Wartime Nicknames - So thats where they got the name Bosch...?

Was bosch the make of a motorbike then in WW1, is that why the Germans were called the Bosch?

 

boche or bosche origin of an insult from Bill Casselman's The Wording Room

 

Interesting they should use that name then...

Got me thinking of other nicknames used during wartime, I'm not sure if there's another post that covers nicknames, I've had a look and can't find one.
Anyway I know that the name Kraut during WW2 comes from the dish sauerkraut, which is delicious may I add.
Limeys I have no idea..
And Tommys after Tommy Atkins for some reason, was that London rhyming slang for something else?

 

boche or bosche origin of an insult from Bill Casselman's The Wording Room


Ahh well found Wills, I was mid post while you snuck that in there, wow it really had some hate meaning then the word Bosch .

''The word was first used in the phrase tête de boche. The French philologist Albert Dauzat believed boche to be an abbreviation of caboche, playful French slang for ‘human head,’ very much like English comic synonyms for head such as ‘the old noodle,’ noggin, nut, numbskull.

One of the ways of saying ‘to be obstinate, to be pigheaded’ in French is avoir la caboche dure. The root of caboche in the old French province of Picardy is ultimately the Latin word caput ‘head.’ Our English word cabbage has the same origin, the compact head of leaves being a perfect ‘caboche.’'

So really in WW1 and WW2, with Kraut as a main contender in WW2 the Germans were always referred to as some form of cabbage..... ....

 

Kipling's Tommy Atkins

 

Thanks for that Wills and dbf, I knew the answers would be here somewhere. Apologies for re-posting a subject, but then it was last started in 2004, that's a whole new generation that has come about since then!
You guys are the ones who keep the interest and knowledge alive for the younger generation. Cheers ✌

 

Got me thinking of other nicknames used during wartime,
Limeys I have no idea..
And Tommys after Tommy Atkins for some reason, was that London rhyming slang for something else?

Limeys from lime juice used to prevent scurvy in Captain cooks days.
Tommy Atkins from Rudyard Kipling poem, I think although he may have got it from somewhere else?

 

Regimental -


Regimental nicknames and traditions of the British army




RAMC - Linseed Lancers - Poultice Wallopers!

 

Limeys from lime juice used to prevent scurvy in Captain cooks days.
Tommy Atkins from Rudyard Kipling poem, I think although he may have got it from somewhere else?


Lol excellent, limey is a pleasant nickname then, reminiscent of fond memories, thanks yanks..

 

Regimental -


Regimental nicknames and traditions of the British army


Thanks Wills,

What a fantastic book, and in a fantastic digital form too, never seen that before love it thanks! Excuse me while I have a read

Love the opening paragraph, I suppose it is romantic in many curious forms when you think about it:

 

Christian de La Maziere served with the French SS volunteers on the Eastern Front, and survived to write a horrifying memoir of his experience. Ophuls interviewed him for The Sorrow and the Pity and asked him what he and his French comrades called the Germans. De La Maziere immediately said, "Les Boches. I don't think there was a single Frenchman in the Charlemagne Division who ever called them anything else."

You can put a Frenchman in a foreign uniform, but he'll still be a Frenchman...

 

Tommy Atkins goes back a long way before Kipling ...

Tommy Atkins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Indeed it has there is a Pamphlet that mentions 'Tommy' which is 18th century. Will see later if I can find it again!

 

Going back to the original photo, which looks to be from the 1920s, Bosch were the predominant European magneto manufacturer prior to the Great War. Their products were fitted to most Continental and British aero engines, cars and motorcycles. Hostilities denied the Allies access to Bosch magnetos and this is what generally gave rise to large scale manufacture of magnetos in Great Britain - initially Thomson-Bennett (later BTH) and CAV which went on to become Lucas.

The British vehicle 'mags' retained the Bosch mounting systems and drive spindle heights and remained interchangable. Many European buyers specified Bosch electrics on British vehicles during the 1920s and 1930s.

 

In the First World War, many British soldiers called the Germans 'Alleyman' - from Allemagne, the French word for Germany.

 

Tommy Atkins goes back a long way before Kipling ...

Tommy Atkins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

though wikepedia quote this;

Richard Holmes, in the prologue to Tommy (2005), states that in:
"1815 a War Office publication showing how the Soldier's Pocket Book should be filled out gave as its example one Private Thomas Atkins, No. 6 Troop, 6th Dragoons. Atkins became a sergeant in the 1837 version, and was now able to sign his name rather than merely make his mark. ."

Michael Glover & LT-General Jonathon Riley (the last Colonel of the RWF) state on p67 of That Astonishing Infantry that,

"In October 1815, the Adjutant-General issued a General order whereby "each non-commissioned officer and Soldier of the Regular Army shall be provided with a book, calculated to shew the actual state of his accounts."In a specimen paybook provided, the name given was Private Thomas Atkins, a native of Oldiham, Hampshire,serving with no. 6 company 1st Batt. 23rd Regt. Foot". This order was issued by Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Calvert who had been commissioned into the Regiment (RWF) and went into captivity with them in Yorktown in 1781.

 

The first recorded use of “Tommy Atkins” to refer generically to soldiers dates to the mid-1700s, when a plantation owner in the Caribbean reported back on the performance of a group of soldiers assigned to him. By 1815 in common usage.



Early Canada Historical Narratives -- THE KING'S DUTY LIES HEAVY ON ME


Extract from above:

The most frequently committed crime was drunkenness. Called the solace of a soldier's life and the bane of his existence, alcohol was the "main parent of all crime in the army." Recruiting parties set up shop in taverns where luckless lads were besotted with ale until they passed out. When they "came around they discovered the King's shilling in their pockets," which indicated they had enlisted. The State offered every inducement for 'Tommy' to drink, then it deplored the drunkenness that resulted.

 

Ghurkas used to refer to the Germans as 'Dushmen'.

British troops in Italy referred to their enemy as 'Teds'.

Contrary to the link posted up earlier, I think the Canadians more commonly referred to the Germans as 'Jerry' and not Fritz/Kraut. You do see a lot of references to 'Jerry' in Canadian war diaries which, I have found, are written in a more casual style than many of the British ones.