Stealth Pilot wrote in
:

On Thu, 5 Jun 2008 15:21:50 +0000 (UTC), Bertie the Bunyip
wrote:


fence with the line 'foo was here'

foo is the 'forward observation officer' the guy who used to tootle
over the lines in an auster or a cub spotting for artillery and
fighters. verrah verrah british ol' chap. verrah verrah courageous
flying too boot.


Actually, "Foo" came from Smokey Stover, and was a corruption of the
french "feux" ( Smokey was a fireman) He called himself a "Foo fighter"
and juxtaposed with the term UFO (which at the beginning of it's life
just meant anything that pilots couldn't identify and had nothing to do
with little gray men) a UFO became a foo fighter to USAAC pilots in WW2.
While I'm sure the Forward Observation Officer thing is also true,
Smokey Stover was really popular at the time and was the source of a
large number of slang words used during the war.
I always loved his car!

Bertie

interesting. smokey never seemed to make it into our war history.
dont doubt you though.


Oh it's true. In much the same way as modern cartoon culture makes it into
every day life. How many guys do you know who say "Doh"?
Smokey was cool if a bit dated by the time it bit the dust, which must have
been in the 60s. Corny, but simultaneously quite surreal.

Bertie