Military Nicknames

saber964 wrote:

WLBjork wrote:Not to forget aircraft that have had nicknames either.

The Mossie (or Mozzie) should be obvious, but maybe not so much the Stringbag or the Wimpy.

De Havilland Mosquito

Fairly Swordfish

Vickers Wellington


Which one is the correct nickname of the P-40?

Kitty Hawk
Tomahawk
Warhawk

Warhawk

saber964 wrote:

WLBjork wrote:Not to forget aircraft that have had nicknames either.

The Mossie (or Mozzie) should be obvious, but maybe not so much the Stringbag or the Wimpy.

De Havilland Mosquito

Fairly Swordfish

Vickers Wellington


Which one is the correct nickname of the P-40?

Kitty Hawk
Tomahawk
Warhawk

Depends on which air force is operating it and possibly which version their operating.

See also Grumman F4F Wildcat, known as the Martlet in RN service

However all of those are official names for the aircraft, not nicknames; not like calling the Fairly Swordfish "stringbag"

PeterZ wrote:

saber964"[quote="WLBjork wrote:Not to forget aircraft that have had nicknames either.

The Mossie (or Mozzie) should be obvious, but maybe not so much the Stringbag or the Wimpy.

De Havilland Mosquito

Fairly Swordfish

Vickers Wellington


Which one is the correct nickname of the P-40?

Kitty Hawk
Tomahawk
Warhawk

Warhawk[/quote]


Actually it's all three,

Kittyhawk RAF RAAF RNZAF P-40B
Tomahawk RAF RAAF P-40C/D
Warhawk USAF all models

saber964 wrote:
Which one is the correct nickname of the P-40?

Kitty Hawk
Tomahawk
Warhawk

All of them.

It depends on which particular model P-40 you are talking about and what nation it was in the service of. The P40 wore a lot of names in service of several countries.


Unit nicknames are commonplace in the American military. Divisions and Regiments are the most common. In some outfits, it goes all the way down to the company level.

I saw a t-shirt being worn yesterday near a US Army base for the Delta Company Death Dealers.

cthia wrote:I'd hazard a guess based on the fact that most of the military nicknames that we are all accustomed to are mostly American. In the US military, nicknames are a norm. "Maggot" being my favorite from day one in bootcamp. In a monarchy amongst titles and protocols, I wouldn't think disrespectful nicknames would catch on. Heck, nicknames for the ships were sorta frowned upon and had to be enjoyed in secret, like the Nasty Kitty.

-Shannon "Sleeping Beauty" Foraker (until unsafely awakened by the Committee of Public Safety)

-Sonja "Unsociable" Hemphill

Anyways, let's not forget that Honor wore lots of hats and bore lots of titles, even in the nickname arena. She was a baseborn bitch to some. And the "boogeyman" to the Havenites.

A lot of ships have unofficial nicknames, some affectionate and others not so much. Some of the nicknames were officially recognized.

USS Enterprise both unofficially and official as Big E
USS New Jersey Big J or somewhat derisively Jersey Girl
USS Missouri Mighty Mo
USS Constellation Connie and Constipation
USS Cowpens Mighty Moo
USS Valley Forge Valley Girl
USS Wichita Wicked Witch
USS Pensacola Sweet Pea
USS Intrepid Evil Eye[/quote]

Fox2 wrote:USS Lexington (CC-1/CV-2) Lady Lex
USS Saratoga (CC-2/CV-3) Sara
USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) Covered Wagon
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) The Big Stick

USS Hopper (DDG-70) is named for "Amazing Grace" Hopper. Don't know if USS Hopper answers to that or not.

Thanks for the info guys. I was not aware of any of them and they are really interesting. But they are all American ships so it doesn't surprise me that they had nicknames. Are there any British warships who bore nicknames?

I googled it and found this site.

The nicknamed British warships seem to more malapropism than anything else.

I wonder if the nicknames were used to confound the enemy?[/quote]

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Lady Lex was also applied to CV-16 currently a museum ship in Corpus Cristi
CV-67 USS Kennedy was publicly nicknamed "Big John" and also known as "The Can Opener" -- look up USS Belknap for details.
USS Abraham Lincoln (the Polaris SSBM version) was known as both "Honest Abe" and "Sinkin Lincoln"
USS California (CGN-36) was occasionally known as "Hotel California" (you can check out, but you can never leave)

-- Stewart (USN retired)

And this isn't just an US thing; for example, in the Soviet and Russian air force, the Su-27 "Flanker" and derivatives is called "Zhuravlik" (Little Crane) because viewed from the side, the fuselage reminds of the neck of this bird.
The Su-24 tactical bomber is nickname "Chemodan" (Suitcase) because of its squared air intakes, and the A-10 is nicknamed "Cheburashka" after a cartoon character with huge rounded ears, which came to the mind of the Soviet observers who saw the engine nacelles around the cockpit from a frontal view.

Some of the nicknames were less flattering, though: the BMP series of IFVs was nicknamed "Bratskaya Mogila Pekhoty" (Infantry's Brotherly Grave) due to its vulnerability in Afghanistan, the AKS-74U carine was nicknamed "Okorochek" (Cigarette butt) or "Suka" (Bitch) because it is short and difficult to handle, and the WW2 era LaGG-3 fighter was called the "Lakirovanniy Garantirovanniy Grob" or "Lacquered Guaranteed Coffin".

WLBjork wrote:Not to forget aircraft that have had nicknames either.

The Mossie (or Mozzie) should be obvious, but maybe not so much the Stringbag or the Wimpy.

Or the "Shagbat" for the Vickers-Supermarine Walrus.

Collectively the near-sister WW1 Battlecruisers HMS Lion, HMS Tiger & HMS Queen Mary were collectively referred to as "The Big Cats" - to the reported amusement of Queen Mary herself when this was blurted-out by a Midshipman during an official inspection by Her Majesty.

chrisd wrote:

WLBjork wrote:Not to forget aircraft that have had nicknames either.

The Mossie (or Mozzie) should be obvious, but maybe not so much the Stringbag or the Wimpy.

Or the "Shagbat" for the Vickers-Supermarine Walrus.

Collectively the near-sister WW1 Battlecruisers HMS Lion, HMS Tiger & HMS Queen Mary were collectively referred to as "The Big Cats" - to the reported amusement of Queen Mary herself when this was blurted-out by a Midshipman during an official inspection by Her Majesty.

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Military bases as well have "earned" nicknames -- some more obvious than others --

Naval Station San Diego -- Sand Dog
NAS Moffett Field (now Moffett Federal Airfield) -- Muffin Field
Bremerton Naval Shipyard -- Bummertown
NS Guantanamo -- Gitmo
Diego Garcia -- Dodge
NAS Adak -- Ice Station Zebra

-- Stewart

You also have other nicknames of military posts like

Ft. Polk LA aka Camp Swampy (Beetle Bailey fame)
Ft. Irwin CA aka Desertion Inn play on Desert Inn a Vegas casino.
Elmindorf AFB AK aka the ice box
Ft. Wainwright AK aka whine right

stewart wrote:Military bases as well have "earned" nicknames -- some more obvious than others --


-- Stewart

I've heard about that from acquaintances serving in the Marine Corps as well, but I'm not sure they're all appropriate to post on a public forum one of the most work safe one was the quick renaming of the 29 Palms base to "Three Palms" after the last hurricane which didn't leave much standing...