Glossary

Bde – Brigade – typically 2-5 Battalions, up to 5000 soldiers
Coy – Company – a unit of 10o-200 soldiers
B.O. – British Officer
RIASC – Royal Indian Army Service Corps
Khassadar – locally raised troops
Dogras – Indian troops, like Gurkhas (the Nepali equivalent)
Rajputs – Indian Army regiment
Batman – army servant / orderly
Scouts – locally raised militia
nullah – river or dry river bed / gully
R.U.R. – Royal Ulster Rifles
R.P. – Type of patrol – stood for Recce post.
G.R. – Gurhka Rifles – Gurkhas being troops in the British and Indian Armies raised in Nepal.
2/13 G.R. – 2nd battalion, 13th Gurkha Rifles etc
V.B. – Vickers-Berthier light machine gun, adopted in 1932 by the Indian Army.
picquet or piquet – Guard post, forward observation post, often fixed and fortified, sometimes temporary
M.G. – machine gun
sangar – sandbagged defensive position
chaplies – leg protectors at ankle height
C.O. – Commanding officer
R.A. – Royal artillery
R.T.R. – Royal Tank Regiment
P.A. – Political administrator or agent (like local governor)
Bns – Battalions
Bn – Battalion
lashkar – rebel/insurgent
I.O. – Indian officer
B.O.R.  British other ranks
I.O.R. – Indian other ranks
Babu – Indian official/orderly?
Column – an expedition / march / large sortie
Ipi – the Osama Bin Laden of his day
Charpoy – servant / boy
Razcol – army name for the Waziristan campaign army
Ulia – ? some kind of army staff position
RSM – Regimental sergeant major
badmash – bad man (in urdu)
dushman – a local tribesman