Guide to Footnotes
There exists no generally accepted practice for citing Army and Navy documents. The method adopted in this and other Pacific volumes is designed to furnish to the reader necessary information on the source, character, date, subject matter, and present location of the documents, and to make each citation as brief as possible. The security classifications of the documents have been omitted.
The citations are for the most part self-explanatory, but a brief exposition may assist the reader in finding the entries in the South Pacific War Diary. They are listed in the Diary, by month, according to their date-time groups in Greenwich Civil Time, and show the originator and the addressee of each message. The first two figures in a date-time group give the day of the month; the last four indicate the time of day. Thus, in a group of entries for July 1942, a date-time group of 021226 means that the date of the message was 2 July, and 1226 was the time.
In general, abbreviations conform to the usages in TM 20–205, the Dictionary of United States Army Terms, published in 1944. To assist the civilian reader, unfamiliar official and unofficial military and naval abbreviations, short titles, and code words which are used in the footnotes are explained below.
| AAA | Antiaircraft artillery |
| ACofS | Assistant Chief of Staff |
| Adj | Adjutant |
| Amph | Amphibious |
| Arty | Artillery |
| ASP | Army Service Forces |
| ATIS | Allied Translator and Interpreter Section |
| Avn | Aviation |
| Bn | Battalion |
| Bn-l, Bn-2, etc. | See under G. |
| CA | Coast Artillery |
| CACTUS | Guadalcanal |
| CINC SWPA | Supreme Commander [Commander in Chief], Southwest Pacific Area |
| CINCPAC | Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet |
| CINCPOA | Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Area |
| CG | Commanding General |
| CM-IN | Cable Message In |
| CM-OUT | Cable Message Out |
| CNO | Chief of Naval Operations |
| CO | Commanding Officer |
| CofS | Chief of Staff |
| COMAIRSOPAC | Commander, [land-based] Aircraft, South Pacific Force |
| COMAIRWING I | Commanding General, 1st Marine Air Wing |
| COMAMPHIBFORSOPAC | Commander, Amphibious Force, South Pacific Force |
| Comdr | Commander |
| Comdt | Commandant |
| COMGENSOPAC | Commanding General, U.S. Army Forces in the South Pacific Area |
| COMINCH | Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet |
| COMNAVBAS | Commander, Naval Base[s] |
| COMNAVEU | Commander, U.S. Naval Forces in Europe |
| COMSERONSOPAC | Commander, Service Squadron, South Pacific Force |
| COMSOPAC | Commander, South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force |
| COMSOWESPACFOR | Commander, Southwest Pacific Force (the U.S. Naval commander under MacArthur) |
| CTF | Commander, Task Force |
| CTG | Commander, Task Group |
| D-1, D-2, etc. | See under G. |
| ExO | Executive Officer |
| FA | Field Artillery |
| FM | Field Manual |
| FO | Field Order |
| G | A generic label for the staff sections of large Army units. G-1, for example, indicates either the personnel section of a headquarters or the assistant chief of staff for personnel; G-2, intelligence; G-3, operations; G-4, supply and evacuation. In units smaller than divisions, the staff sections are labeled S-1, S-2, etc. In 1942 Marine units employed the same staff organization as the Army, but D indicated a divisional staff section, R that of a regiment, and Bn that of a battalion. |
| GHQ | General Headquarters |
| GO | General Order |
| Gp | Group |
| GSUSA | General Staff, U.S. Army (used after the reorganization of the armed forces in 1947) |
| HD | Harbor Defense |
| HRS DRB AGO | Historical Records Section, Departmental Records Branch, Administrative Services Division, Office of The Adjutant General |
| Int | Intelligence |
| Interrog | Interrogation |
| JCS | Joint Chiefs of Staff |
| JPS | Joint Staff Planners |
| MAC | Marine Amphibious Corps |
| MIS | Military Intelligence Service |
| Mob | Mobile |
| Msg | Message |
| NR | Number (relating to a radiogram) |
| Ntg | No time group |
| OB | Order of Battle |
| Obs | Observer |
| O-in-C | Officer in Charge |
| ONI | Office of Naval Intelligence |
| OPD | Operations Division, War Department General Staff (now the Plans and Operations Division, General Staff, U.S. Army) |
| Opn | Operation |
| Ord | Order |
| Org Rec Br, AGO | Organization Records Branch, Records Administration Center, Administrative Services Division, Office of The Adjutant General |
| Pac | Pacific |
| POA | Pacific Ocean Area |
| PTO | Pacific Theater of Operations |
| Rad | Radiogram |
| Recon | Reconnaissance |
| R-1, R-2, etc. | See under G. |
| RINGBOLT | Tulagi |
| SCAP | Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers |
| SEC NAV | The Secretary of the Navy |
| SGO | Office of The Surgeon General |
| S-1, S-2, etc. | See under G. |
| SOPAC | South Pacific Area, South Pacific Force |
| SOWESPAC | Southwest Pacific Area |
| SSUSA | Special Staff, U.S. Army |
| Stf | Staff |
| SWPA | Southwest Pacific Area |
| TF | Task Force |
| TG | Task Group |
| Trans | Translation |
| USA | U.S. Army |
| USAFISPA | U.S. Army Forces in the South Pacific Area |
| USSBS | U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey |
| WD | War Department (now the Department of the Army) |
| WDCSA | Chief of Staff, U.S. Army (prior to the reorganization in 1947) |
| WDGS | War Department General Staff (now the General Staff, U.S. Army) |
| WIA | Wounded in Action |
Table merged onto previous page
Table merged onto previous page