Say What?!? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Can opener

The official name was "opener, can, hand, folding, Type I", this particular P-38 was a folding can opener issued with C and K rations. How soldiers came to call it a P-38 seems to be anyone's guess. Some say it operated as fast as the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, others that it took thirty-eight punctures to open a can with.

Answer: Cheap wine

According to author Gordon L. Rottman, bombo was Australian slang for cheap wine that was probably drunk by the gallon.

Answer: Defeat the fascist

BEF was an abbreviation for Bei fashistov and may mean defeat the fascists or beat the fascist. This would be a common sight on the side of Russian tank turrets, undoubtedly written in Cyrillic letters.

Answer: False

Kilroy's origins may actually be traced back to the British character of Chad. According to author Gordon L Rottman, Chad originated in 1938 as the creation of British cartoonist George "Chat" E. Chatterson. Much like his American cousin, Chad appeared as a face and hands looking over a wall (represented simply by a line).

But unlike Kilroy, Chad would complain about the lack of things with the line "Wot, no _____?" (with the blank being filled in by what he was complaining about). Usually Chad's complaints had to do with rationing, but in at least one instance Chad appeared on a British glider with the humorous line "Wot, no engine?"

Answer: The person in charge of the KP detail

KP or KP duty could stand for Kitchen Patrol, Kitchen Police, kitchen duty, and according to author Gordon Rottman, KP could also mean Keep Peeling potatoes due to the often large number of potatoes soldiers put on KP had to peel. KP could be a punishment for minor infractions, or it could just be a duty one had to carry out depending on if no one had recently committed any minor infractions that could land them on KP duty. Those on KP duty were assigned to help the kitchen staff with meal preparation and clean up.

In this sense, police is a term meaning to clean up. KP duty would be assigned to enlisted personnel and the KP pusher was the person placed in charge of the detail to keep everyone on KP busy.

Answer: Tea

To a British soldier, brew up might mean one of two things. In combat a brew up was a vehicle, such as a tank, which would take ground fire and catch on fire, either burning vigorously or exploding. When not fighting a brew up was tea, which was seen as a morale booster.

Infantry sections and vehicle crews carried with them what was called brew up kits, or simply brew kits. These would include either a compressed block of tea or a packet of water soluble tea, some kind of milk (such as canned or powdered) or milk substitute, sugar, matches for starting a fire to make the tea, and biscuits. When given the opportunity, British soldiers would have a brew up. This might even happen during a lull in fighting. A pair of men would typically be tasked with quickly brewing the tea for the unit.

Answer: New recruits

Fohlen means foal, as in the young of horses which are not yet a year old. This seems likely a term veteran soldiers were using for new recruits who had not yet seen combat.

Answer: Guadalcanal

Ga-to is translated into English to mean Starvation Island. This was the nickname Japanese soldiers gave to Guadalcanal due to the fact that extremely difficult to get supplies to the island.

Honshu is the largest of the Japanese home islands and where you would be if you're visiting Tokyo. Kyushu is the third largest of the home islands and the island on which Nagasaki can be found. Shikoku is the fourth largest of the home islands and where the naval Battle of Yashima, one of the decisive battles of the Genpei War, was fought.

Answer: Chicken and prostitutes

Although the term seagull generally refers to seabirds of the family Laridae, the slang term seagull could mean one of two things to a marine. The first was chicken served in a marine mess on Sundays. One could suppose that the men might have figured the chicken was really seagull, hence the term. The second was a prostitute who specialized in seeing to the needs of marines and sailors.

Answer: True

Yes, it's true. During the war Warner Brothers produced a series of cartoons for the US Army titled Private SNAFU. These were generally educational videos for the troops meant to teach them things like the importance of maintaining their gear and the importance of taking malaria pills. Other episodes were aimed at getting the troops to invest in their own futures or showed that the troops on the front lines weren't the only ones fighting. One memorable episode introduced SNAFU's brothers TARFU and FUBAR. At the time of this episode, TARFU is shown tending to the needs of carrier pigeons while FUBAR works as the dummy used to train attack dogs. TARFU would later join the U.S. Navy in the 1946 episode "Private SNAFU Presents Seaman TARFU" (aka "Private SNAFU in Seaman TARFU"). The Private SNAFU cartoons are worth noting today as they featured an uncredited Theodor Giesel, best known as Dr. Seuss, among the writers.

The brothers names come from the acronyms the soldiers would have been familiar with. Situation Normal All Fouled Up for SNAFU. Things Are Really Fouled Up for TARFU. Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition for FUBAR. Although the soldiers would surely have said it a little differently.