A Biggles Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
- Air Commode
- Air Commodore
- Ammonal
- A very powerful explosive, used in Mills Bombs.
- AOC
- Air Officer Commanding
- Archie
- The old Royal Flying Corps expression for anti-aircraft gun-fire. In World War II it became "flak".
B
- Blipping
- The art of opening the throttle of a rotary engine in short, sharp bursts to keep it "alive".
- Blood Wagon
- Ambulance
- Bomb Toggle
- The bombe release handle
- Bowden Lever
- The machine guns of certain aeroplanes were fired by depressing this lever on the joystick.
- Brass Hats
- A comon expression meaning staff officers, no doubt originating from the gold device on the peaks of their caps-often referred to as "bananas".
- Browned off
- Bored
- Buckingham
- A type of incendiary bullet, calculated to set fire to anything it hit. They were used chiefly in WW1 against lighter-than-air aircraft in order to set fire to the hydrogen gas with which these are inflated.
- Buttoned up
- Finished. Finally Concluded.
C
- Circus
- Formations of enemy aeroplanes wre commonly called circuses; often they were known by the name of the leader: thus "Richtofen's Circus".
- Cooper Bombs
- Special bombs weighing around 25 pounds often carried by single-seat fighters under the wings, four each side.
- Crumper
- A bad crash
D
- Dead-stick Landing
- Landing with the engine stopped and the propellor not revolving. Practised often by Biggles and the team when there are problems with their aeroplane.
- Double Frontiers
- In order to prevent prisoners of war from escaping, the Germans in many places arranged artificial or false frontiers in order to lead escaping officers to believe that they had entered another country.
F
- Fanning (Down)
- An RFC expression for blowing up with bombs. Things were fanned down, not blown up.
- Ferry Pilot
- Pilots who, during the first world war, ferried aeroplanes across the channel. Used disparagingly by Algy in Biggles & Co.
- Flaming Onions
- Missiles used by the Germans against aeroplanes in WW1. The weapons that fired them remained a mystery until the end of the war. They appeared in a series of glowing balls of fire that rose vertically from the ground.
- Flap
- Excitement, Something doing
- Flying Wires
- Broadly speaking, the wings of biplanes were braced with two sorts of wires: flying wires and landing wires. Flying wires hold the wings in position in the air. Landing wires hold the wings in position on the ground.
- Freeze to the Stick
- To be petrified with fear
G
- Gen
- Information
- Ginning up
- To gin up - to take hard liquor
J
- Jinked
- To jink - to turn sharply
P
- Perim.
- The perimiter track, tarmac or concrete, that runs around the boundary of an airfield.
- Prang
- To destroy, or damage
R
- Rocking Wings
- The signal usually employed (before radio) by the leader of a formation to indicate that enemy were in sight of that he was going to attack.
- Ropey
- Not good, doubtful. Unpleasant
S
- Sausage
- Kite balloons were sometimes called "sausages".
- Scrambled Eggs
- Gold braid or oak leaves on the peak of the Services caps of Group Captains and above. Hence also brass-hat.
- Shoot (artillery)
- A machine spotting for artillery was said to be doing a "shoot".
- Sidcot (Suit)
- A thick, padding overall garment worn by pilots.
- Slice of Cake
- It's easy, an easy operation
- Smudge Fire
- A small fire usually kept alight on aerodromes to show the direction of the wind.
- Spandaus
- Many German machine-guns wand bullets were made at Spandau, Germany. For this reason, German machine-guns were often referred to as spandaus.
W
- Wimpey
- Term of affection (perhaps) for the Wellington Bomber.
- Woodle
- To torture someone by placing a rope around their forehead and tighten it, tourniquet style, using a block of wood. Introduced in Biggles Flies West as all the rage amongst the pirates of the caribbean (the real ones, not the Disney ride).
Z
- Zero
- A type of Japanese fighter. Also Biggles apparent success rate with women.