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"whole nine yards"

Posted by Jim on January 10, 2002

In Reply to: "Whole nine yards" posted by Jim on January 10, 2002

: : : My comment supports the WWII aircraft origin of this phrase. I have read, though I do not now recall the source, that carrier based fighter planes, e.g. Hellcat, stored machine gun ammunation in the wings in belts. These belts were 9 yards long. A pilot upon return might say, for instance, "I gave that enemy munition plant the Whole nine yards." JB

: : Say it? But never ever write it down. Find a text reference from that time period and you win the prize.

: The F6F Hellcat had six 6 × 0.50 inch Browning M3 fixed forward-firing machine guns. Each gun fired 400 rounds each. It is plausible that a belt containing 400 rounds might be 9 yards (324") long, if the cartridge and link are .81 inches wide. Haven't found a definite source for length and no citations yet either. Neat theory. Conforms with definition of "Whole nine yards" as "all".

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