Episode 2: The Wipers Times

Reading List

 

WWI Glossary

Bully – British canned corned beef. “Bully” is believed to be a corruption of the French bouillie meaning “boiled”, and due to the image of bulls depicted on the tin cans.

Cold Meat Ticket - Identity disc. Soldiers were issued two identity discs. In the event of death, one disc was taken from the body (the cold meat) and one remained.

Minnie - short for "Minenwerfer" (German for "mine launcher"), a class of short range mortars

No Man's Land - the area between the trenches of opposing forces

Sherwood Foresters - line infantry regiment of the British Army

Tommy- British soldier. Derived from Tommy Atkins, which, much like John Doe in the U.S., was a name on sample forms to represent a a typical British army private soldier.

Whizz-Bang - A high-velocity shell. Derived from the noise of the rapid flight and the explosion of a German 77mm shell.

Wipers – British soldiers' nickname for the city of Ypres, Belgium (“EE-pruh”)