Gangbuster

Gangbuster = 'one who busts gangs' or, more specifically, 'a law-enforcement official who is actively engaged in breaking up criminal gangs'.

This word was popularised as Gang Busters, the title of an extremely popular CBS radio series that premiered on January 15, 1936, and was broadcast until 1957. The expression "like gangbusters" appeared by 1940 in the sense 'aggressively; forcefully; energetically'; and hence as a more general intensive 'excitingly; well'. The expression was especially popular among jazz musicians, often in the phrase "come on like gangbusters".

Link: Random House Word of the Day
Episode: Invasion


Gelsenkirken

Gelsenkirken, in the Ruhr region of Germany, an industrial area that was home to numerous armament plants such as Krupp, Rheinmetall, Hoesch and Ruhrstahl. At the outbreak of World War II, the Rhine-Ruhr region topped the list of targets for attacks by British planes.

Episode: Enemy Fire


George VI

Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George (1894-1952), son of George V, and Duke of York, married Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923. In 1926 his daughter Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth II, was born. A shy man with a nervous stammer, he came to the throne reluctantly on the abdication of his brother Edward VIII in 1936 (crowned 1937). He reigned until his death in 1952. During the London Blitz in 1940, he and his wife endeared themselves to the British public by refusing to leave the capital when Buckingham Palace was bombed.

Link: Profile of George VI
Episode: The White Feather


Group Commander - see RAF Ranks


The Guinea Pig Club

Social and drinking club formed by airmen of the Burns Centre at the Queen Victoria Cottage Hospital, East Grinstead. The Club continues to function and assist burns patients today. If you get a chance, try and watch "The Guinea Pigs", a BBC4 documentary on McIndoe and The Guinea Pig Club, interviewing many original members. (Note: The link below is to QVH's old web-site. I couldn't find these pages at their new site.)

Link: The Guinea Pig Club
Episode: Enemy Fire