a billy-bargin.....and the rest as they say is history.
The fact that the colour is was the same as RN crab-fat leads to the nickname 'crabs'. To this day the blanket-stackers are still buying 2nd hand crap kit ; that must therefore be the 1st tradition of the RAF?
(Although with the fine physique of most crabs it'd be hard to look smart in anything.)

Rgds & best wishes to ALL in the great sandpit! (Esp the junglies & booties - Fear God Honour the King!)

[Training Risky]

I heard somewhere that if you boil a crab in a saucepan, its belly turns the same colour as the uniform, hence: crabs

true or not?...

[Spur Lash]

BarryMonday

When you are at sea it's 'Rum, Bum and Baccy', and when ashore it's, 'Wine, Women and Song'.

Allegedly.

SL

Duh, I forgot to mention, going back to the 2001 post, that the ointment used to treat pubic lice (AKA crabs), was called Blue Unction. The colour of this paste was not dissimilar to the RAF uniform colour. Hence it was also known as 'Crab Fat'.

Singapore, in the 50's and 60's, apparently.

[Naafi VanDriver]

Why have the RAF got a problem with Jack, afterall they were spawned from them. Why else would you 'board' an aircraft? Why is the guy in charge a 'Captain'? Everyone on 'board' is known as 'crew'. On Nimrod you go to the 'Galley' for your 10th do-nut and tea. And the home of the RAF, Cranwell was previosly an RNAS. So Crabs go back to your roots, call yourself Jack, cos you probably are!
;)

[Always_broken_in_wilts]

NVD,
As a quick aside why is it, whilst in shallow water where there are lots of underwater obstacles to hit, the most important man "on board" is in fact a pilot:cool:

Could do with a few more "pilots" in the southern hemisphere apparently:p

all spelling mistakes are "df" alcohol induced

[ORAC]

crab@SAAvn, Jungly, Almost, but not quite.

At the beginning of the First World War, a company called Garstang in Lancashire received an order from Imperial Russia for one million yards of grey woollen cloth for Russian Army uniforms. Unfortunately, by the time it was woven, dyed grey and ready for shipment, Tsarist Russia was no more and so the cloth was left to moulder in a warehouse.

Towards the end of the war, the RAF's founding fathers picked the colour sky-blue for the uniform of the new Service, and put out an invitation to tender for a huge amount of sky-blue cloth. Garstang, which already had a million yards from the Tsarist order, came in with the lowest price and was awarded the contract. However, when they tried to dye the grey material sky-blue, it came out as a dirty blue-grey colour, which was nevertheless accepted and made into RAF uniforms. (waste not, want not - there was a war on). It was introduced in 1919.

And, yes, the colour was identical to crab-fat jelly, the ointment used to treat "crabs", so the RAF became known as crabs.

"Fly Navy, sail Army, walk sideways".

Interim ranks and uniform 1918 - 1919 (http://www.rafweb.org/ranks2.htm)
Initial uniform and final ranks 1919 (http://www.rafweb.org/ranks3.htm)
Final uniform and ranks 1919 - Current (http://www.rafweb.org/ranks1.htm) - Reeve, Banneret and Fourth-Ardian. :D