A few years ago, in conversation with my Grandmother, she expressed the belief that no soldier (except possibly those nasty Germans and Japanese) swore during the war. I was reminded of it earlier and thought 'I know, I will get some help in proving it wrong', I have no doubt that British soldiers used the old traditional words such as **** and ****, perhapse even the odd *******! But what about the rest of the nations? How did soldiers in WW2 express sentiments that can only be reached by swearing?
Well, Stefan, I have read many manuscripts in which the soldiers used strong "expressive" language. I will not repeat it here, but those 18, 19 and 20 year olds back then were not that much different that the 18, 19 and 20 year olds today when under fire... However, I feel that expressions like that didn't usually find their way into publications as the moral factor to do so was different now than it wa in the past. I mean, nowadays we can expect to find strong language in books about (recent) wars. 'Back in the day' I am sure the "expressive edge" was left out...For example, I have several Dutch accounts of the war in May 1940 and of Dutchmen in Allied service and they sometimes used strong language, but I sincerely doubt the words put down in those accounts are authentic. I don't think that while under an heavy art. barrage you would exclaim "Gosh, by golley, the Germans really let us have it today!" At the same time I also think that the use of expressive language has increased over the years... [ 23. October 2003, 04:49 AM: Message edited by: Stevin Oudshoorn ]
I guess this goes for the same category as in the films nobody ever goes to the toilet...( these days they have started to do that though. More realism... ). At least the Finnish soldiers swore and I´m afraid a lot...but then again we do have some great swear words to use!
Kai, I was taught this in my scenario-writing class: Going to the toilet is usually not functional in a movie. Every scene must tell a story in itself and a visit to the toilet usually doesn't add to the story as a whole....except in Pulp Fiction. It is a well known fact that the first words you learn in a foreign country are usually these kind of words. Forget these words, what should I say to Jari when I meet him, Kai?
Stefan, your grandmom was slightly naive, wasn't she? However there is probably a grain of truth, as at least the well-behaved English officers probably swore less than the ther nations. At least this is the impression Paul Carell wants to give in his North Africa book "Der Wüstenfuchs".
Ha haa, I could make something "evil" out of this but I guess I´m too soft to be bad...! Naturally you can say something polite like "You´re the best!" "Sinä olet paras!" Or if you prefer the usual swear word in Finnish "Perkele!" = sorta "Damn it!" Or the previously mentioned war cry " Tulta munille!" which is the same as "Fire at the balls!", this is a legendary saying from a Finnish war film the "Unknown soldier"...
I was reading Band of Brothers and one of the paratroopers said that they swore all the time f%*k this and f%*k that as it made them feel hard and like men, as many of these 18-19 year old soldiers hadn't seen anything but their small town or farm. Phil
i read the same book as phil and it said something to this affect: Obviously "SOB" was used a lot, and Easy comopany often referred to Sobel's pickiness as "chickensh**" if that answers your question...haha
Definitely true of the British Army as my Dad will attest. I read in a ( serious ) memoir recently ( please don't ask which one - I've forgotten ! ) the writer describing an armourer Sergeant losing his temper with an offending broken piece of equipment, throwing it down and exclaiming ; - 'F*** the f***ing f***er ! It's f***ed !!' Not even the current British Government can out-do that one....
I know also that 'Blood and Guts' Patton loved to use F*** pretty much as a descriptive, joining and just downright normal word!!! Joe Stalin also loved to use it when referring to the Germans!!!
i just looked it up. i really dont think there's a different pronunciation for it, but it is spelled сущ. i dont know russian so just ignore me...
I can read a (very little) bit of Russian, looks like it should be pronounced something like s-oo-shch, but I'm buggered if I know what it translates as.
thanks for the translation greenjacket. great! another word to yell in public without being ridiculed (unless of course you are in moscow)
I always liked the Serbian curse 'ybem te desu', literally 'f**k your soul'. Actually I always rather liked the (true) story about the British infantry officer in WW1 who was billetted in a chateau, one of his fellow officers came into his room wearing only a towel and said 'I say old chap, would you mind if I got changed in here, the blighters are shelling the bathroom'. Something that occured to me a short while ago is that actually, the way we look at swear words has changed, these days s**t is not really seen as swearing, or not seriously anyhow, where as 100 years ago 'damn' or even 'blast' were not words to repeat in polite society. The way I see it, it is entirley possible that language used by soldiers etc was not particularly foul by my standards simply because I am a child of the 80's, not the 20's.
G'day Just got a copy of Come on Lads by Sods opera. One of the nicer words is fornication but most words are explicit lyrics. The men knew their way with words. Cheers Popski
Stefan, Don't know about WW2,but remember reading the story of the WW1 Belgian clergyman who wrote in his diary about the Tommy's habit of describing everything as being fake.....as in "faking generals". Regards, Gordon [ 02. November 2003, 03:56 PM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]
