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Phil's World War II pages - Glossary of WWII terms Category: History and Culture > WWII Date & country: 14/11/2007, UK Words: 262

Jael
Operational code name for the Allied deception operations in Europe - later called Plan Bodyguard

JCS
Joint Chiefs of Staff - US high command, representing US Army and Navy

JIC
Joint Intelligence Committee - Top intelligence body in both USA and UK

JPS
Joint Planning Staff - British military planning organization

JSC
Joint Security Control - US organization, subordinate to the JCS responsible for security/codebreaking/deception operations

Jubilee
Operational code name for the British-Canadian raid on Dieppe - August 1942

Juno
Operational code name for one of the D-Day landing areas in Normandy between the Provence River and the town of St. Aubin sur Mer - principally a Canadian landing area

Jupiter
Operational code name for British plan to invade Norway

Kempei
Japanese military police

Knickebein
Crooked Leg - German navigational system using radio beams to guide bombers

Kondor Mission
German espionage operation based in Egypt

Konstantin
Operational code name for the German occupation of the Balkans areas previously occupied by Italian forces - September 1943

Kriegsmarine
The German Navy

Kripo
Kriminalpolizei - German criminal police department

Kutusov
Operational code name for the Soviet offensive against German forces in the Kursk Salient - July 1943

LCA
Landing Craft Assault

LCS
London Controlling Section - British organisation responsible for military security, cryptanalysis and deception operations

Lebensraum
Living space - Term used by the Nazis to refer to their plans for territorial expansion, particularly in the East

Lend-Lease
US policy of supplying the Allies with equipment and materials in exchange for payment in kind or return of undamaged equipment following the war.

Lichtenstein
German airborne radar used for nightfighting

Lightfoot
Operational code name for the British offensive at El Alamein - October 1942

Locarno Pact
Agreement signed in 1925 by Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia, guaranteeing international boundaries and re-affirming the Treaty of Versailles

LRDG
Long Range Desert Group

LRPG
Long Range Penetration Group

LSD
Landing Ship Dock

LSG
Landing Ship Gantry

LSI
Landing Ship Infantry

LSS
Landing Ship Stern-chute

LST
Landing Ship Tank

Luftwaffe
The German Air Force

MAAF
Mediterranean Allied Air Force

MAC
Mediterranen Air Command

Magic
Code name for US code breaking operations against the Japanese

Maginot Line
Series of sophisticated French fortifications positioned along France's eastern borders consisting of steel and concrete anti-tank emplacements and pillboxes

MAN
German armed anti-nazi resistance group, named after the MAN engineering works in Bavaria

Manhattan Project
Cover name (actually 'Manhattan Engineer District') for the development of the atomic bomb in the USA

Maquis
Name given to groups of the French Resistance (after a type of foliage in Corsica, behind which resistance fighters on the island used to hide)

Marita
Operational code name for the German attack on Greece in April 1941

Market - Garden
Operational code name for the Allied operation intended to establish a bridgehead across the river Rhine at the town of Arnhem in the Netherlands

Menace
Operational code name for Allied operations at Dakar - September 1940

Merkur
Mercury - Operational code name for the German air attacks on Crete - April 1941

Message Personnels
System used to communicate with members of the Resistance on the European mainland from Britain by using coded messages broadcast on BBC radio

MI5
British security service responsible for national security matters within the United Kingdom

MI6
British security service, otherwise known as the Secret Intelligence Service, responsible for collecting foreign intelligence relating to national security

MI9
British service responsible for assisting escaped prisoners of war

Milice
Paramilitary police force of Vichy France (Milice Francaise)

Millennium
Operational code name for the RAF bombing of Cologne - May 1942

Mincemeat
Operational code name for British deception operation in April 1943 where false operational plans were planted on a corpse and left floating off the coast of Spain - The Germans intercepted and believed the plans, which gave the impression that an Allied invasion of Greece was iminent, whereas the real invasion was planned for Sicily

Moonshine
British device used on aircraft to fool German radar into seeing far more aircraft than actually existed

MT
Motor Transport

MTB
Motor Torpedo Boat

MTO
Mediterranean Theatre of Operations

Mulberries
Transportable floating harbours constucted from hollow concrete, towed to the D-Day landing sites and used to offload equipment and supplies during the Normandy landings

Nazi
An abbreviation for 'National Sozialistiche Deutsche Arbeitpartei' the NSDAP, literally translated means National Socialist German Workers Party.

Neptune
Operational code name for the Allied D-Day Normandy beach landings - the assault phase of Operation Overlord

Nest Egg
Operational code name for the British re-occupation of the Channel Islands - May 1945

NID
Naval Intelligence Division

NKVD
Narodni Komissarat Vnutrennykh Del - Soviet People's Comissariat of Internal Affairs - the predecessor to the KGB, the Soviet internal security organisation

Noball
Operational code name for Allied air attacks on German V-weapons sites in 1944.

Nordlight
Northern Lights - Operational code name for the German attack on Leningrad in 1942

Nordwind
North Wind - Operational code name for the German offensive in the Alsace - Winter 1944/45

Oboe
Code name for British radio-navigational aid used by RAF bombers

Octagon
Code name for the second Quebec conference between Roosevelt and Churchill - September 1944

OFEC
Office of Foreign and Economic Co-ordination (USA)

Oflag
Offizier-Lager - 'Officer Camp' German prisoner-of-war camps for Allied officers

OKH
Oberkommando der Heeres - High Command of the German Army

OKL
Oberkommando der Luftwaffe - High Command of the German Air Force

OKM
Oberkommando der Kriegsmarine - High Command of the German Navy

OKW
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht - High Command of the German Armed Forces

Olive
Operational code name for the Allied assault on the Gothic Line, Italy - August 1944

Omaha
Code name for one of the US Normandy beach landing areas used on D-Day, the site was between Coleville and Vierville

OPD
Operations Division of the US Department of War

OSS
Office of Strategic Services - US military intelligence and special operations agency

Overlord
Operational code name for Allied operations in Normandy and North West Europe, beginning with Operation Neptune on D-Day, 6th June 1944.

OWI
Office of War Information (USA)

Quadrant
Code name for the first Quebec conference (Churchill & Roosevelt)- August 1943

Quicksilver
Code name for deception operations involving General Patton's fictitious FUSAG

RAAF
Royal Australian Air Force

RAF
Royal Air Force (Britain)

Rainbow
Code name given to US war plans drawn up for various scenarios

RAN
Royal Australian Navy

RCAF
Royal Canadian Air Force

RCN
Royal Canadian Navy

RDF
Radio Direction Finding

Reckless
Operational code name for US operations in Hollandia, New Guinea - April 1944

Red Army
The Soviet armed forces

Reichstag
The German Parliament

RFSS
Reichsfuehrer SS - 'Reich Leader SS' the formal title of Heinrich Himmler

RIN
Royal Indian Navy

Ring
Operational code name for Soviet offensive against German army at Stalingrad - January 1943

RN
Royal Navy (Britain)

RNZAF
Royal New Zealand Air Force

RNZN
Royal New Zealand Navy

RSHA
Reichssicherheitshauptamt - 'Reich Security Main Office' - orgainisation created by Himmler to coordinate all German security and police departments including the Gestapo, Kripo and SD.

Rumyantsev
Operational code name for Soviet counter offensive at the battle of Kursk, following operation Citadel - August 1943

SA
Sturmabteilungen - 'Storm Troopers' - Hitler's unofficial army of thugs (aka Brownshirts) - disbanded after the blood purge of 1934

Schwarze Kapelle
Black Orchestra - term used to describe a group of conspirators within the German Army who plotted to overthrow Hitler. The Schwarze Kapelle came near to assassinating Hitler on July 20th 1944.

SD
Sicherheitsdienst - 'Security Department' - The Nazi Party security service, intelligence gathering and counter-espionage wings of the RSHA headed by Reinhard Heydrich

SEAC
South East Asia Command (Allies)

Sealion
Operational code name for the planned German assault on Great Britain in 1940/41