"THE TERM "EGGS-A-COOK"
Up to this time, the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Divisions had seen active service at Gallipoli and on the Somme. They had also done some training in Egypt, where the "Gyppo" vendors of fruit and chocolates advertised their wares by calling them "verra nice, verra sweet, verra clean. Two for One." (This meant, two of them for one half-piastre). They also sold hard-boiled eggs, in the same manner, calling out: "Eggs-a-cook. verra sweet, verra clean. Two for one." When the Third Divisional troops appeared, with their turned down hats and their oval, or egg-shaped, colour patches, members of the other four "Fighting Divisions," as they called themselves, immediately yelled out: "There they are. Eggs-a-cook. Verra nice, verra sweet, verra clean. Two for one." It may have started as a joke, but it unfortunately developed into a term of derision.
There was a little doggerel verse to the tone of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," which went:
"Oh, the First and the Second are in the line,
And the Fourth and Fifth are behind them.
But when we look, for the Eggs-a-cook,
I'm dammed if you can find them."
This, when sung in the hearing of men of the Third Division, was usually the signal for a box-on or brawl, but that was before the Third Division had made a name for itself at Messines and Passchendaele, and later on with its greatest exploit of all, which gained for it unstinted praise and everlasting respect. This was at the time the Germans broke through the British lines and the Fifth British Army was retreating in haste. Pushing on, to support our Fourth Division hanging on at Dernancourt, with but a mere handful of cavalry to act as support; without the aid of artillery other than four field guns, which were subsequently withdrawn, the derided Eggs-a-cook Division, between the Somme and the Ancre bore the entire brunt of stopping that avalanche of victory-flushed enemy troops, swooping onwards towards Amiens.
Unflinchingly the Eggs-a-cooks withstood the onslaught, held the enemy at bay and snatched victory from his very jaws."
From Ted Harris's site
http://www.firstaif.info/42/line1/bn-history.htmThe following from
http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/res/aehist/wwi/annoted1.phpA good place for AIF War Language.
Army Safety Corps Army Service Corps. The A.S.C. rarely had to operate under fire.
*Black Hand A Section of Bombers. (Infantry)
General World War I. Attested in F&G, Digger Dialects, Partridge.
This term had a broader sense in World War I, usually in the combination ‘black hand gang’ and referred to those sent on very dangerous missions, such as a trench-raid. This sense, according to Partridge, was current 1916–18. It was also applied to bombers, stretcher-bearers, and others assigned dangerous duties. According to Partridge, this sense was current from 1917. F&G suggest the term originated with the villain’s role in a film melodrama.
*Bowie-Knife Army The American Expeditionary Force.
World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects but not otherwise recorded.
This is a reference to the large bowie-knives named after Jim Bowie, an American adventurer who fought and died at the Alamo in 1836. The bowie knife is one of the most aggressive fighting knives ever made.
College Nickname for 39 General Hospital and No. 2 Stationery Hospital, when venereal disease was the chief if not the only ailment treated. A soldier who received full treatment was regarded as having graduated.
World War I. Attested here but not otherwise recorded.
The No. 2 Auxiliary Stationary Hospital was located in South London and dealt primarily with soldiers who had lost limbs; the No. 39 General Hospital was primarily a venereal disease hospital, and was located in Bulford, England.
Daddies, the The name applied to the British Labour Corps serving at Anzac. The personnel of these units were all above military age, or had been rejected for active service in fighting units.
*Deep Thinker A reinforcement who arrived in a fighting unit late in the course of the war.
World War I. Attested here and in Digger Dialects.