Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

freilich, ich war genauso dabei wie du.alter frontkämpfer ;)

noch eine kleine anmerkung zum "schwarzen tod".
jan boger beschreibt da in seinem buch spezial/elite einheiten(einige nahmen am WW2 teil )
da wird die sowjetische marineinfanterie, die " Morskaya Pyechota " von den deutschen landsern " schwarzer tod " genannt.

evtl. wurden ja noch mehr "schwarzer tod" genannt. wer weiss , wer weiss.

Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

Rasmussen,
i guess , you know some wehrmachts veterans.
ask them about the " black death " or about some other "wellknown" nicknames.
(if you have the time, of course)
you get firsthand opinions .

Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

Isn't the whole Fw 190 Butcher Bird related to the (semi-)official Würger name, and unrelated to the term Schlachtflugzeug?

Würger literally being a shrike or butcher bird.

Of course it is likely that the later use as a Schlachtflugzeug may have influenced the choice towards Butcher Bird.

BTW, did RAF pilots ever call the Fw 190 Butcher bird, or is this purely post war translating?

(which reminds me of the age old "Fokkers flying Messerschmitts" joke).

But more interesting, Boandl, in your conversations with Wehrmacht veterans, did they indeed sneer at so many of these nicknames? To be honest, I have been proclaiming in the past that most of the nicknames that were attributed by the allies as being german, did not feel right. Personally I've yet find most if not all of them in reading.

Although I might understand if some of these attributed names are simply misunderstood.

Schlachtflugzeug (already discussed)

If I remmber correctly you germans use Pest in a similar way as we do in Dutch: Pestflugzeug!

Although I hate assumptions, it sounds much more likely that a couple of Landser sitting in a trench would call Sturmoviks a Plague or Pestflugzeugen, instead of the more poetic Black Death. Same source - The Plague - but very different meaning.

I find a similar approach for the famous Fork Tail Devil also more likely - Verteufeltes Flugzeug or Teufelsflugzeug (don't know if these are correct German). Perhaps some Landser did not use Doppelrumpf, but Gabelschwanz - Das verteufelte Flugzeug mit dem Gabelschwanz?

Apologies if I am making big german writing and spelling errors, but at school I was too lazy to learn my idiom and grammer (oh, I hated those rows).

Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

roy, to answer your question.
the replys of the veterans were a disappointment ( at least for me)
i was hoping to find some nicknames ,maybe some unknown, or at least some "wellknown" confirmed .
but nothing.

Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

I'd always understood that it was a translation of the name that Focke-Wulf gave the aircraft: "Wuerger."

Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

However you argue it, German and English are related languages and the root word "Schlacht" relates to "slaughter." In English, a slaughterman kills animals, a butcher cuts up the meat from there on. Obviously the two trades overlapped.

The analogies between slaughter for food and battle are obvious - sharp implements and blood everywhere for a start - so trying to separate the different uses of the word is pretty hopeless. If you read about ground fighting, a lot of writers use the term "the butcher's bill" to describe the casualty rate.

BTW: remember that the title of Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Slaughterhouse 5" referred to his time as a PoW whose "prison camp" was "Schlachthof 5" in Dresden.

Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

schlachtgeschwader = slaughter-squadrons :D


die Schlacht von Waterloo = the Battle of Waterloo
of course it was the "slaughter of waterloo "

Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

how is that bird called in english ?

http://www.nabu-gross-zimmern.de/nat...el/wuerger.jpg

Re: Yet ANOTHER German nickname for the IL 2...
 

Although I am not a linguist, German and Dutch are pretty similar, more so than English and German.

Schlacht may be more closely related to Schlagen or to hit (we in dutch have slaan and slag, to hit and strike - the latter corresponds perfectly with ground attack or groundstrike).

Not field of slaughter, but field of battle (hitting field).

Even the English Slain may be more closely related to hitting than slaying.

hitting, striking, slaying or slaughtering all the same root

Re: Butcher Bird
 

Boandlgramer :

You are right. The "butcher bird", which is what Wurger means, is called the Shrike in England and America. They are called this because they catch their prey, usually large insects or the occasional mouse, and "store" it by stricking on a thorn bush or locust tree. Hence, the name butcher.