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Remembered Today:

Is it Whizz-bang or Whiz-bang?


armourersergeant

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Help!

A bit confused as to the correct term to be used.

I have four options that i seem to come across.

1) Whizz-Bang

2) Whiz-Bang

3) Whizz Bang

4) Whiz Bang

I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction as to the correct usage and spelling of this term. I have seen some contemporary material that shows it as No2. A modern example of bothNo3 and No4.

Seeing as it is the name of my local WFA newsletter I would like to get it right, especially as I am one months copy into it and have followed the lead of the previous editor in title!!

help appreciated.

regards

Arm

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Oh flipping heck!

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Zees Eengleesh! She ees ver' funnay lang-gwage innit?

Stereotypical Johnny Foreigner

(used for illustrative purposes only)

ps - recalls the nit-picking/nitpicking thread of a few weeks back :blink:

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Whizz-Bang is usually used when the projectile is fired from a long distance and has more travel-time, with Whiz-Bang used when fired closer by.

Regards,

Marco

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Whizz-Bang is usually used when the projectile is fired from a long distance and has more travel-time, with Whiz-Bang used when fired closer by.

Regards,

Marco

Marco,

Your taking the pee now aren't ya?

one less Z as it goes less distance!

confused

Arm

and none the wiser, come on you lot.

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Good to see some common sense on the Internet, Arm

Which must be rewarded.

Haythornthwaite, P.J. WORLD WAR ONE SOURCE BOOK. 1992, 412 pages, 26x20 cm., Brockhampton Press.

Has it as

"Whizz-bang: a light shell, from the noise of approach and detonation"

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Marco

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Cheers Marco,

I guess the answer to this one will be that depending on who wrote it, will depend on the way it has been written. You will find perhaps the correct way, the Tommy way and so on!

regards

Arm

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Why don't you write a letter to the editor of The Whizzbang?

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Why don't you write a letter to the editor of The Whizzbang?

He he

regards

Arm

Ps its Editor of the 'Whizz Bang' atleast at the moment. Space and no hyphen.

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The newspaper of the 320th US infantry, 80th Division was the "Whizz-Bang."

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As it's only a nickname (or should that be "nick-name"? :unsure: ) or slang, then surely it doesn't matter?

Dave.

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Was the original nickname linked to any particular weapon system- I always assumed that it was the 77mm field artillery round?

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Delta, you are right - the term was mainly used with reference to the HE shell of a standard German 77mm field gun and the characteristic noise the shell made as it passed through the air. However, as with much Great War slang I am sure it would invariably have been used to describe other shells and mortars too.

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John Brophy/Eric Partridge's "The Long Trail, Soldiers songs and slang 1914-18"

gives the following explanation:

WHIZZ-BANG :A light shell fired from one of the smaller field-artillery guns - the British 18-pounder, the French75(millimetres),the German77(millimetres). The term is onomatopoeic, and was applied to the explosion. Owing to the short range and low trajectory, whizz-bangs arrived as soon, if not sooner, than anyone heard them.

Hope this is of interest

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John Brophy/Eric Partridge's "The Long Trail, Soldiers songs and slang 1914-18"

gives the following explanation:

WHIZZ-BANG :A light shell fired from one of the smaller field-artillery guns - the British 18-pounder, the French75(millimetres),the German77(millimetres). The term is onomatopoeic, and was applied to the explosion. Owing to the short range and low trajectory, whizz-bangs arrived as soon, if not sooner, than anyone heard them.

Hope this is of interest

I've just packed my "Long Trail" away and was about to write the same.

It also mentioned: see Pip Squeak. :blink: (Do you have the book too Giles? :D )

Pip Squeak: sometimes, gas shell (spellt gas-shell). Loosely, whizz-bang. Properly, shell from small trench gun (German).

Tony

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  • 3 weeks later...

From 'Lecture on Intelligence work in a Division' 1917

post-671-1133920818.jpg

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The online OED has it as whizz-bang but helpfully adds Also whiz-bang, without hyphen, and as two words. If I were you, Arm, I'd stick a hyphen in. Stick it in. Go on, stick it in. Show a bit of aggression. You 'orrible little man. It's you or him. STICK IT IN. LUNGE. NOW TWIST AND PULL...

Oo-er, bayonet practice flashback. Nurse! Think I need another dose!

Gary

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