I always refer to Ulu as the middle of nowhere or some great expanse, out in the Ulu.

Originally Posted by mistersoft

Originally Posted by ex_colonial

Originally Posted by AlienFTM

Originally Posted by EX_STAB

Ulu dates from the Malaya Campaign. Means Jungle or just generally country in Malay.

Gat comes from hte popular low powered air pistol of the same name.

Not forgetting bundook, (variously bondook etc) from the Swahili Bunduki, itself derived from Urdu I am told, presumably via Indian traders in days of Empire

When I found a definition for ulu it told me Sumatran for up the river. Same basic idea.

Not forgetting "shufti" from arabic to look or see!

And 'Dekko' from the Hindi 'dekh' or to look.

And "IMSHI" from arabic go away, or less politely f..k off!

Originally Posted by ex_colonial

And "IMSHI" from arabic go away, or less politely f..k off!

...and do it jeldi!

If you want to be all about on 1950s/60s naval slang, go to http://www.navy-net.co.uk/wiki2/inde...:A_Sea_Grammar

Originally Posted by sneeky_turd

no duff

From the early days of wireless communication in the army. One of the few electronic (Support? it's been a lifetime) measures available was to direction find a transmitting station, or DF, or Duff it (as in Huff Duff = HFDF - High Frequency Direction finding).

If on exercise a situation occurred that was outside the scope of the exercise, any message which was not to be DFed for exercise purposes was prefixed Noduff.

Took priority over even Fire Missions and Contact Reports and the net would quiesce unbidden because everybody knew that next Noduff might be for their own assistance.

Prior to Spearpoint / Crusader 80, 3 Armd Div (umpires) deployed a week early on Javelin, a TEWT to practise umpiring techniques, callsign nomenclature and using the brand-new all-singing, all-dancing Clansman radio systems.

CO 15/19H had a busier-that usual workload on Javelin / Spearpoint because he had at least nominal control over umpiring the whole of Task Force Hotel. He found a novel way to reduce his workload. He spent a lot of time out in his rover and he got a rebro Ferret to lead him everywhere he went, so that all his driver had to do was follow the Ferret while its commander (that would be me) did the map-reading.

One phase of Spearpoint featured 2 US Armored Division (Hell On Wheels) reinforcing AFCENT by Op Reforger, parachuting into the battlefield in divisional strength. This was rehearsed on Javelin. CO 15/19H decided to bimble over to the scene and I led him. We took up the position he planned to use when it happened for real a week later and everybody ran through their pinks.

Then a colonel somewhere came up with a Noduff message that a helicopter had crashed at grid square 1234 and all assistance was needed immediately. It all kicked off, pinks were thrown out of the window and the sh!t hit the fan.

We had somebody up around Corps Commander on the net and he took control. Everybody who could swarmed to the scene. Finding no wreckage, the Corps Commander asked for a repeat of the grid square. Same location. Spearpoint covered a huge area so the boss asked the colonel so give the grid square including letters in case we were all looking 100km in the wrong area. No change.

(One thing to come out of Spearpoint was that they realised that the increased channel availability of Clansman over Larkspur did not compensate for its increased range and that when the whole 1 (Br) Corps deployed it was necessary to reissue frequencies to multiple units so that every one had enough for at least a command net and an alternate frequency, but the physical distance between these units was not always sufficient to prevent units cluttering up one-another's nets.)

After an hour, the corps Commander was losing his rag and he started to tear into this colonel and threatened him, on the air, with all sorts of dire consequences if he didn't pull his finger out.

"Did you actually physically see this helicopter crash."

"Well no, not physically."

"Well then why has my whole exercise ground to a fecking halt then? Why did you send a Noduff message telling me that a helicopter had crashed?"

"Because the pink says I must send a Noduff message that a helicopter has crashed in grid square 1234."

In future, Noduff messages on pinks where to be prefixed "Exercise".

Not forgetting bundook, (variously bondook etc) from the Swahili Bunduki, itself derived from Urdu I am told, presumably via Indian traders in days of Empire

I take it that this is where the word "boondock" or "boonies" comes from then.

Originally Posted by Joker62

Not forgetting bundook, (variously bondook etc) from the Swahili Bunduki, itself derived from Urdu I am told, presumably via Indian traders in days of Empire

I take it that this is where the word "boondock" or "boonies" comes from then.

Not really because bunduki means rifle.

Found this on boondocks but wouldn't be sure it is authoritative...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boondocks

One that I only ever heard in 15/19H was Jirga (I only found out how to spell it a year or two back when the Pakistani Government held one, it got coverage on Sky and there was a banner proclaiming it in the background).

I figured it came from India (as it was when our regiments were out there) and to us it meant what most units would call a smoker or a campfire and p!ss-up in a clearing at EndEX or at the weekend.

The true meaning is rather more prosaic:

A jirga (occasionally jirgah) (Pashto: جرګه) is a tribal assembly of elders which takes decisions by consensus, particularly among the Pashtun people but also in other ethnic groups near them; they are most common in Afghanistan and among the Pashtuns in Pakistan near its border with Afghanistan and are even held by Pashtuns in Kashmir valley, India.[1] It is similar to that of a town meeting in the United States or a regional assembly in England, where important regional matters are addressed among the people of the area.

Anyone know where 'harry Boomers' comes from?

Originally Posted by devilish

I always refer to Ulu as the middle of nowhere or some great expanse, out in the Ulu.

Correct, the word Utan means "the source of", the Malayan for jungle is Hutan