More on the mug?

I am the Fox licensee that produces the replica 918th Toby Jug and I'll tell you what I know about it.

I'll start by reminding you that the Robin Hood Toby Jug used in the movie was a prop that they created to resemble Beirne Lay's description of "the Green Toby" in the prelog of his book Twelve O'clock High. It read: "....vigorously modeled, with a well formed satyr handle, the beer mug depicted a robber with a Robin Hood hat and a black mask over the eyes...". There are literally thousands of different designs of toby jugs and character jugs but in 1949, Royal Doulton was producing a Robin Hood Character Jug (their model D6205) that, because of its obvious similarities, we believe the prop department used for the basic design to which they added the black mask.

How were they chosen? Toby Jugs became popular pouring and drinking vessels at British pubs and taverns in the late 1700s. I have been told that they were used primarily as water jugs in the pubs. It makes sense that many of the O-clubs in the 8th would have a large Toby around and could easily have adopted it to serve as an ambiguous marker for missions.

When was it rotated or moved? For the 918th BG, the Toby Jug in the O-club served as a code known only to the officers that they were alerted for a mission in the morning. In my opinion, they make "the turning of the Toby" a little too obvious in the movie and it wouldn't have taken long for "outsiders" to catch on to the code. A more accurate depiction might have been that Stovall nonchalantly motions to the bartender who then pours something from the jug and places it back facing out...something like that but you get the idea. I've heard that some groups had a certain chair they would invert on the table or something similar. There is no telling how far back this type of coding can be traced but I will try to dig up a story of another account of this coding and post it here later.

Who had them? I have not found anything written about the subject in any of my 8th AAF histories. Since Twelve O'clock High was a compilation of many of Lay's experiences in the 8th AAF, it is my guess that at least one of the bomb groups he was associated with had something similar and gave him the idea. Where he got the exact description of the "Green Toby" is not known. I would love to get first hand accounts from 8th AAF vets who remember similar codes in their groups. My dad was in the 487th BG (Lay was a C.O. of the 487th BG) but he doesn't remember a toby jug in the O-club...so who knows.

I have a little more info about the Twelve O'clock High Toby on my 918thpx web site and will be adding more info soon. In the mean time, I will try to find more history on codes used in battle.

Pete Plumb