Possibly the greatest exponent of the use of "mucking" as a euphemism was Paul Brickhill, who wrote a large number of
Second World War prisoner esdcape stories - most famous being "Colditz," closely followed by "The Wooden Horse." All good, stirring stuff with plenty of British heroes, always at least one Brit villain, with lots of Germans being German, and often with an absolutely splendid Camp Commandant who had to pretend to be a Nazi but was really a very professional Army or Airforce type, doncha know, what?
Brickhill's direct speech also referred to various people as "muggers"!
I've read most of them and enjoyed them in my youth.
My favourite story about Paul is when he was introduced to Zsa Zsa Gabor at a film premiére, and she said to him "Ah, yes - you are the writer who can't spell 'Fuck'"
