RAF Squadron nicknames

[Selwyn]

15 hours ago, Doddsy2978 said:

Yeah, and I have NEVER heard that theory expounded in a NAAFI bar😁

The theory is quite simple.

In the Army the officers  lead the men in to battle.

In the Navy the officers and men go into battle on  ships,

In the Air force they put the officers in spiffy aeroplanes to go into battle, and the groundcrew nip off for a cuppa and a bacon bap!

 

Selwyn

[tweeky]

Quote

11 Squadron- 'Fly united' ( something to do with the two eagles flying rather close in the unit emblem)

Homosexual Hawks as they were know at Binbrook.

[Pete in Lincs]

33 Sqn - Thirty Third fighting foot and mouth. That was decades ago at Odiham. They were also sometimes referred to as a cowboy outfit.

And, around 1984/5 when 9 Sqn visited 15 Sqn at Laarbruch, bats and XV's got mysteriously painted overnight* on the opposing teams Tornado's.

 

*When they were (supposedly) safely locked up in a HAS too!

[junglierating]

3 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

33 Sqn - Thirty Third fighting foot and mouth. That was decades ago at Odiham. They were also sometimes referred to as a cowboy outfit.

And, around 1984/5 when 9 Sqn visited 15 Sqn at Laarbruch, bats and XV's got mysteriously painted overnight* on the opposing teams Tornado's.

 

*When they were (supposedly) safely locked up in a HAS too!

🤠 outfit mate thats the whole RAF....if you were professional you'd be Fleet Air Arm 😁

[Phone Phixer]

19F sometimes had the more disparaging nickname of the cod squad.

I worked with an armourer who was on 111 sqn for a time. Sometime during their Phantom years, 43 and 111 did a joint detachment somewhere. Their nickname for that period was the trembling cocks.🤣

[John B (Sc)]

On 6/2/2014 at 7:24 PM, viscount806x said:

Well, I can't hope to join in this thread legally but I can add a couple of airline nicknames:

Astraeus - Ashtrays 'R' Us

Air 2000 - Air Two Bob

JMC - Jiggle My .........We'd better leave that one.

Aer Turas - Air Tear Ar$e (when I typed the full word the program replaced it with 'Tear Bottom')

Dan Air - Desperate Dans' (not fair, it was a good company according to ex employees I know)

 

 

haha - 

There used to be various airline nicknames/comments  in the old days - 

 

SABENA - 'Such a Bloody Experience, Never Again'

BOAC - 'Booked On Another Carrier'

TWA - 'Teeny Weeny Airlines'

 

 

There were many of those, some quite funny and a few truly scurrilous..  I wish I could remember what Alitalia's and Qantas's were.

[Doddsy2978]

32 minutes ago, John B (Sc) said:

 

 

haha - 

There used to be various airline nicknames/comments  in the old days - 

 

SABENA - 'Such a Bloody Experience, Never Again'

BOAC - 'Booked On Another Carrier'

TWA - 'Teeny Weeny Airlines'

 

 

There were many of those, some quite funny and a few truly scurrilous..  I wish I could remember what Alitalia's and Qantas's were.

Teeny Weeny Airways was how we,  referred to the Army Air Corps. Oh!  No one has mentioned The Dead Sparrows. That is technically a Sqn!

[Agent K]

1 hour ago, John B (Sc) said:

 

 

haha - 

There used to be various airline nicknames/comments  in the old days - 

 

SABENA - 'Such a Bloody Experience, Never Again'

BOAC - 'Booked On Another Carrier'

TWA - 'Teeny Weeny Airlines'

 

 

There were many of those, some quite funny and a few truly scurrilous..  I wish I could remember what Alitalia's and Qantas's were.

Or of course:

 

BOAC - Better On A camel; and

BEA - Back Every Afternoon, in deference to their short-haul network....

[Alan P]

1 hour ago, John B (Sc) said:

 

 

haha - 

There used to be various airline nicknames/comments  in the old days - 

 

SABENA - 'Such a Bloody Experience, Never Again'

BOAC - 'Booked On Another Carrier'

TWA - 'Teeny Weeny Airlines'

 

 

There were many of those, some quite funny and a few truly scurrilous..  I wish I could remember what Alitalia's and Qantas's were.

I knew loads of these in service...

Alitalia: 'Aircraft Lands in Tokyo, All Luggage in Amsterdam'

Delta: 'Doesn't Ever Leave The Airport' or 'Delivers Everyone's Luggage To Atlanta'

BOAC: 'Better On A Camel'

TAP (Portugal): Take A Parachute

Swiss: So What, It's Still Swissair

Qantas and Lufthansa: (which unfortunately would get me banned 😂)

 

We also had acronyms to reflect the different attitudes of our main bases - LGW was 'Let's Get Wasted' while LHR was 'Let's Have Roomservice'

 

Sorry for the thread creep 😊

[junglierating]

40 minutes ago, Doddsy2978 said:

Teeny Weeny Airways was how we,  referred to the Army Air Corps. Oh!  No one has mentioned The Dead Sparrows. That is technically a Sqn!

Hah thats what 3BAS was called ...not really heard 847 refered in the same way.

As for the boys in red....Crimson Crabs 🦀😋

[bootneck]

53 minutes ago, Doddsy2978 said:

Teeny Weeny Airways was how we,  referred to the Army Air Corps. Oh!  No one has mentioned The Dead Sparrows. That is technically a Sqn!

 

11 minutes ago, junglierating said:

Hah thats what 3BAS was called ...not really heard 847 refered in the same way.

That came about in the mid-60's when 3BAS' Bell 47 Sioux helicopters were split into detachments and deployed to the Commando units:  Plymouth, Aden and Far East etc.   I was with the detachment at Roborough, Plymouth in 1968.

Back then, 847 NAS was a Wessex squadron based at HMS Simbang, Singapore with deployments to Borneo.  The squadron became absorbed into 848 NAS when they arrived onboard HMS Albion in 1970.

 

Mike

[Jure Miljevic]

JAT (Yugoslavia) - Joke about time

Cheers

Jure

[PhoenixII]

3 hours ago, Doddsy2978 said:

......No one has mentioned The Dead Sparrows. That is technically a Sqn!

 

2 hours ago, junglierating said:

As for the boys in red....Crimson Crabs 🦀😋

....or, courtesy of Canadian ATC, the Scarlet Tarts......just sayin!

[junglierating]

2 hours ago, bootneck said:

 

That came about in the mid-60's when 3BAS' Bell 47 Sioux helicopters were split into detachments and deployed to the Commando units:  Plymouth, Aden and Far East etc.   I was with the detachment at Roborough, Plymouth in 1968.

Back then, 847 NAS was a Wessex squadron based at HMS Simbang, Singapore with deployments to Borneo.  The squadron became absorbed into 848 NAS when they arrived onboard HMS Albion in 1970.

 

Mike

3 Brigade air squadron became 847 (in modern times) when they hoofed out REME....some good lads on there..Still tbh if I were still in id join 847 ....nobody drips about it ...must be good 👍

[Doddsy2978]

1 hour ago, PhoenixII said:

 

....or, courtesy of Canadian ATC, the Scarlet Tarts......just sayin!

Now!  I hadn’t heard that one!😂😂 Nevertheless, I may be biased I think they are one of the best. I remember, long before H&S stuck their ugly mitts in, when they never announced their arrival.  Programmes use to say they were gonna be there, just never when. They used to just burst into view, over the crowd’s shoulder. If they arrived fast enough, you wouldn’t hear them, either. Of course, those of us in the know, kept a weather eye open. Those were the days. 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Doddsy2978

[rtfxwp]

On 10/16/2021 at 1:47 AM, tweeky said:

Homosexual Hawks as they were know at Binbrook.

I was on 11 Sqn for 14 months in the early 80's, and don't remember that one, but the Mucky Ducks was commonly used, again due to the 'close formation' of the eagles on the Sqn emblem.

 

In 1988 I spent some time on 1435 Flt Phantoms down the Falklands, and frequently heard them referred to as the 'Twenty-five to Three' Flt.

 

I also spent 6 yrs as Wpns TM on 54 Sqn Jags (best tour of my Service career), and don't recall any nicknames aimed at us at all. I don't think I ever heard the Fighting Newts, as mentioned above.  Perhaps it was selective hearing on my part!!

 

Mark R

[tweeky]

1 hour ago, rtfxwp said:

I was on 11 Sqn for 14 months in the early 80's,

That's what our Aircrew called 11F down the other end of the pan on the fighting 5th.

 

Binbrook 5Sqn 80-85 you'd know Scotty Dod then.

[jhutchi]

On 10/16/2021 at 8:19 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

33 Sqn - Thirty Third fighting foot and mouth. That was decades ago at Odiham. They were also sometimes referred to as a cowboy outfit.

And, around 1984/5 when 9 Sqn visited 15 Sqn at Laarbruch, bats and XV's got mysteriously painted overnight* on the opposing teams Tornado's.

 

*When they were (supposedly) safely locked up in a HAS too!

I flew in a 33sqn Puma from Benson in 1997. Great time 

[Procopius]

9 hours ago, Alan P said:

'Delivers Everyone's Luggage To Atlanta'

 

Having worked as a same day air shipping dispatcher, this was grounded in truth.

[rtfxwp]

21 hours ago, tweeky said:

That's what our Aircrew called 11F down the other end of the pan on the fighting 5th.

 

Binbrook 5Sqn 80-85 you'd know Scotty Dod then.

I was on 11(F) from mid '82 to late '83, and yes, I remember him (how could you forget him!?).

[John B (Sc)]

Hah - Alan P you have me scratching my head. There was a rather dubious Qantas nickname I remember which would not meet 'standards' today , but a dodgy Lufthansa one has me puzzled.  There was one about Luggage Usually Flown to Hamburg...'

 

Clearly I shall have to PM you for a subtle hint ! 

[Pete in Lincs]

2 hours ago, John B (Sc) said:

There was one about Luggage Usually Flown to Hamburg...'

And Never Seen Again

[Duncan B]

On 9/6/2014 at 11:42 AM, Troffa said:

Whilst wiping the coffee from my keyboard after reading the above rather rash speculation regarding the stirring appellation "The Fighting Cocks" and its potential utility if the Royal Air Force's finest fighter squadron ever were to be asked to take up its Standard once more, emblazoned as it is with battles from the very pages of the history of air warfare, I managed to recall the usage of the nick name "Tremblers" from my days working on the North side of the Kingdom of Fife's erstwhile fighter station, RAF Leuchars in the 1980's and 90's.

The etymology as I recall it was: 111 Sqn= Treble-one Squadron = Tremble-One squadron= Tremblers.

Regards, and Cock a doodle doo from this former Punchy-Poulet, battling bantam and indeed, a FIGHTING COCK!

Gloria Finis.

And we in ASF knew our clients (111 & 43) collectively as the 'trembling cocks'.

 

6 Sqn was often referred to as S$%ty 6 by other ground crew in the RAF in my day. It apparently stemmed back to WW2 in the desert when, allegedly, during one retreat the aircrew flew off and deserted their ground crew to be captured. I don't know if that actually did happen but it was also given as the reason why 6 Sqn spent so long stationed abroad after the war, in exile for their sins as it were. Makes for an interesting story as to why they were not thought highly of by other Squadrons at that time. 

 

Duncan B

[Black Knight]

54 minutes ago, Duncan B said:

6 Sqn was often referred to as S$%ty 6 by other ground crew in the RAF in my day. It apparently stemmed back to WW2 in the desert when, allegedly, during one retreat the aircrew flew off and deserted their ground crew to be captured. I don't know if that actually did happen but it was also given as the reason why 6 Sqn spent so long stationed abroad after the war, in exile for their sins as it were.

I was told by an ex-6 pilot that event happened during the big push by the Germans in 1918

In 1919, at end of WW1, 6 were exiled for 50 years thats why they only returned to UK in 1969

[Jabba]

I am not sure but it is something I heard at RAF Gutersloh that 3 Sqn were also banned from the UK after leaving their ground crew behind during WW2. They also mentioned that the yellow stripes either side of the green was added for this.