Soldier Changeovers

Ambassadors and artists are easy on crossword solvers – they allow only a small set of abbreviations to represent them. An ambassador is HE (=His/Her Excellency), an artist RA (=Royal Academy) or occasionally ARA (=Associate of the Royal Academy).

Soldiers are a lot more trouble - the word "soldier" could lead to a whole range of 2 and 3 letter substitutions.

Take a look at the popular ones:

ANT
The "soldier" ant is a type of ant with a comparatively large head and better fighting abilities. Soldier = ANT is fair in cryptic clues; the word "soldier" may be tagged with "perhaps" to signal a definition-by-example but nowadays it isn't considered mandatory.

Times 24728: One gets fed up with soldier challenging authority (7) DEFIANT
(I FED)< ANT (soldier)

GI
GI is a nickname for an American soldier (remember GI Joe?). GI is used as an initialism for Government Issue but it has an interesting history: an earlier GI (1908) was an abbreviation of galvanized iron, and was used by American soldiers in WW1 as slang for German artillery shells. Read more.

Guardian 25249 (Orlando): Movement uniting female soldier with second-in-command (6) ADAGIO
ADA (female) GI (soldier) [c]O[mmand]

MEN
"Man" stands for "soldier", "men" for "soldiers".

Times 24661: Replacing soldier ahead of time as source of intelligence (9) INFORMANT
IN FOR (replacing) MAN (soldier) T (time)

Everyman 3363: Hear about soldiers with TA stuck inside a drainage basin (9,4) CATCHMENT AREA
MEN (soldiers) TA, inside CATCH (hear) RE (about) A

NEY
Michel Ney was a French soldier during the French Revolutionary wars. He is often described as "soldier" or "old soldier" in cryptic clues.

Guardian 24984 (Araucaria): Place old soldier on Thames (6) PUTNEY
PUT (place) NEY (old soldier)

OR
OR stands for Other Ranks - those personnel in the army who are not commissioned officers. OR is generally used in the plural form.

Times Jumbo 904: Like the start of a speech old soldiers face (8) EXORDIAL
EX (old) OR (soldiers) DIAL (face)

PARA
Para is a member of the Parachute Regiment in the British Army, trained to land in combat areas by parachuting from airplanes.

Times 24808: Soldier on horse overriding (9) PARAMOUNT
PARA (soldier) MOUNT (horse)

RE
RE stands for Royal Engineers, one of the corps of the British army.

Times 24706: Tough soldiers and one protected by mum (9) RESILIENT
RE (soldiers), I (one) in SILENT (mum)

Strictly speaking RE should be used in the plural form, but it isn't unusual to see it as an abbreviation for the singular "soldier".

FT 13660 (Armonie): Command soldier, in a manner of speaking (9) DIRECTION
RE (soldier) in DICTION (a manner of speaking)

TA
TA is the Territorial Army, a volunteer force of the British Army. TA could also be clued as "volunteers" or "reserves".

Times Jumbo 914: Volunteer soldiers in search with soldier possibly fighting (9) COMBATANT
TA (volunteer soldiers), in COMB (search) ANT (soldier possibly)

Solve These

Guardian 25216 (Pasquale): Peril that besets soldiers (6)
Times 24798: Men trapped by river in spate (7)
Sunday Times 4416: Away for time, some soldier potentially dropped (4)
Times Jumbo 914: Soldiers box gunners — they play together (9) __C_E____

Related Posts:

• Detectives in Cryptic Clues
• They Do It Dis Way
• Abbreviations from the Game of Bridge

If you wish to keep track of further articles on Crossword Unclued, you can subscribe to it in a reader via RSS Feed. You can also subscribe by email and have articles delivered to your inbox, or follow me on twitter to get notified of new links.