Phonetic
Alphabets were used throughout the Twentieth
Century by the Canadian Army as an aid to communication, especially when
using telephone or wireless equipment. The phonetic alphabet was an aid
to spelling out words and numbers to avoid mis-communications. They are
also used in other situations, such as naming landing beaches, for
example (perhaps most famously, Juno Beach in Normandy was divided into
sectors named for letters of the phonetic alphabet).
The "phonetic alphabet"
referred to in military history differs from the linguistics term
"phonetic alphabet", which refers to a set of symbols which describe the
pronunciation of words. The century older International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) is often confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet owing
to their similar names. Nevertheless, phonetic alphabet has acquired the
alternate meaning of a spelling alphabet through long use, including its
official use with that meaning by national and international agencies.
First World War
The 1904 alphabet in use throughout the
British Army in the First World War was:
Ack Beer Charlie Don
Edward Freddie Gee Harry Ink Johnnie King London Emma
Nuts Oranges Pip Queen Robert Esses Toc Uncle Vic William X-ray Yorker
Zebra
Some slang derived from this alphabet
survived into the Second World War, such as "Don-R" for a Despatch
Rider.
Second World War
In 1927, the British phonetic alphabet
was standardized and Canadian soldiers took it with them into the Second
World War (differences from above version in bold)
Ack Beer Charlie Don
Edward Freddie George Harry Ink Johnnie King London Monkey
Nuts Orange(s) Pip Queen Robert Sugar Toc Uncle Vic William X-ray
Yorker Zebra
Midway through the Second World War, the
American phonetic alphabet was standardized among the western Allies.
Able Baker Charlie Dog
Easy Fox George How Item Jig King Love Mike
Nan Oboe Peter Queen Roger Sugar Tare Uncle Victor William X-ray Yoke
Zebra
Soldiers in infantry
companies (which were usually lettered A,B,C,D and named after the
phonetic equivalent) at the time of the changeover were sometimes
dismayed to find out that they no longer belonged to "Don" Company but
to "Dog" Company.
NATO
According to Wikipedia:
The NATO phonetic
alphabet is a common name for the international radiotelephony
spelling alphabet which assigns code words to the letters of the
English alphabet so that critical combinations of letters (and
numbers) can be pronounced and understood by those who transmit and
receive voice messages by radio or telephone regardless of their
native language, especially when the safety of navigation or persons
is essential. It is used by many national and international
organizations, including the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU),
the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),
and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). It is a subset
of the much older International Code of Signals (INTERCO), which
originally included visual signals by flags or flashing light, sound
signals by whistle, siren, foghorn, or bell, as well as one, two, or
three letter codes for many phrases. The same alphabetic code words
are used by all agencies, but each agency chooses one of two
different sets of numeric code words. NATO uses the normal English
numeric words (Zero, One), except for 5 and 9, which are pronounced
"fife" and "niner", whereas the IMO uses compound numeric words (Nadazero,
Unaone).
The alphabet's
common name arose because it appears in Allied Tactical Publication
ATP-1, Volume II: Allied Maritime Signal and Maneuvering Book used
by all allied navies in NATO, which adopted a modified form of the
International Code of Signals. Because the latter allows messages to
be spelt via flags or Morse code, it naturally called the code words
used to spell out messages by voice its "phonetic alphabet". The
name NATO phonetic alphabet became widespread because the signals
used to facilitate the naval communications and tactics of the
United States and NATO have become global. However, ATP-1 is marked
NATO Confidential (or the lower NATO Restricted) so is not publicly
available. Although a NATO unclassified version of the document is
provided to foreign, even hostile, militaries, even they are not
allowed to make it publicly available.
The NATO standard was adopted by Canada
after the Korean War.
Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta
Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel India Juliet Kilo Lima Mike
November Oscar Papa Quebec Romeo Sierra Tango Uniform Victor Whiskey
X-Ray Yankee Zulu