Golf, George, Gravy or what????
Golf, George, Gravy or what????
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????
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????
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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
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
Last edited by aviate1138; 21st Jun 2008 at 15:09. Reason: added data
Yes, Him
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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.
Or hand signals.
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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
And the Zulus have killed off the Zebras.
And Whiskey has been approved by ICAO
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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? 
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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.
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?
'George-Ace-Beer-George-George' - Right?
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" 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?
P.S. It's airworthy - still, I hope.
'George-Ace-Beer-George-George' - Right?"
The pedant in me points out.....
Avro Tutor not Tudor - Right?
P.S. It's airworthy - still, I hope.
Last edited by aviate1138; 23rd Jun 2008 at 06:57. Reason: Add PS
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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.
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.
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I'm not sure how well the BBC researched this but, for what it's worth:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A8245910
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)
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)
Gentleman Aviator
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.