Glossary
| AAA | Antiaircraft artillery |
| AAF | Army Air Forces |
| AAR | After action report |
| Abn | Airborne |
| Actg | Acting |
| Admin | Administrative, administrator |
| AGp | Army group |
| AM | Amplitude modulated |
| Armd | Armored |
| Asst | Assistant |
| Bailey bridge | Portable steel bridge of the “through” type. The roadway is supported by two main trusses composed of 10-foot sections called “panels” pinned together to form a continuous truss. Capacity may be increased by adding extra trusses alongside the first, by adding an extra truss on top of the first to make a second story, or by both means. |
| BAR | Browning automatic rifle |
| Bazooka | 2.36-inch rocket launcher |
| BBC | British Broadcasting Corporation |
| Bn | Battalion |
| Burp gun | German submachine gun |
| C-47 | American transport plane |
| CCA | Combat Command A |
| CCB | Combat Command B |
| CCR | Combat Command Reserve |
| CCS | Combined Chiefs of Staff |
| CG | Commanding general |
| CO | Commanding officer |
| Co | Company |
| CofS | Chief of Staff |
| Comdr | Commander |
| Conf | Conference |
| CP | Command post |
| DD | Duplex drive (tank) |
| D-day | Day on which an operation commences or is to commence |
| Dept | Department |
| Dir | Directive, director |
| Div | Division |
| Dragon’s teeth | Concrete pillars or iron posts erected as tank barriers |
| DUKW | 2½-ton amphibious truck |
| “88” | German 88-mm. high-velocity dual-purpose antiaircraft and antitank piece |
|
Ersatzheer |
German Replacement Army |
| ETO | European Theater of Operations |
| ExecO | Executive officer |
| FA | Field artillery |
|
Feldheer |
German Field Army |
| Flak | Antiaircraft |
| FM | Frequency modulation |
| FO | Field order |
|
Füsilier battalion |
Separate infantry battalion performing both reconnaissance and support in German division |
| FUSA | First United States Army |
| FWD | Forward headquarters |
| G-1 | Personnel officer or section of divisional or higher staff |
| G-2 | Intelligence officer or section |
| G-3 | Operations officer or section |
| G-4 | Supply officer or section |
| Grazing fire | Fire which is approximately parallel to the ground and does not rise above the height of a man, standing |
| Half-track | Combination wheeled and tracked armored personnel carrier |
| H-hour | Exact time on D-day at which a specific operation commences |
|
Hilfswillige |
Volunteer auxiliaries (non-German) |
| Hist | History |
| Hp | Horsepower |
| Hq | Headquarters |
| Incl | Inclosure |
| Inf | Infantry |
| Info | Information |
| Intell | Intelligence |
| JCS | Joint Chiefs of Staff |
| JIC | Joint Intelligence Committee |
| Jnl | Journal |
| Jump-off | Start of a planned ground attack |
|
Kampfgruppe |
German task force |
|
Kampfkommandant |
German combat commander |
|
Kampfstaerke |
Combat effective strength |
|
Landesschuetzen |
Home Guard battalion sometimes employed outside Germany |
| LCM | Landing craft, medium |
| LCVP | Landing craft, vehicle and personnel |
| Ltr | Letter |
| Luftwaffe | German Air Force |
| LVT | Landing vehicle, tracked |
| M1 (Garand) | American semiautomatic rifle |
| M4 (Sherman) | American medium tank |
| M10 | American tank destroyer with 3-inch gun |
| M26 (Pershing) | American medium tank mounting a 90-mm. gun |
| M36 | American tank destroyer mounting a high-velocity 110-mm. piece |
| Marching fire | Firing by troops while erect and advancing |
| Mark IV | German medium tank |
| Mark V (Panther) | German medium tank with heavy armor and high-velocity gun |
| Mark VI (Tiger) | German heavy tank |
| Min | Minutes |
| Mm | Millimeter |
| MS(S) | Manuscript(s) |
| Msg | Message |
| NAF | Symbol for messages from the Combined Chiefs of Staff to the Commander in Chief, Allied Expeditionary Force |
|
Nebelwerfer |
Multiple-barrel 150-mm. mortar or rocket launcher mounted on wheels and fired electrically |
| NUSA | Ninth United States Army |
|
OB NEDERLANDER |
Oberbefehlshaber Nederlander (Headquarters, Commander in Chief Netherlands) |
|
OB NORDWEST |
Oberbefehlshaber Nordwest (Headquarters, Commander in Chief Northwest [northwest Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands]) |
|
OB NW |
See OB NORDWEST |
|
OB SUED |
Oberbefehlshaber Sued (Headquarters, Commander in Chief South [southern Germany and several army groups on the Eastern Front]) |
|
OB WEST |
Oberbefehlshaber West (Headquarters, Commander in Chief West [France, Belgium, and the Netherlands]) |
| OCMH | Office, Chief of Military History |
|
OKH |
Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command) |
|
OKW |
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces) |
| OPD | Operations Division |
| Opn(s) | Operation(s) |
| Opnl | Operational |
|
Panzerfaust |
One-shot, shaped-charge antitank weapon |
| Plunging fire | Gunfire that strikes the earth’s surface at a high angle |
| POZIT | Proximity fuse |
| PX | Post Exchange |
| RAMPS | Recovered Allied Military Personnel |
| Ranger | Soldier specially trained to make surprise attacks on enemy territory |
| Ret | Retired |
| Rpt | Report |
| S-2 | Intelligence officer or section of regimental or lower staff |
| S-3 | Operations officer or section |
| SACMED | Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater |
| SCAF | Designates cables from Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, to the Combined Chiefs of Staff |
| SCR | Set complete radio |
| Seamule | 38-foot tug powered by two 143-hp. engines |
| Sec | Section |
| SGS | Secretary, General Staff |
| SHAEF | Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force |
| Sitrep | Situation report |
| S-mine | German antipersonnel mine |
|
SS |
Schutzstaffel (Elite Guard) |
| Storm boat | Metal ponton propelled by 50-hp. outboard motor |
| Sub | Subject |
| Sum | Summary |
| SUSA | Seventh United States Army |
| T26 | See M26 |
| TAC | Tactical Air Command |
|
Tagesstaerke |
Present for duty strength |
| TD | Tank destroyer |
| Telecon | Telephone conversation |
| T-forces | Special forces designated to search for items of scientific value |
| TM | Technical manual |
| TOT | Time on target, a method of timing artillery fire from various points to fall on a given target simultaneously |
| Tree burst | Explosion of shells against trees, designed to destroy troops underneath |
| TUSA | Third United States Army |
| TWX | Teletypewriter exchange |
| USA | United States Army |
| USAF | United States Air Force |
| USAREUR | United States Army, Europe |
| USNR | United States Naval Reserve |
| V-2 | German supersonic rocket |
|
Volksdeutsche |
“Racial Germans” from border areas of adjacent countries |
|
Volksgrenadier |
Honorific accorded by Hitler to certain infantry divisions |
|
Volkssturm |
A people’s militia, partially organized in one of the last steps of German mobilization for total war |
| VT | Variable time (fuse) |
|
Waffen-SS |
Military arm of the Nazi party |
|
Wehrkreis |
German Army administrative area, for the most part inside greater Germany |
|
Wehrmacht |
German Armed Forces |
|
WFSt |
Wehrmachtführungsstab (Armed Forces Operations Staff) |