War Diaries Talk

Swearing in diary pages

  • SarahPowell by SarahPowell

    This page records a conversation overheard in the German trenches where one soldier tells another 'I haven't got any bloody cigarettes'. The word 'bloody' is written in full, no asterisks or dashes. (Previously I've seen 'bugger' written in a diary but with half the letters omitted to remove any possible offence.) I'm quite surprised by this as I would have thought 'bloody' was perhaps still too offensive to record in writing in an official document like this (only 3 years since Shaw used the word on stage in 'Pygmalion' and caused a sensation). Any other records of swear words written down?

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  • Maria64 by Maria64

    I haven't come across any yet, Sarah but there again, they are official war diaries. And the phrase, ''swears like a trooper'' does come from such circumstances. 😉
    Best wishes,
    Maria.

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