Abstract
In the First World War, young Australians volunteered to fight and joined the Australian Imperial Force. For many of them it was their first encounter with foreign countries and languages. These soldiers had to learn not just the language of the allies, but also that of the enemy. This chapter analyses how the enemy was portrayed in Australian and French trench publications, produced by and for soldiers, such as Aussie magazine (1918–19), Bochophage (1916–18), and Rigolboche (1915–18). It first lists the vocabulary used in these periodicals to describe the German enemy and convey humour at their expense. It then examines which German words were incorporated into the everyday language of the soldiers. Finally, it considers the broader impact of humour in trench publications during the First World War.
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Notes
- 1.
Graham Seal (2013), The Soldiers’ Press: Trench Journals in the First World War (New York: Palgrave Macmillan). It is estimated that about 500 titles were issued in the French army during the conflict, L’Echo de l’Argonne being the first to be published (October 1914). The Diable au Cor is mentioned in Aussie (April 1918, p. 1: ‘Soldiers’ Papers’: ‘The French Army possesses numerous regimental papers, one of the principal of which is called “Diable au Cor”, consisting of four large-sized pages with many humorous items and drawings by soldiers.’).
- 2.
The average period of publication of these trench journals was 1.5–2 years.
- 3.
Published daily (15 August to 9 September 1914), then twice a week (12 September 1914–18 March 1916), then weekly (22 March 1916 to December 1917).
- 4.
Memorandum issued by Joffre on 8 March 1916, ‘I consider that their publication should be viewed with goodwill as long as they do no harm to the army and on condition that their management is closely supervised, to avoid the publication of any article that does not fit in with the aim stated above.’ (Cited by S. Audoin-Rouzeau (1992), Men at War: National Sentiment and Trench Journalism in France During the First World War. Translated by Helen McPhail (Providence: Berg), p. 20.)
- 5.
For example, there was an Australian trench journal in Gallipoli: The Bran Mash, produced by the 4th Light Horse (dated 15 June 1915), but for one issue only. A small regimental paper entitled Honk: the voice of the Benzine Lancers was published at sea, on the troopship Ceramic in 1915–16 (P.L. Harris (ed.) (1920), Aussie: A Reprint of All the Numbers of the Diggers’ Own Paper of the Battlefield, Wholly Written, Illustrated and Printed in the Field by Members of the A.I.F, (Sydney: Australian War Museum); reprinted as Harris (1985), Aussie: This Volume Contains the Complete Reprint of All the Numbers of ‘Aussie’ the Diggers Own Paper of the Battle Field 1914–1918 (Bullsbrook, Western Australia: Veritas Publishing Co.).) For a comprehensive overview of the Australian trench press, see David Kent (1999), From Trench and Troopship: The Experience of the Australian Imperial Force 1914–1919 (Alexandria, NSW: Hale and Iremonger).
- 6.
See Aussie, ‘Soldier’s papers’, April 1918, where several trench papers are cited and described: ‘The Stars and Stripes’ (U.S.), ‘La Vie Canadienne’ (Canada), ‘Diable au Cor’ (France), ‘La Giberna’ (Italy).
- 7.
The backstory as told, of course, by ‘educated’ soldiers. On the importance of soldiers’ newspapers for social and cultural history, see R. L. Nelson (2010), ‘Soldier Newspapers: A Useful Source in the Social and Cultural History of the First World War and Beyond’, War in History, 17:2, pp. 167–91.
- 8.
Phillip L. Harris, ‘The Story of Aussie’, in Harris (ed) (1920), Aussie: A Reprint of All the Numbers of the Diggers’ Own Paper of the Battlefield, np.
- 9.
See Audoin-Rouzeau, Men at War; Seal, The Soldiers’ Press; Véronique Duché and D. de Saint Léger, D. (2016), ‘Code-Switching in an Australian Soldiers’ Magazine’, in Christophe Declercq and Julian Walker (eds), Languages and the First World War: Representation and Memory (London: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 75–93.
- 10.
For example see Amanda Laugesen (2015), Furphies and Whizz-Bangs. Anzac Slang from the Great War (Oxford: Oxford University Press); O. Roynette (2010), Les mots des tranchées: l’invention d’une langue de guerre 1914–1919 (Paris: Armand Colin); J. Brophy and E. Partridge (1931), Song and Slang of the British Soldier, 1914–1918 (London: Eric Partridge, at the Scholartis Press); A. Dauzat (1918), L’argot de la guerre, d’après une enquête auprès des officiers et soldats (Paris: Armand Colin); and J. Walker (2017), Words and the First World War. Language, Memory, Vocabulary (London: Bloomsbury).
- 11.
January 1918 to April 1919. Available in A Reprint of All the Numbers of the Digger’s Own Paper of the Battlefield, Wholly Written, Illustrated, and Printed in the Field by Members of the A.I.F. (Produced by the editor Phillip L. Harris, on behalf of the Australian War Museum, 1920).
- 12.
April 17 (9), August 18 (23), December 18 (25).
- 13.
Rigolboche (1915–18). Handwritten journal published every ten days from March 1915: 10 March 1915 (2), 30 March 1915 (4), 20 April 1915 (7), 30 April 1915 (8), 5 May 1915 (9), 30 January 1918 (103), 10 February 1918 (104), 1 March 1918 (105), 10 March 1918 (106). Although the study of the Australian magazine will be detailed and exhaustive, the study of the French journals, due to the larger range of war publications and the randomly digitised issues will offer a less exhaustive but statistically interesting comparison.
- 14.
‘p. réf. à l’image donnée par la nation et l’état prussien (expansionnisme, militarisme, discipline stricte et sévère dans la vie civile et militaire) et, plus gén. l’image d’un pays ennemi ou menaçant pendant plusieurs siècles’ (Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé (1994)), http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=3459377685. Accessed 9 March 2019. Refers to the image evoked by the Prussian nation and state (expansionism, militarism, strict and severe discipline in civilian and military life) and, more generally, the image of a hostile and threatening country for many centuries. See Aussie 10, Jan 19, p. 9: ‘This Sergeant-Major was of the true Prussian type—a perfect bully.’
- 15.
See a. S., ‘La Cavalerie française’, Rigolboche 7, 20 April 1915, p. 3: ‘Pour couper … la retraite aux hordes barbares, … ces Huns que l’orgueil égare’ [in order to cut off the retreat of the Barbarian hordes …, these Huns led astray by pride].
- 16.
‘Venu du monde combattant, le mot “Boche” désigne ce barbare qui multiplie les procédés déloyaux sur le champ de bataille et exécute des soldats sans défenses. Le rapprochement est immédiat avec les hordes qui déferlèrent au Ve siècle de notre ère sur la Gaule.’ (Roynette, Les mots des tranchées, p. 21.) [Coming from the world of combat, the word ‘Boche’ points to this barbarian who proliferates disloyal acts on the battle field and executes defenceless soldiers, much like the hordes that swarmed into Gaul in the fifth century of the Christian era.]
- 17.
Charles Meyer (1990), A History of Germans in Australia 1839–1945, (Clayton, Vic.: Monash University), pp. 31, 87. It is estimated that there were about 6600 German-borns in New South Wales in 1880.
- 18.
Amanda Laugesen (2005), Diggerspeak: the Language of Australians at War (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press), p. 90.
- 19.
According to Albert Dauzat, ‘Fritz is used by those who do not want to dirty their mouth by using boche.’ (Cited by Roynette, Les mots des tranchées, p. 190.) Boche is used in Le Matin: 30 Aug 1914; Le Figaro: 24 September 1914; Le Temps: 21 October 1914. (Roynette, Les mots des tranchées, p. 20.)
- 20.
Roynette, Les mots des tranchées, p. 9–10. Roynette cites Robert Lestrange, Petite monographie du mot boche, 1918, p. 33–34.
- 21.
Caboche ‘meaning “head”, but having a slang sense in French meaning “rascal” or “a bad lot”’ (See also Laugesen, Furphies and Whizz-bangs, s.v. ‘Boche’, p. 106–107).
- 22.
Far from contradicting each other, these two etymologies become all the more complementary as they serve to consolidate the stereotype of an enemy foreign to civilisation, which must also be fought with language (paraphrase of Roynette, Les mots des tranchées, pp. 22–23.)
- 23.
The variants alboche and boboche (the latter with a supposed affectionate tone) can also be found (Rigolboche 10, 15 May 1915, p. 4).
- 24.
‘Une France inconnue—La Faune’, Rigolboche 20, 20 Aug 1915, p. 6.
- 25.
252nd infantry regiment. From 15 March 1916.
- 26.
There is another layer in this title, with a wordplay on anti-railleur [anti-gloomy] and un tirailleur [infantryman].
- 27.
Le Mouchoir de b[p]oche [the handkerchief]: There is a double meaning here too. Moucher: to put someone in their place: ‘the Boche snubber’. (Poilus de la 5e Compagnie du 227e Régiment d’infanterie (1916–17), Le Mouchoir de boche. Feuilles d’informations loufoques à l’usage des Poilus de la 5e Compagnie du 227e Régiment d’infanterie. Ni moche-ni boche [puis ‘Ni boche-ni moche’]. Les plus grands écrivains (1 m 98) y collaborent. Signe particulier: n’a jamais pu paraître à date fixe) [The Boche snubber. Paper with madcap news for the Poilus of the 5th company of the 227th infantry division. Neither ugly nor boche (later: Neither boche nor ugly). With the collaboration of the greatest/tallest (1.98 m) writers. Distinguishing mark: has never been able to be published at a fixed date.] (November 1916). Published from November 1916 to February 1917. A bo[u]che que veux-tu [full kiss]: There is a double layer of meaning here again: ‘To Boche what do you want?’ 344e régiment d’infanterie (1915–16), (Alternative title) Le Poilu déchaîné. Organe officieux du 344e régiment d’infanterie. [The raging Poilu. Unofficial journal of the 344th Infantry regiment]. Tourne-B[r]oche [roasting spit]: 66th territorial infantry regiment. Tourne-broche is another name used by the soldiers for a ‘bayonet’. Rigolboche [laughing [about the] Boche]: 20th Brigade of the 10th division. From February 1915 until March 1918. Rigolboche was also the stage name of Amélie Marguerite Badel (1842–1920), a notorious dancer, credited with inventing the cancan. Bochofage [German eater]: Le Bochofage. Organe anticafardeux, kaisericide et embuscophobe. (Anti-blues, Kaiser-killer and shirker-hater body). From July 1916 to Christmas 1918 (25 issues).
- 28.
Play on words: printing/firing.
- 29.
Rigolboche 10, 15 May 1915, p. 2.
- 30.
‘Une France inconnue—La Faune’, Rigolboche 20, 20 Aug 1915, p. 6.
- 31.
Aussie, March 1918, p. 1.
- 32.
Fifty times in singular, 18 in plural.
- 33.
Aussie, June 1918, p. 16.
- 34.
Aussie, January 1919, p. 9.
- 35.
Laugesen, Furphies and Whizz-bangs, s.v. ‘Fritz’.
- 36.
Aussie, January 1919.
- 37.
Laugesen, Furphies and Whizz-bangs, s.v. ‘Fritz’.
- 38.
Aussie, January 1919, p. 12.
- 39.
Aussie, March 1918, p. 10.
- 40.
Aussie, August 1918, p. 11.
- 41.
Laugesen, Diggerspeak, s.v. ‘Hun’.
- 42.
Forty-nine times in singular and 23 times in plural.
- 43.
Aussie, September 1918, p. 4.
- 44.
Aussie, April 1918, p. 13.
- 45.
Amanda Laugesen (2015), Furphies and Whizz-Bangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War (South Melbourne: Oxford University Press), s.v. ‘Hun’.
- 46.
Laugesen, Diggerspeak, s.v. ‘Fritz’.
- 47.
‘Hun-hunter’ in Aussie, February 1918, p. 18 (a fake advertisement); Hun plonker in Aussie, March 1918, p. 1.
- 48.
Brophy and Partridge, Song and Slang of the British Soldier, 1914–1918.
- 49.
Aussie, August 1918, p. 2.
- 50.
Aussie includes a sentence in French against the Germans: Conspuez les Boches! [Boo the Boches!] (February 1918, p. 14).
- 51.
Aussie, September 1918, p. 4.
- 52.
Aussie, August 1918, p. 2.
- 53.
Laugesen, Diggerspeak, s.v. ‘Jerry’.
- 54.
Cold Comfort, December 1918 (‘I was wending my way o’er the duckboards/While Jerry was strafing the same’). ‘Jerry’, however, is one of the few words to be much more common after the war.
- 55.
‘The principal symbol of Germany in the Allied cartoons is … Kaiser Wilhelm II, a figure popular with cartoonists even before the war. The caricatures associate the Kaiser with impressive negative symbols which demonstrate the Manichean tone of the propaganda: in apocalyptic visions, he is surrounded by death and the devil; exile in St Helena or the gallows await him, or he is shown as a butcher or a beggar after the war.’ (E. Demm (1993), ‘Propaganda and Caricature in the First World War’, Journal of Contemporary History, 28:1, pp. 163–92, here p. 179).
- 56.
K.K. designates Kartoffelkriegsbrot [potato war bread] but also Kaiser Wilhelm by metonymy. ‘K.K.’ also sounds like the French caca, meaning ‘poop’.
- 57.
‘Ballade du Rigolboche’, Rigolboche 100, 20 December 1917, p. 1.
- 58.
‘Sonnet à Guillaume’, Rigolboche 11, 25 May 1915, p. 3.
- 59.
Play on words with ‘barbarie’, as barbarity is often associated with the Kaiser, and also because an ‘orgue’ is an artillery piece composed of several guns.
- 60.
‘Les Verrières de Reims’, Rigolboche, Christmas 1915.
- 61.
‘La lettre K’, Rigolboche, 21, 30 August 1915, p. 2.
- 62.
Aussie, August 1918, p. 11.
- 63.
Rigolboche, 21, 30 August 1915, p. 52.
- 64.
‘L’Echo d’Outre-Rhin’, Rigolboche, 91, 20 September 1917, p. 6.
- 65.
‘Les hauts faits du Kronprinz’, Rigolboche, 8, 30 April 1915, p. 5.
- 66.
Rigolboche, 26, 20 October 1915, p. 4.
- 67.
‘I dreamt we’d really won the war and finished Bertha Krupp.’ (Aussie, March 1918, p. 12.) Rigolboche, 9, 5 May 1915, p. 4 (‘Mauvais Krupp’: play on words Krupp/coup bad shot).
- 68.
Germania: Rigolboche, 19, 10 August 1915, p. 3; Rigolboche, 25, 10 October 1915, p. 1; the eagle: Rigolboche, 18, 30 July 1915, p. 1.
- 69.
The word ‘shirker’ is not used in Aussie, but ‘shirk’.
- 70.
See note 27.
- 71.
‘L’Embusqué’, Rigolboche, 99, 10 December 1917, p. 3. See also an illustrated article on the shirkers by the famous writer Sacha Guitry (‘Petites Nouvelles de l’armée civile’ [Brief news from the civilian army]) in Rigolboche, 11, 25 May 1915, p. 5–6.
- 72.
There is a play on words: civil/si vil (civilised, so vile).
- 73.
‘Le Civil’, Rigolboche, 98, 30 November 1917, p. 3.
- 74.
See, for example, ‘Si les Gothas revenaient’, Rigolboche, 104, 10–20 February 1918, p. 2.
- 75.
For example, ‘Ivan le Bolchevik’ in a Christmas tale, ‘Le Noël du Bolchevik’, Rigolboche, Christmas 1917, p. 3.
- 76.
‘Our First Dinkum Disturbance with Johnny Turk at Gallipoli’, Aussie 6, August 1918, p. 8. ‘Echos de la mode’, Rigolboche, 15, 30 June 1915, p. 3. Many cartoons figuring Turkish soldiers can be found in Rigolboche (e.g. Rigolboche, 38, 20 Feb 1916, pp. 1, 8).
- 77.
‘Leur Culture’, Rigolboche, 14, 20 June 1915, p. 2.
- 78.
See for instance Barbara Beßlich (2015), ‘Karl Joëls Neue Weltkultur (1915) und ihr Zivilisationsbegriff’, in Olivier Agard, Manfred Gangl, Françoise Lartillot, and Gilbert Merlio (eds), Kritikfiguren/Figures de la critique, Festschrift für Gérard Raulet zum 65. Geburtstag/En Hommage à Gérard Raulet (Frankfurt: Peter Lang), pp. 257–70.
- 79.
‘Leur Culture’, Rigolboche, 14, 20 June 1915, p. 2.
- 80.
Rigolboche, 10, 15 May 1915, p. 1; Rigolboche, 15, 30 June 1915, p. 2.
- 81.
The expression ‘faire Kamarad (or Kamerad)’ meant ‘surrender willingly’. (Rémy Cazals (2003)), Les mots de 14–18 (Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail), p. 26. Furthermore, the German civilian was represented as a man interested only in money. See, for instance, issue 8 of Rigolboche, which dedicates a full page of cartoons entitled ‘Kaiserliche Kommerzial Kultur’: ‘Kamarades, que faut-il pour être heureux? – Un peu d’or.’ [Kamarads, what is needed to be happy? – Some gold.] (Rigolboche, 8, 30 Apr 1915, p. 6).
- 82.
Rigolboche, 15, 30 June 1915, p. 2. The alleged author of this humorous poem (based on an existing song) is ‘Jean Lafrousse, Cavalier seul dans l’Armée Française’ [Jean-the-jitters, go-it-alone rider in the French Army]. Some poems are less humorous and have a tone that more closely resembles propaganda. See, for example, ‘Histoire naturelle’, Rigolboche, 30, 30 November 1915, p. 4.
- 83.
Rigolboche, 10, 15 May 1915, p. 1; ‘Gott mit uns’, Rigolboche, 15, 30 June 1915, p. 1; Rigolboche, 23, 20 Sep 1915, p. 1.
- 84.
‘L’Allemagne manque de cuivre’, Rigolboche, 8, 30 Apr 1915, p. 1; Rigolboche, 26, 20 Oct 1915, p. 3.
- 85.
Rigolboche, 90, 10 Sep 1917, p. 2.
- 86.
‘Le Présent de “Gott mit … eux”’, Rigolboche, 10, 1 Jan 1916, p. 4.
- 87.
Rigolboche, 12, 1 June 1915, p. 5. This cartoon shows an archangel punishing a German marine for the shipwreck of the Lusitania.
- 88.
‘An averted horror’, Aussie, January 1918, p. 7.
- 89.
Aussie, June 1918, p. 2.
- 90.
Etymology: ‘German strafe, third person present subjunctive of strafen to punish, in Gott strafe England!, “God punish England!”, a slogan widely used in German military propaganda of the First World War, which was also used as a form of greeting, salutation, and valediction in Germany and Austria from 1914 (with the expected response Er strafe es!, “May He punish her”).’
- 91.
Aussie, August 1919, p. 6.
- 92.
Aussie, September 1918, p. 3.
- 93.
Aussie, June 1918, p. 2.
- 94.
Aussie, June 1918, p. 2.
- 95.
Aussie, August 1918, p. 10; September 1918, p. 10.
- 96.
‘A Diggers’s Bible’ (Aussie, September 1918, p. 10).
- 97.
Aussie, January 1919, p. 9.
- 98.
‘La lettre K’, Rigolboche, 21, 30 August 1915, p. 2.
- 99.
Ibid.
- 100.
‘Dernière Ressource’, Rigolboche, 4, 30 March 1915, p. 2.
- 101.
‘Kaiserliche Kommerzial Kultur’, Rigolboche, 8, 30 April 1915, p. 6.
- 102.
Bochophage (1916–18), issue 23, volume 1. Mêlé-Cass is a nickname for Dijon, a city in a region famous for its blackcurrants. A mêlé-cass is made of spirit and blackcurrant liquor.
- 103.
The voiced labiodental fricative [v] is pronounced as the voiceless labiodental fricative [f]. The voiceless stop [t] is rendered as the voiced dental occlusive [d], the bilabial fricative [w] as the voiced labiodental fricative [v], and the voiced dental fricative [ð] as the voiced dental occlusive [d].
- 104.
These lines from ‘An Averted Horror’, Aussie, January 1918, pp. 6 and 7.
- 105.
Aussie, January 1919, p. 9.
- 106.
The exceptions were slang words for arms and for prisoners of war.
- 107.
O. Roynette, Mots des tranchées, p. 73: ‘comme si une barrière linguistique était venue se superposer à la ligne de front afin de clore les cultures nationales sur elles-mêmes’ [as if a language barrier had been superimposed on the front line in order to shut the national cultures in on themselves].
- 108.
Aussie, January 1919, p. 5.
- 109.
Aussie, March 1918, p. 1.
- 110.
We can read in the third issue of Aussie: ‘AUSSIE is a product of the battlefield, and he wants every item in him to be the work of his cobbers in the field and those in the field only. Should matter that is not original sneak in, it decreases the value of the work of those who go to the trouble to supply the dinkum goods. Therefore, he asks those to whom this is addressed to do the fair thing and send in their own work or none at all.’ (March 1918, p. 1).
- 111.
Graham Seal (2013), p. 108.
- 112.
Demm, ‘Propaganda and Caricature in the First World War’, p. 181. Demm adds: ‘Appalling drawings of burning houses, raped women and mutilated children are very typical.’ Trench journals were often illustrated, and this was one of their strong points. However, while French journals such as Rigolboche offered sometimes very horrifying drawings and cartoons, Aussie never presented the German enemy in this way.
- 113.
See M. Weber and B. Driscoll (2019), ‘Playful Twitter Accounts and the Socialisation of Literary Institutions’, First Monday 24:3, p. 1. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9486/7734, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2015.1040729. Accessed 10 March 2019. Their analysis of humour in Twitter accounts could prove useful for the analysis of trench publications.
- 114.
See J. L. Davis, T. P. Love, and G. Killen (2018), ‘Seriously Funny: The Political Work of Humor on Social Media’, New Media & Society 20:10, pp. 3898–3916. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818762602. Accessed 10 March 2019.
- 115.
Demm, ‘Propaganda and Caricature in the First World War’, p. 178.
- 116.
‘La valorisation de la langue nationale, porteuse de la supériorité d’une race, suscite, de manière quasi mécanique, la dépréciation du langage de l’ennemi.’ Roynette, Les mots des tranchées, p. 19.
- 117.
See A. Douglas (2002), War, Memory, and the Politics of Humor. The Canard Enchaîné and World War I (Berkeley: University of California Press). Douglas analyses a series of topoi from the humorous journal the Canard Enchaîné (founded in 1915), the ‘most durable textual institution to come out of World War I’ (p. 3). The Canard Enchaîné excelled among other journals in taking verbal phrases and making them visual in comically literal ways—for example the expression bourrage de crâne [eye wash, literally skull stuffing]. He insists on the complicity created with the reader: ‘Taken together the topoi form a lexicon of complex signs inviting complicity in decipherment and in the possession of a shared specialized language’ (p. 256).
- 118.
This expression is used by C. Abidin (2015), ‘Communicative Intimacies: Influencers and Perceived Interconnectedness’, Ada, 8, https://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/. Accessed 10 March 2019. Here ‘intimacy’ is understood as reflecting how close readers feel to the trench journalists.
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Duché, V. (2020). Portraying the Enemy: Humour in French and Australian Trench Journals. In: Laugesen, A., Fisher, C. (eds) Expressions of War in Australia and the Pacific. Palgrave Studies in Languages at War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23890-2_3
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