Whats a DF and DL
 

My Ford instruction book First edition (grey cover) has a section entitled for D.F.s with a lot of cartoon drawings of things of do's and don'ts when driving CMPs. All the later special pattern books i have don't have this chapter, i have an idea what a DF is but could someone please clear this up and why was it dropped from later editions ?

The nice translation is "damn fool". Not sure if they used "Dumb FXXX" back in the day. We did use that in this day and age wrt some of the things drivers did, such as nailing a pice of cardboard to a radiator for a winter shroud.

Here´s a booklet for Bedford drivers, apparently they were Bloody F00£$?!?

H.

A format similar to the one shown above for the Bedford appears in the Operation and Maintenance manual for the Otter Armoured Car.

Fox Manual
 

The Fox manual has the same section for 'dumb drivers' only they say it's for "S.B." 's which is either "Stupid Bastards" or "Son's [of] Bitches"

Anyone have better ideas for D.L.?
 

DL = dopey lump, dumb lout, dead loss, didn't learn .... plus a plethora of other possibilities.

From the Bren Carrier Maint manual:

"You might ask what a D. F. is, but why should we tell you, you have a sergeant of your own, let him tell you"

SB, DF, etc
 

A little bit from Maintenance Manual CMP 3ton 6x6 operating instructions B-21

TOUCHING ON TAPS
Once upon a time there was a driver who was so careful and so conscientious that he never ran out of fuel. But that as you can tell from the opening words, is only a fairy story.

a little further on-

you set your switch to register on the tank you are drawing from because, for one thing, your buddies riding with you might not appreciate your engine stoping for lack of fuel when the gauge very plainly says the tank is full, and some artillery man on the other side decides your vehicle being stationary, would make a lovely target for his nice new gun..... :doh:

In todays army they represent the lowest points of war and peace:

DF = Defensive Fire.. ie, we are in deep **** if we need this.
DL = Distance Learning.. a bean counters idea of letting you do a portion of a career course while still trying to juggle your normal work load, the polar opposite of TD.
TD = Temporary Duty or Temporary Divorce. The army equivilant of a pub crawl that has a significant divorce rate and financial disruption.

Scotty

How Many Times Have I Done This
 

I thought driving with the fuel gauge on the left tank and the selector valve on the right tank was part of the theft deterrent system. I hate to admit how many times over the years I done this driving a CMP. It has now become second nature to switch the selector valve as soon as the engine stumbles. The other thing I've learned is don't push in the clutch leave it in gear switch the valve and then check to see if the gauge is on the correct tank.

Cheers Phil