Through Adversity features two enemy pilots: Lt. Valentine Westbrook of the newly-formed Royal Air Force, and Lt. Siegfried Krämer of the Luftstreitkräfte.
The book makes use of a lot of contemporary military terms, aviation jargon, and slang, so here’s your handy guide to what on Earth is going on!
| English Words | |
|---|---|
| Term | Meaning |
| Ace | A pilot with five or more confirmed victories against enemy aircraft. |
| Albatros | A German aircraft, although the word Albatros most commonly referred to the Albatros D.III, the most dangerous fighter of early 1917. |
| Archie | Anti-aircraft fire. Named “Archie” after a popular music-hall song of the time, Archibald – Certainly Not! Coined after Lt. ‘Biffy’ Borton sang this song once he worked out how to avoid AA fire in 1914. |
| Boche | German, especially German soldiers. The word functioned as both singular and plural. Derived from French slang Alboche, a portmanteau of the French words Allemande (German) and caboche (cabbage – slang for blockhead). |
| Brass | High-ranking officers. Rank insignia were made from brass, regardless of any colour or plating subsequently applied. |
| C.O. | Commanding Officer. |
| Camel | The Sopwith Camel was a single-seat fighter biplane, so named for the “hump” which protected its twin Vickers machine guns from freezing at altitude. Extremely maneuverable, and considered incredibly difficult to fly, it proved superior to the Albatros D.III. |
| Circus | Originally coined to describe von Richthofen’s fighter unit, JG 1. After von Richthofen painted his aircraft red other members of his unit took to painting red on their craft. JG 1 also travelled up and down the Line as and when needed. Bright and colourful, they became nicknamed Von Richthofen’s Flying Circus, and soon other German fighter units chose colours of their own. |
| D.VII | The Fokker D.VII was a single-seat fighter biplane introduced early 1918 to challenge the supremacy of the Sopwith Camel. Its design was influenced by direct feedback from some of the best fighter pilots of the day, including von Richthofen. It was so advanced that the surrender of all D.VIIs to the Allies was one of the conditions of the Armistice. |
| DH.4 | The Airco DH.4 was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland. A two-seater light bomber biplane it was the first such British aircraft to be fitted with defensive armaments – most notably a Scarff ring for the observer so that his Lewis machine gun could be swung into position quickly. |
| Eggs | Bombs. Dropping bombs was regularly referred to as “laying eggs”. |
| Fokker | A Dutch aircraft manufacturer originally founded in Berlin due to better opportunities for funding. It relocated to the Netherlands in 1919. |
| Fruit | Homosexual. |
| Hannover | A light, multipurpose German aircraft, “Hannover” usually referred to the Hannover CL.III. Short for the manufacturer’s full name: Hannoversche Waggonfabrik AG. |
| Hun | German. On sending troops to suppress the Boxer Uprising in China, 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave a speech in which he advised his troops to behave without mercy so that the Chinese would remember the Germans as they did the Huns under Attila. |
| Luger | A semi-automatic pistol widely used by the German Empire during the First World War. It was made to such exacting standards that it remained in service through to the Second World War, and the Swiss even used it until the early 1970’s. |
| N.C.O. | Non-commissioned officer. |
| Nancy | Homosexual. |
| Petrolatum | Petroleum jelly. Frequently found in first-aid kits for the treatment of burns, although it also had a multitude of other uses. |
| Sausage | Artillery spotter or observation balloon. So named because, well, they were generally sausage-shaped. The balloons were tethered to the ground by strong cables. |
| Short Service | Joining the regular army was a seven-year commitment, followed by five years in the Army Reserve. To encourage volunteers, a new “short service” was introduced which would see a man serve either only three years, or for the length of the war; whichever was longer. |
| Sopwith | The Sopwith Aviation Company was founded by Thomas Sopwith in 1912 and produced several pioneering aircraft for the Royal Navy Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps. Their aircraft became known collectively as the “Flying Zoo” due to animal-themed names. |
| Spandau | The Maxim heavy machine gun 08 was fitted in pairs to German fighter aircraft such as the Fokker D.VII and the Albatros D.III. They were nicknamed “Spandaus” by the Allies as they were produced at the arsenal in Spandau, Germany. |
| The Line | The Western Front, the front line between German and Allied territories. |
| Tripe | Triplane. With three wing-planes instead of two, tripes could achieve greater lift and altitudes, but they were also usually outmaneuvered by biplanes. |
| Vickers | British engineering company known during the First World War for their medium machine gun, itself based on Maxim’s design. The aircraft versions were air-cooled and often synchronised to fire through a propeller arc without hitting the blade. |
| Webley | The Webley Revolver was in service with the British Army for over sixty years. A top-break revolver, it was reliable – if heavy. R.F.C. pilots would usually carry them to save having to burn to death in an aircraft on fire. |
| Non-English Words | |
|---|---|
| Term | Meaning |
| Deutsches Kaiserreich | The German Empire, a Federal Monarchy which was formed in 1871 and dissolved by the Armistice of 1918. |
| Hauptbahnhof | Central train station. |
| Hôtel de Ville | Town Hall. |
| Jagdgeschwader / Jagda | Fighter wing. One Jagda is comprised of several Jastas. |
| Jagdstaffel / Jasta | Fighter squadron. Literally “hunting squadron”. |
| Kaiserschlacht | The 1918 Spring Offensive, or “Kaiser’s Battle”. The Germans made a decisive push in 1918 in an attempt to overrun the Allies before the United States could fully deploy their vast resources into Europe. The Offensive ran from March to July, in several stages, but became hopeless by late April. |
| Kommandant | The leader of a military facility, including stationary facilities and large vehicles such as warships. |
| Leutnant | The lowest commissioned officer rank in the Luftstreitkräfte, equivalent to a Second Lieutenant in the British Army. |
| Luftstreitkräfte | The German Air Force, the air arm of the German Army. Dissolved in 1920 as a condition of the Treaty of Versailles. |
| Mangold | Chard. |
| Oberleutnant | The second-lowest commissioned officer rank in the Luftstreitkräfte, equivalent to a Lieutenant in the British Army. |
| Offizierslager | A Prisoner of War camp for officers. Usually shortened to Oflag. |
| Rittmeister | A commissioned officer rank in the Luftstreitkräfte equivalent to a Captain in the British Army. Literally “riding master”. The German Army viewed aircraft as a progression for cavalry units, and much of their terminology developed as such. |
| Schlachtstaffel / Schlasta | Specialist fighter-bomber squadron. Literally “battle squadron”. |
| Soldat | Soldier. In the Army of the Kingdom of Saxony, soldiers were soldats; in Prussia’s army they were musketier, jäger or füsilier. These task-specific Infantry regiments became less dissimilar in the 20th Century, but their names remained. |
| Tresse | Braid. |
| Unteroffizier | Junior N.C.O. rank equivalent to a Corporal in the British Army. |
| Locations | |
|---|---|
| Name | Meaning |
| Amiens | A French city 75 miles north of Paris, it lay close to the Western Front and became a vital logistics hub for the British. |
| Coisy | A commune near Amiens. |
| Cöln | Cologne, Germany. The modern German name is Köln. After the Armistice, it was occupied by the British until 1926. |
| Dresden | Capital of the Kingdom of Saxony. A centre for arts, architecture, culture and technology for three centuries. |
| Göteborg | Gothenberg, on the west coast of Sweden. |
| Holzminden | A town approximately 150 miles east of Cologne, Germany. The outskirts were home to a large civilian internment camp as well as the smaller Oflag. |
| Preußen | Prussia. The leading state in the German Empire. A Kingdom since 1701, Prussia gained almost total control over all other Germanic states, and most of their armies were absorbed into the Prussian military. |
| Sachsen | The Kingdom of Saxony became part of the German Empire in 1871, but retained its own military control unless the Empire went to war, at which point command would be given over to the Kaiser. |