U Beauties

English

Beauties was a corruption of Japanese butai meaning battalion, and no doubt a play on you beauty.

((Australia{{#if:|, {{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}{{#if:|, {{{4}}}{{#if:|, {{{5}}}{{#if:|, {{{6}}}{{#if:|, {{{7}}}{{#if:|, {{{8}}}{{#if:|, {{{9}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}})) ((obsolete{{#if:|, {{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}{{#if:|, {{{4}}}{{#if:|, {{{5}}}{{#if:|, {{{6}}}{{#if:|, {{{7}}}{{#if:|, {{{8}}}{{#if:|, {{{9}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}})) The "U" battalion of Allied prisoners of war who were among those used as slave labourers by the Japanese to build the notorious Burma-Thailand Railway during World War II.
1949: The Japs sometimes caught on but they never could do anything. It was just my bad Japanese. Calling ourselves "U Beauties" instead of "U Butai" was a great morale builder. — Major R. Newton in the Sydney Morning Herald, 23 April 1949 (Newton was the battalion commander). Quoted in Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language, second edition, 1966, chapter VII section 5, page 188.