Fighter wing designations

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Ironduke

Spaceman
Just browsed through the WC2 script to see what phonetic alphabet the fighter wing designations were following. I thought back in WC2, all wings had been assigned names according to the Greek alphabet, but to my surprise, the designations seem to be completely mixed up.
These are the wings mentioned in WC2:

- Alpha
- Bravo (Rapier II)
- Gold (Broadsword)
- Omicron
- Zebra (Broadsword)
- Zeta

Sorry if this has already been discussed before (maybe I missed the threat), but: Is there any rule for naming wings in WC at all? Greek, NATO phonetic, colors... Anything goes? :confused:

Edit: And while we're at it: Any clues what Kilrathi wing names would sound like? (I'm not referring to squadron names like "Blood Most Noble" or "Fangs of Death.")
 
You're right, they do use an odd system. My assumption is that each squadron had it's own set of callsigns, with fighters using greek letters and bombers using a seperate system.

By Prophecy they all used the standard phonetic alphabet of Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, etc, if that helps.

I don't recall Kilrathi wings being given names, but if you want to find someone who might know them, you've found the right place!
 
In WC1, WC2, and WCP, we see them designated with Greek letters (Gamma, Epsilon, Zeta, etc) or NATO phonetic letters (Charlie, Echo, Foxtrot, etc.) In WC3 and WC4 we don't hear wing designations much.
 
As in real life callsigns for particular flights are assigned on a mission by mission basis. There doesn't seem to be any universal requirement.

The Tiger's Claw used Greek letters, but even in Wing Commander 1 that wasn't a Confed-wide rule... we see Foxtrot Wing off the TCS Kyoto in the Venice series.

The novels have plenty of variations... the Excalibur wing which destroys Kilrah in WC3 is Excalibur Flight, there's a battle in False Colors where all the elements are named after Norse Mythology, there's lots of color-based ones in Fleet Action, etc.

The Kilrathi do have flight names, too -- they show up in a few of the novels (Heart of the Tiger and the movie novels.)
 
Sometimes the designations, in real-life and otherwise follow a particular theme.

For example, girls names (Many of the code names used in Operation 'Irene' in Somalia, 1993...aka Black Hawk Down were female names), mythology, and from personal accounts from my family in the British Army, they've said they've used names of food as names for their units, targets, hostiles, etc. (One such one referred to the Taleban as Crumpets.)

Cheers,

Red Coat
 
Red Coat said:
... from personal accounts from my family in the British Army, they've said they've used names of food as names for their units, targets, hostiles, etc. (One such one referred to the Taleban as Crumpets.)

Cheers,

Red Coat
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During WW2 Germans were nicknamed Krauts by allied servicemen - which is German for cabbage...
 
HammerHead said:
During WW2 Germans were nicknamed Krauts by allied servicemen - which is German for cabbage...
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Yep, but to return from Krauts, Tommies and Frogs to fighter wing designations: Confed uses a complete mixture on a mission-by-mission basis, then. Very well, I can live with that - and what about the Kilrathi? LOAF mentioned that there actually are names given for their wings. Anyone around who just happens to know some more details on that?

(I'd go with something like "Claw" or "Fang" for the furry wings, if that wasn't already used for their missiles. ;) )
 
(I'd go with something like "Claw" or "Fang" for the furry wings, if that wasn't already used for their missiles. )
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Close enough. :) Examples from the WC3 novel include Hunt, Bloodhawk, Strike and Red Fang flights.
 
HammerHead said:
During WW2 Germans were nicknamed Krauts by allied servicemen - which is German for cabbage...
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Or the Hun, after the famous forces led by Attila.

Another famous name was Jerry, I used to know where that came from but I've forgotten for now, I'll research it and get back to you.

Yep, but to return from Krauts, Tommies and Frogs to fighter wing designations
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Yes, Tommies to know the British by, in reference to the historical figure/myth about Private Tommy Atkins.

Examples from the WC3 novel include Hunt, Bloodhawk, Strike and Red Fang flights.
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Smashing, thanks for that too, gives me more insight into the Kilrathi. :P

Cheers,

Red Coat
 
Jerry, amazingly enough (or, you know, predictably enough :p), comes from the word German. You know - German - Gerry - Jerry. It's been around a heck of a lot longer than WWI, though. Back in the 19th century, the term "Jerry-rigged" was used to refer to pretty much anything manufactured in German factories, because it was all so shoddy. It's kinda amazing to think about, given that today, "German quality" denotes something as far from shoddy as possible... but it just goes to show they didn't get the hang of it in a split second :).
 
Haha, I can't believe I didn't remember that! Considering a large portion of the older people in my family fought for the British in the Second World War! :P

Its amazing that back then, obviously the quality of whatever the Germans produced was fairly shoddy, yet these days its top notch. Particularly their armaments, for example, the MP5 submachine gun.

But I'm going too far off topic now. :P

Cheers,

Red Coat
 
Quarto said:
It's kinda amazing to think about, given that today, "German quality" denotes something as far from shoddy as possible... but it just goes to show they didn't get the hang of it in a split second :).
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I've always figured the improvement in German engineering had to to with focus being shifted from quantity to quality because of the limitations put on them by the victors after WW1... But I haven't nearly enough knowledge about that era to make that clame.

For all I know German engineering was already superior at that point, I seem to recall them having some fairly decent planes, at least. :)
 
Just about all their equipment at the time was top notch though, from their rifles, to machine guns and aircraft.

Cheers,

Red Coat
 
Dyret said:
I've always figured the improvement in German engineering had to to with focus being shifted from quantity to quality because of the limitations put on them by the victors after WW1... But I haven't nearly enough knowledge about that era to make that clame.
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It was simply a matter of experience - the same thing happened later on with Japanese stuff (back in the 1950s, rightly regarded as junk), and the same thing is now starting to (slowly) happen with Chinese products - today, products "made in China" are generally regarded as being just a notch above "Italian quality", but already that's starting to change, as people more and more often are noticing that Chinese products no longer fall apart after first use.
 
This brings to mind the bit from Back to the Future III, where in 1955, Doc says "no wonder this thing failed--it was made in Japan", to which Marty replies, "You kidding, Doc? All the best stuff's made in Japan." Both of them are right, for their respective eras.
 
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