Aces Up

by Covington Clarke

Ace	One who has brought down five enemy air craft.
Ack Emma	Air Mechanic. In military service certain letters are given distinguishing sounds, such as, A is Ack, D is Don, M, to distinguish it from N, becomes Emma.
Aileron	Moveable segments of planes, which, though of small surface, control the lateral balance.
Albatross	German combat plane.
Archie	Anti-aircraft artillery fire. Probably so called because of arc of the projectile’s flight.
Backwash	The wind wash caused by the propeller.
Barrel roll	A wing over acrobatic manoeuvre.
Black roses	Puffs of black smoke appearing suddenly as shell explodes high in the air.
Blighty	English slang for a wound. Generally applied to a wound serious enough to cause removal to England.
Blipped his motor	Raced; rapid advancement of throttle.
Blotto	To become unconscious.
Brass hat	A General Officer, commonly used by British soldiers.
Bucked	Encouraged, made confident.
Caisson	An ammunition wagon for mobile artillery.
Caudron	Early type of French plane. Slow and poor climber. Later used for instruction ship because of high factors of safety.
Ceiling	Sometimes designates highest point to which a certain ship will climb; again, the altitude of cloud banks or fog stratas obscuring ground vision.
Circus	Name applied to certain large air groups of the German army.
C.O.	Commanding Officer. Applied to any who command a unit.
Contour chasing	To fly low, following the contour of the ground and zooming over natural and artificial obstacles.
Crate	Derisively applied to any old, or badly worn plane, or to ship types not liked by the pilots.
Dawn patrols	Patrols going out for combat at dawn.
Dog-fighting	Wherein a number of planes engage in a free-for-all fight. Generally develops into an every-man-for-himself fight.
’Drome	Applied loosely to both hangars and landing fields. An air base.
E.A.	Enemy Aircraft.
Elephants	Semi-circular huts of steel, capable of being moved. So called, probably, because of color, and size.
Ferry pilot	A pilot used to fly ships from aviation pool or supply base up to active squadrons.
Finis la guerre	End of the war.
Flying pig	A large projectile from a type of mortar used by the Germans. Could be seen in flight and because of appearance and size were nicknamed “flying pigs.”
Fokker	German plane. Very fast, good climber.
G.H.Q.	Great Headquarters.
G 2	Intelligence Department of Great Headquarters. Great Headquarters was divided into several groups, designated, for convenience, by lettered numerals, such as G 1, G 2 and G 3, etc.
G.I. cans	A large shell. Because of size and usual coat of grey paint, soldiers declared they resembled the galvanized iron cans used for garbage. Hence, G.I. Can.
G.O.	General Order.
Hedge hopping	Another name for contour chasing. Flying dangerously low and zooming over obstacles.
High-tail	A plane, when at highest speed possible straight ahead, carries its tail high. To high-tail means to go at highest rate of speed.
Immelmann	A sudden turn, reversing the direction. First used by a German aviator, Immelmann, and later used by all air pilots.
Intelligence	That section of Great Headquarters devoted to the handling of all spies and the collection of information concerning the enemy. The activities of the department are too great to be outlined in a brief definition.
Liaison	Contact, communication with. When several units are operating in unison, each dependent upon the other, the contact and coordination is called liaison–a French word.
Limey	Nickname for a British soldier.
Looie	A Lieutenant.
Observation balloon	A captive balloon, of sausage shape, carrying an observer whose duty it is to spot artillery fire, etc. The balloon is paid out on a cable attached to a winch. Such balloons are always given protecting ground batteries to ward off enemy planes.
Observation bus	Generally a two seated plane, carrying pilot and observer. Slower than pursuit planes, but more heavily armed.
O.D.	Olive drab; color of uniform.
Old Man	Captain, Major or Colonel. Usually applied to commander of the Units.
Panels	White muslin, cut into various shapes, to designate positions of various headquarters, such as Regiment, Brigade, etc. When spread on the ground, pilots could see them and report positions. It was extremely difficult to get ground units to display them, since enemy planes, seeing them, could give location to their artillery.
P.C.	Post of Command. Applied to any headquarters company on up.
Poilu	French private soldier.
Prop	Propeller.
Pursuit pilot	Pilot of combat plane.
Put the wind up	To frighten; to cause to lose courage or morale.
Revving	To accelerate motor rapidly.
Ring sights	Type of sight designed to make it possible to get on a rapidly moving target. Much time was spent in training pilots in gunnery and proper understanding of ring sights.
R.F.C.	British Royal Flying Corps.
Saw bones	Army surgeon.
Sent west, Going west	To be killed, to die.
Side slipping	To slip off the wing.
Solo	First flight student pilot makes alone.
Spandau	German machine guns used on combat planes. Twin guns, frequently, with single control.
Stall	To climb so rapidly as to stall the motor, putting upon it a load heavier than it can continue to pull. If care is not taken to ease off, plane will go into a spin.
Tarmac	The line of departure on the field. Often applied to the entire field.
Toot sweet	Tout de suite–French phrase, adopted by Americans. Quickly, hurry up, at once.
Tri-plane	German planes, especially Fokker, had short fin-like projections under the usual planes, and while quite short, and not a true plane, gave the ship the name of tri-plane. Were quite fast, good climbers, and manoeuvred easily.
Upstairs	Generally applied to high altitude flights. Sometimes applied to any flight, regardless of altitude.
Very light pistol	A type of pistol used to fire a shell somewhat larger than a 12 gauge shotgun shell, and which contained luminous star signals, such as red stars, green stars, white stars, etc. The meaning of the signal depended upon the color and number of these floating stars.
Wash-out	To destroy, or badly damage a plane. Variously applied. Sometimes applied to planes obsoleted by the air service.
White roses	Allied anti-aircraft artillery used high-explosive, which showed white on bursting. Germans used black powder, which showed black.
Wind sock	A conical strip of cloth on a staff atop the hangars to give pilots wind direction.
Wipers	Nickname soldiers gave to Belgian town of Ypres.
Yaw off	To slip off desired direction due to lack of speed or wind resistance.
Zoom	To pull the nose up sharply and climb at an angle too great to be long sustained.

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