hi i.m trying to find out what the Don R means as in dispatch or despatch rider as my father was one with the 1st airlanding anti tank battery at arnhem, what i mean is where does the ( ON) come in at (Don) ive googled but just says the D is phonetic but isnt the D stand for delta? so what does the ON stand for? i'm confused thank you
We have a thread somewhere on the wartime phonetic alphabet. If I find it I'll add the link. WW2 Phonetic Alphabet. See bit about British Army use. Don = D British Army 1927: Ack Beer Charlie Don Edward Freddy George Harry Ink Johnnie King London Monkey Nuts Orange Pip Queen Robert Sugar Toc Uncle Vic William X-ray Yorker Zebra
Where have you seen this 'Don R'? If you have it on paper or in a photo, please post the document here. Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog... was in use by the British during the war. Delta came later. Edit: I stand corrected (see Owen's link above).
Yes, Don R is actually a longer way of saying DR, which was the abbreviation for despatch rider. For years I thought it was said as Donnars or Donnards after mishearing it in a film. Then I saw that the field telephone, D Mark V was often known as the Don 5 and suddenly clicked...I had similar confusion with the artillery term OP ack, which means observation post assistant, and also references the pre-war British phonetic alphabet. Gary
ah ive got it now when it said phonectic i was thinking Alpha-Bravo-charlie-Delta and all that didnt know there was other ways. thanks all thats another one solved
Are you sure it has nothing to do with ordering a kebab delivery? I couldn't believe how many despatch riders were clogging the streets with food deliveries the last time I was in UK.
'Don R' is a typically British Army way of abbreviating things, in the same way that 'Toc H.' was used for 'Talbot House'. As the son of a Signalman, I grew up hearing the early version. Surrey Constabulary taught me the modern version, with their exaggerated number plate checks every time that I travelled home after midnight.
You can see the logic for abbreviations with the rhyming, easily misheard letters B C D E G P T V, but I'm buggered if I can think of any others at the moment. Hold on: going back to field telephones, I'm sure I've heard D10 cable referred to as Don 10.
