Woff uses the word 'flak'

[JimAttrill]

I noticed that in 1915 (in WOFF) I was warned about enemy 'flak'.  This word should be changed to 'archie' which is what the WWI RFC pilots used.  'Flak' comes from the

German abbreviation for Flugzeugabwehrkanone, or "aircraft defense cannon". 'Flak' was rapidly adopted by the Allies for obvious reasons, but it was not used in World War One at all.  Let's get the immersion right! 

[Hauksbee]

'Bit of an oversight, there. But...it's a very, very big pond we're being immersed in; even the Devs are bound to miss a detail here and there.

 

A while back, a friend of mine and I visited one of his buddies. There was a Netflix WWII documentary on the telly that I kept one eye on. It was a B-17 raid, the camera was inside the plane back near the waist gunner's position. This footage had a soundtrack. You could see, and hear, the flak bursts outside. But, more chilling, you could  hear the flak fragments hitting the B-17. They made a sharp 'snap' sound as they cut through the aluminum shell, then a 'hiss's as they traveled through the air, and another 'snap' as they exited the plane. It was the only time I had ever heard that sound recorded. One tends to think of a B-17 bomber as a big, substantial thing, but it's not. It's a thin aluminum box that can fly. Almost like going to war in a water balloon. Try as I might, I've never been able to find that program again.

[JFM]

To address this just for the sake of learning and not leaving it hanging, we discovered on another forum that the word "flak" was indeed used by the Germans in WW1. As JimAtrill stated, the term Archie was used by RFC pilots. Although, in RFC combat reports and squadron record books, at least, I more often see "A.A." or "A.A. fire."

 

Here is a German report from July 1917 in which "Flak" appears in two other compound words:

 

 

 

 

[von Baur]

Certainly, "FLAK" was a common term on the German side. I think the question is, since Jim was warned about enemy flak, was it a common term among the British or French forces?

 

"Archie" wouldn't have appeared in official reports, either. It was a slang term, a way of laughing at what could kill them without a chance to fight back. For those who don't know, (a small number, I'm sure), it came from a line of a song, popular at the time, the refrain of which was "Archibald? Certainly not." Some unknown RFC pilot, when asked if the AA frightened him, responded with that and it stuck.

[JimAttrill]

There are four pages of this topic on SimHQ here: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3915935/The_word_flak_was_not_used_in_#Post3915935

 

Why we have two forums is a bit beyond me.  Politics I suppose. 

[jeanba]

In french it was DCA