The British have long had a command of their brand of English that defies understanding by the common colonial. That got re-inforced for me last week when Christina Olds and I were battling through the short suspense for completing copy-edit review of the text of "Fighter Pilot", the Robin Olds memoir.
Robin left us a great chapter about his welcome to England during his exchange tour with the RAF. As a yank in a not-so-foreign land he got an ambiguous welcome from a squadron of very combat experienced warriors. He was challenged quickly and naturally he acquitted himself admirably. In the process of telling his story, he quoted the squadron commander as directing him to review the squadron's "bumpf"--an apparent slang reference to what we might today call a PIF or Pilot Information File. It was a library or collection of miscellaneous regulations, rules, diagrams, policies and trivia which governed or mis-governed daily operations.
The copy editor challenged us that "bumpf" should be spelled "bumf". Since neither term falls into the lexicon of common usage in the States, I did what I always counsel my students not to do. I went to Wikipedia.
There I found that "bumpf" (British spelling) or "bumf" (American usage) is RAF slang for "bum fodder" which roughly translates to toilet paper. It is applied to useless manuals and regulations which headquarters generates and the operators ignore. We defaulted to the original British spelling in the manuscript.
For those who want to brush up on their World War II RAF British banter, I offer this:
So, now you're prepared to "talk like a Fighter Pilot" if there should be such a day declared next year.
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