Stephen Nulty Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Pals I have a telegram in a service record, extract shown below. It would appear to me that AAA is "Anti-Aircraft Artillery" - would you concur? I ask because I didn't think this term was used until the Second World War. The man in question served with the Inland Waterway Section of RE. If this was AAA and accidental, does that perhaps mean some debris fell from the sky and hit him? Grateful for any comments/observations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heid the Ba Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Does "AAA" not represent a break between sentences? My morse code is sub-optimal but I think I remember that. *goes and puts kettle on while awaiting correction* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 AAA = Full stop (UK)/Period (US) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Nulty Posted 21 May , 2008 Author Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Cheeps, chaps. Makes more sense, I suppose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Given that full stops are used in various places in the written text it would seem more likely that AAA means something other than ack ack ack (full stop) in this instance. It would be unlikely that the wound would be caused by falling AA debris (unless the battery was firing at 90 degrees, straight up, which is unlikely). Casualties from AA fragments were usually caused down range from the gun. One possibility could be a premature detonation of the shell on leaving the muzzle which did sometime happen. However accident can cover a wealth of possibilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 No, I don't think so. AAA is standard telegram-ese for a full stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 No, I don't think so. AAA is standard telegram-ese for a full stop. Yes but when the operator writes down the message he puts it as a full stop. There are 3 instances of a written full stop in the telegram so why would he write AAA in one instance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Morse code Punctuation marks: Point (.) .-.-.- (AAA) Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Morse code Punctuation marks: Point (.) .-.-.- (AAA) Still doesn't answer my point (no pun intended) whereas AAA (or triple A) was indeed a genuine official short form of Anti Aircraft Artillery (later shortened to the more familiar AA) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollydot Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 The other three instances of the full stop are for abbreviation purposes and probably weren't in original message, just good grammar. The AAA would be a break in content. Maybe??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Seems odd that the operator would bother to write in the other stops for the sake of good grammer but write the literal morse for the other instance. Since the telegram was to a civilian it would be meaningless to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Nulty Posted 21 May , 2008 Author Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Well, I think I'll go for the full stop option, not least because the other telegram (shown below) which requests that the relatives be informed of Sapper Green's wounds makes no reference to AAA, so clearly the sender/author of the above telegram could not have known the reason for the wounds. Perhaps I should have spotted this before asking Thanks for your help, chaps, an interesting discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crunchy Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 I'm sorry Centurion but the others are correct. AAA used to mean full stop in military messages. When sending morse it was quicker to tap out AAA rather than FULL STOP. The message in the first post appears to be part of the old military message pad which had ruled spaces for each word and was written out for telegraphic transmission. At the other end the Post Office Telegram would translate the AAA to . Cheers Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doogal Posted 21 May , 2008 Share Posted 21 May , 2008 Hi, see the copies of telegraph/messages sent back by the 2nd West Riding Regiment from Fampoux/Rouex in April 1917. AAA in use as full stop. hope it helps. Also, I couldn't resist putting them on here, as they are an incredible set of messages. The page here is from the 11th April, but they start on the 9th April. sorry about the size ...if the original was this big, then I don't think they'd need to telegraph it. Just wave it and it would be seen as far back as Arras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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