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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
1-A U.S. Selective Service designation for
one who is fit to serve in the Armed Forces.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1-A-O U.S. Selective Service designation for
conscientious objectors; available for nonmilitary service only. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 442nd Regimental Combat Team U.S. Army unit composed of Japanese-American volunteers who saw action in the Italian Campaign. The most highly decorated unit in U.S. Army history. Motto: "Go for Broke" |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 4-F U.S. Selective Service designation for one who is not fit to serve in the armed forces under established physical, mental, or moral standards.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 5:3:3 battleship ratio Formula adopted at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-1922, which stated that for every five capital ships built by the U.S. or Great Britain, the Japanese could only build three. This became a serious issue of contention between the Japanese and the Americans in the years leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 88mm German anti-aircraft and anti-tank
artillery gun.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z AAPGBL All-American Girls Professional Baseball League; women's baseball league which was started during WWII to keep baseball in the public eye while many male players were serving in the military. The league existed between 1943 and 1954.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ABDA Designator for the combined commands of the American, British, Dutch, and Australian forces in the Far East which was established on December 28, 1941, and encompassed all the territory from Australia to India.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Abwehr German intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944. Headed by Wilhelm Canaris, it was dissolved by Hitler when he learned of the Abwehr's anti-Nazi activities, which included several assassination attempts on the Führer.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ace Title given to a fighter pilot who shot down five or more enemy planes.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ack-ack British designator for anti-aircraft fire.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Acoustic mine Explosive mine set off by the sound vibrations of a ship's propeller.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Afrika Korps German forces in North Africa under General Erwin Rommel
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Alamogordo, New Mexico Site of the first successful atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945. See Trinity
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ALCAN Highway Short for Alaska-Canada Highway, a 1,390-mile road constructed by U.S. and Canadian army engineers over an eight-month period in 1942 to ensure a land route from the continental U.S. to Alaska. One-third of these engineers were African Americans.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Alexander, Sir Harold British field marshal who commanded troops in Burma, North Africa, Sicily and Italy. He was the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean when Rome was liberated in June 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Allies Term that refers to the U.S., Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, Canada and approximately 50 other countries who opposed the Axis countries during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z America First Committee Isolationist organization that emphasized the exclusion of the United States into "any foreign entanglements." One of its most popular members was famed aviator Charles Lindbergh. The organization disbanded immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Amerika The name of one of Hitler's personal armored trains; the other was Brandenburg.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Anschluss German name for the Nazi annexation of Austria on March 13, 1938.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Anti-Semitism Hatred of Jews; a major article of Nazi doctrine and practice, which led to the Holocaust.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Anzio Site of an Allied invasion of Italy on January 22, 1944, which was intended to cut off German forces in the lower part of the Italian peninsula.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Appeasement A policy of accepting conditions of an aggressor in lieu of an armed response. Before WWII, countries appeased Hitler's demands for territorial expansion, rather than resort to military conflict. See: Munich Agreement
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Arbeit Macht Frei German for "Work will make you free." These words were posted on the gates of Nazi concentration camps.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Arcadia Conference Allied meeting in Washington, D.C. between Roosevelt and Churchill in
January 1942 where it was decided that the Allies would adopt a "Germany
first" strategy, and then concentrate on Japan. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ardennes A mountainous region of Belgium. Germany attacked the Allies through this region in May 1940 to begin the war in the West; and again in December 1944 (the Battle of the Bulge).
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Arizona, USS (BB-39) Battleship sunk by Japanese during their attack on Pearl Harbor.
1,177, more than half of the American deaths on December 7, 1941,
resulted from this ship's sinking. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Army Air Corps Name of the aviation branch of the U.S. Army until June 20, 1941. Precursor of the United States Air Force.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Arsenal of Democracy Term coined by Roosevelt in his December 29, 1940 Fireside Chat, to
gain American support for sending supplies to the Allies. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Aryan Nazi German racial category considered superior to all other racial identities. The Aryan Race, as Nazis professed, were entitled to rule Europe, and were therefore required to enslave or destroy inferior races, such as Jews and Slavs.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Atlantic Charter Agreement signed between Roosevelt and Churchill in Newfoundland, on August 12, 1941. This agreement laid the ground work for the United Nations.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Atlantic Wall The name given to the defenses constructed by the Germans along the
western coast of Europe from Norway to Spain between 1941 and 1944. It
consisted of artillery bunkers, machine gun nests, barbed wire,
anti-tank ditches, mine fields, millions of tons of concrete, and tens;
of thousands of beach and underwater obstacles. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Attlee, Clement Deputy prime minister to Winston Churchill from 1942 to 1945, then prime minister following the Labor Party victory in the election of July 1945. Attlee attended the Potsdam Conference with U.S. president Harry Truman and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Attu One of two Aleutian islands of Alaska invaded by the Japanese June 7, 1942, as a diversionary tactic during the Battle of Midway. The other was Kiska. The islands were liberated in 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Auschwitz Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland. More than 1.5 million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz, the largest of six Nazi extermination centers in Poland, and symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Avalanche, Operation Code name for the amphibious invasion of Italy at Salerno by the Fifth Army on September 9, 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z AVG American Volunteer Group; American pilots who flew combat missions for China against the Japanese from December 18, 1941 to July 4, 1942, when they became the Fourteenth Army Air Force. They were nicknamed the Flying Tigers.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Axis The term given to the alliance between German, Italy, Japan, and their allies, including Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. The name was coined by Mussolini, and referred to the geographic line (or axis) formed by Germany and Italy that split Europe down the middle.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z B-17 U.S. four-engine heavy bomber, nicknamed the Flying Fortress. Between 1935 and May of 1945, more than 12,000 B-17s were produced. Of these aircraft, 4,735 were lost during combat missions.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z B-24 U.S. four-engine heavy bomber, nicknamed the Liberator. Its longer
range made it especially useful in the Pacific. More than 18,000
Liberators were built during WWII. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z B-25 U.S. Twin-engine bomber, nicknamed the Mitchell, after General Billy Mitchell. Nearly 10,000 Mitchells were built during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z B-29 U.S. four-engine heavy bomber, nicknamed the Superfortress. It could carry 20,000 pounds of bombs and fly 3000-mile missions, allowing the U.S. to carry out bombing raids of Japan from the Marianas Islands starting in 1944. B-29s delivered the two atomic bombs. Nearly 4,000 B-29s were built during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Babi Yar Massacre Nazi atrocity of September 29-30, 1941, in which Nazi SS units and their Ukrainian allies murdered 33,771 Jewish civilians and buried them in mass graves near Kiev. Considered the largest single massacre of the Holocaust
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Badoglio, Pietro Italian field marshal who had committed war crimes in Ethiopia (he used outlawed mustard gas on Ethiopian troops) and later became chief of staff to Mussolini. He reigned in protest when Italy entered WWII and arranged the September 1943 Italian surrender to the Allies. Following Mussolini's arrest, Badoglio became Italian premier
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bagration, Operation Code name for the Soviet Belorussian strategic offensive launched on June 22, 1944. The campaign destroyed German Army Group Centre and three of its component armies: Fourth Army, Third Panzer Army and Ninth Army by mid-August.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z BAR Browning Automatic Rifle; the U.S. Army's principal light automatic weapon in WWII. Enunciated B.A.R., not "bar."
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Barbarossa, Operation Code name for the German attack on the Soviet Union, launched June 22, 1941. With over three million soldiers assaulting a 1,000-mile front, this was the largest military operation ever launched.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Baruch, Bernard Franklin Roosevelt's personal representative in Great Britain during WWII. He had served as head of the War Industries Board during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Basilone, John Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps and the first enlisted man to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for actions on Guadalcanal in October 1942. He was killed in action on the first day of fighting on Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bastogne Belgian crossroads town defended by members of the 101st Airborne Division under the command of Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe against superior German forces during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bataan Death March Infamous forced march of 75,000 U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula following the fall of the Philippines. As many as 18,000 POWs died from dehydration, mistreatment or outright murder during the week-long, 60-mile ordeal.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Battle of Britain Name given to the period from July 10 to October 31, 1940, when the German air force (Luftwaffe) attempted to neutralize the British Royal Air Force in preparation for a German invasion of Great Britain. The outnumbered British pilots inflicted enough damage on German planes to convince Hitler to drop his invasion plans.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Battle of the Bulge Last major offensive by the Germans in WWII launched against the Allies in the West through the Ardennes region of Belgium on December 16, 1944. The unattained goal was to reach the port of Antwerp, thereby cutting the Allied armies in two. Also Ardennes Offensive, in German Wacht Am Rhein (Watch on the Rhine)
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Battleship Row Area of Pearl Harbor adjacent to Ford Island where battleships were moored, including the U.S.S. Arizona, West Virginia, California, Maryland, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Nevada. The main target of Japanese pilots on December 7, 1941.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bayeux First major town to be liberated in Normandy by the Allies.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bazooka U.S. Army anti-tank rocket launcher that could be shoulder-fired by an infantryman against armored vehicles. See: Panzerfaust and PIAT
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Berchtesgaden Town in the Bavarian Alps and the location of a house purchased for Hitler by Martin Bormann. Hitler later renamed it the Berghof.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony, Germany. Approximately
50,000 Jews died here between 1943 and 1945, including Anne Frank and
her sister Margot, most from typhus and other diseases. Liberated by
British forces on April 13, 1945. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Berlin Capital of Germany, site of the Reichstag, the Fuhrerbunker, and the last great battle of WWII in Europe
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Big Three Nickname given to U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The Big Three met at several conferences during the war to plan military and political strategy.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z BIGOT Code name for the highest level of security classification surrounding Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy. Those who knew where and when D-Day would take place were called "bigots."
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bismarck Germany's largest battleship during WWII. It sunk the British battleship H.M.S. Hood, May 24, 1941, and was itself sunk by the British cruiser H.M.S. Dorsetshire.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Black Sheep Nickname of the U.S. Marine pilots under the command of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington in the Pacific.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Black Shirts Name given to Fascist paramilitary organization under Benito Mussolini. They both spread violence and promised order as a way to bring Mussolini to power in Italy.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Blackout A deliberate reduction in lighting to prevent an enemy attack.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bletchley Park British code-breaking center, also known as Station X, where mathematicians and cryptanalysts learned how to decode secret German communications. The German codes were called Enigma and the decoded messages were called Ultra.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Blitz The sustained bombing of Great Britain by the German air force between September 7, 1940 and May 10, 1941. During this period London was attacked 57 nights in a row. Air raids over London and other British cities killed 43,000 civilians and destroyed more than one million homes
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Blitzkrieg German for "lightning war," the offensive combat strategy employed by Nazi Germany during invasions of Poland, Western Europe and the Soviet Union. It involved initial aerial bombardment, followed by swift motorized and armored attacks.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bloody Ridge, Battle of Site of a major Japanese attack on U.S. Marine forces on Guadalcanal, September 12-14, 1942. Although almost overrun, the Marines, led by Lt. Col. Merritt Edson, repulsed the attack, inflicting heavy losses on the Japanese. Also known as Battle of Edson's Ridge.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Blue, Operation Code name for the German attack on the Russian oil fields of the Caucasus. Strategic changes by Hitler led to the Battle of Stalingrad.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Blut und Ehre "Blood and Honor" which was engraved on the daggers of the Hitler Youth.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bockscar Nickname of the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, August 9, 1945, three days after the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Bockscar was commanded by Frederick C. Bock.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bodyguard, Operation Code name for the overall Allied deception effort leading up to Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion of Normandy. It involved many smaller deception efforts to confuse and misinform the Germans as to when and where the invasion would take place.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bogey Navy code name for an unknown aircraft that might or might not be friendly.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bolero, Operation Code name for the build-up of American troops and supplies from the U.S. to Britain prior to D-Day.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bong, Richard U.S. Army Air Force major and the top-scoring American ace of all time with forty Japanese aircraft downings to his credit. He flew a P-38, was awarded the Medal of Honor, and was killed in a crash while test-flying a P-80 jet fighter on August 6, 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bradley, Omar U.S. Army General. He led U.S. and Allied troops in North Africa, Sicily, France and Belgium. On D-Day, he commanded the U.S. First Army's attacks on Utah and Omaha Beaches. He became a five-star general in 1950 and the first chairman of the joint chief of staff.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Braun, Eva Hitler's long-time mistress. She married Hitler in the Fuhrerbunker on April 29, 1945, and committed suicide with him the next day as Soviet forces streamed into Berlin.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Brazil The only Latin American country to send troops to the European Theater, a 25,000-man force that fought in Italy. See: Mexico
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bren Gun The British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry light machine gun. The name comes from a combination of Brno, the Czechoslovakian city where it was designed and Enfield, the location of the British Royal Small Arms Factory.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bronx Shipments, Operation Code name for the delivery of atomic bomb components from the U.S. to the island of Tinian in July 1945. See: Indianapolis,USS
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Brown Shirts Term given to members of the Nazi Party's SA (Sturmabteilung or Storm Troopers), a paramilitary organization that helped Hitler's rise to power in the early 1930s. They wore surplus brown uniforms meant for pre-WWI German colonial troops in Africa.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp located near Weimar, Germany, establish in 1937. Some 56,000 prisoners died here, including Jews, Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, political prisoners and Jehovah's Witnesses. Well-known Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Weisel was an inmate.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bundles for Britain Organized effort in the United States to send blankets, clothes and medicine to the civilian population of Great Britain during the first two years of WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Burma Road Vital supply route, 717 miles long, linking Burma and China fought over by the Japanese and Allied forces led by the British. See: Hump, The
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Bushido Japanese for "Way of the Warrior"; a medieval Japanese code of military conduct revived in the pre-war years that stressed strength, loyalty, and honor unto death. WWII-era Bushido required that Japanese troops fight to the death. Allies who surrendered or allowed themselves to be captured were considered without honor and were often brutally treated.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z C-47 U.S. Army Air Force cargo aircraft. More than 10,000 were built and used to ferry supplies, soldiers, and drop paratroopers into action throughout WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Cactus Code name used by the Allies at Guadalcanal.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Caen French city in Normandy that was scheduled to be captured by Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery on June 7, 1944. It took Montgomery more than a month to take the city and his casualties exceeded the total number of British troops that went ashore on D-Day.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Cartwheel, Operation Code name for a months-long advance against the Japanese through the Solomon Islands and New Guinea, with the aim at neutralizing the Japanese base at Rabaul. It was launched in June 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Casablanca Conference Meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco, January 14-24, 1943, to plan European strategy. It was decided that an invasion of Sicily and Italy would proceed a cross-Channel invasion into France and that the Allies would seek an unconditional surrender of the Axis forces.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z CBI China Burma India Theater of War
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Chamberlain, Sir Neville British prime minister from 1937-40. He signed the Munich Agreement with Hitler in September 1938, which preceded the Nazi take-over of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain resigned on May 10, 1940, the day the Germans invaded western Europe, and was replaced by Winston Churchill.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Cherbourg French port city in Normandy, captured by the Allies on June 27, 1944. The need for a deep water port to ensure the adequate supplying of the invading Allied forces was one of the determining factors when choosing Normandy as the invasion site.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Chiang Kai-shek Supreme Allied Commander in Asia and leader of the Nationalists forces. Putting aside rivalries, he agreed to work with the Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong to fight the Japanese invaders. Chiang's government was corrupt and his fighting forces, while numerous, were inefficient.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Chindits A British Indian Army Special Force organized by British general Orde Wingate to conduct harassing operations deep within Burma behind Japanese lines. The force made several long-range penetrations into Burma between 1942 and 1945. The name Chindit comes from a mythical Burmese creature that guarded Buddhist temples.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Churchill, Winston British Prime Minister during WWII. Churchill had served in nearly every post in British government when he became prime minister following Neville Chamberlain's resignation on May 10, 1940, the same day that the Germans launched their offensive against western Europe. Along with U.S. president Roosevelt and Soviet dictator Stalin, Churchill oversaw the planning and execution of the Allied victory over the Axis. His Conservative Party lost the election of 1945 and Churchill was replaced by Clement Attlee.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Citadel, Operation Code name for the German attack on the Soviet salient at Kursk, July 4, 1943. The Soviets decisively defeated the Germans in the largest tank battle in history.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Clark, Mark U.S. Army general who planned Operation Torch, led the Fifth U.S. Army to liberate Rome, and eventually commanded the 15th Army Group in Italy.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Cobra, Operation Code name for the U.S. First Army breakout of Normandy toward the French city of St.-Lô, July 25, 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Code Talker Term used to describe a person who talks in a coded language and most often associated with Native Americans in the U.S. Marine Corps who used codes based on their native languages. Navajo code talkers were the most numerous in WWII, but Comanche, Cherokee, and Choctaw soldiers also served as code talkers.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Considered one of the first modern computers. Assembled at Bletchley Park, England, it was used to help decode German Enigma messages.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Order issued by Hitler in 1942 that called for all Allied commandos to be executed even if they surrendered.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Commissar Order Order issued by Hitler shortly before the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union that called for the immediate execution of all political officers (Communists) in the Red Army. Many German army officers tacitly disobeyed this order, which ran contrary to German military custom and tradition.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Communism Political and economic system that promotes the establishment of a classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production. Anti-Communism was a major element of Nazism, leading to the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Concentration Camps Prison complexes established by the Nazis for internment and forced labor of enemies of Germany during before and during WWII. These included Jews, Communists, homosexuals, Roma (gypsies), Jehovah's Witnesses, and political enemies. Examples included Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, and Mathausen. Concentration camps differed from the death camps, six complexes established in Poland solely for the purpose of exterminating its prisoners. See: Death camps
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Condor Legion German Luftwaffe group that conducted air raids in Spain in support of General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War 1936-39. These pilots gained valuable flying experience in Spain, which was then used during WWII. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Conscientious objector Person who on religious or ethical grounds refuses to participate as a combatant in war. In the U.S. during WWII, more than 12,000 conscientious objector draftees performed alternative service in work camps across the U.S. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Coral Sea, Battle of Naval battle fought between the U.S. and Japan with aircraft carriers, May 7-8, 1942, when the Japanese attempted to send an invasion force to Port Moresby, New Guinea. Both sides lost a carrier, but the Japanese were prevented from advancing further south. The battle is notable as the first time opposing ships never saw each other and the first time the Japanese were stopped short of their objective. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Coronet, Operation Code name for the planned U.S. invasion of Honshu, Japan, by the Eighth Army, scheduled for the spring of 1946. The Japanese surrender in August 1945 made it unnecessary. See: Operation Downfall
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Corpsman Enlisted medical specialist in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. See: Medic
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Corregidor Island at the mouth of Manila Bay that guarded the seaward approach to the capital of the Philippines.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Crab Allied tank that was fitted with a rotary drum on the front and various lengths of chain attached to detonate mines.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Currahee Battle cry and official motto of the U.S. 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Dachau First Nazi Concentration Camp opened in March 1933 outside of Munich.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Darlan, Jean Francois French Admiral and for a time head of the collaborationist Vichy government in France. He was assassinated in Algiers by a member of the French Resistance, December 24, 1942, six weeks after the Allies invaded Vichy North Africa.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Davis, Sr., Benjamin O. U.S. Army officer and the first African American general in U.S. history. His son, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was the commander of the Tuskegee Airmen.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Day of Infamy Often misquoted phrase used by President Roosevelt to describe the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during his address to Congress: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
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Z DD tank Duplex Drive; tank devised by the British that was equipped with a canvas screen and a propeller to allow it to float and be propelled through water.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z D-Day The term designating the opening date of a major military operation. The D stands for "day" and is used as a stand-in for the date, which was either unchosen or meant to be secret. Although there were many D-Days during WWII, the term has come to signify the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion of Normandy.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
French general and head of Free French forces. He commanded troops in the Battle for France in May 1940 and, following France's collapse, rallied French troops in Great Britain and Resistance members in France. Following the liberation of Paris in August 1944, de Gaulle became the leader of the provisional government of France and later the founder and president of the French Fifth Republic.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Death camps Nazi extermination centers established in Poland where millions of Jews and other enemies of the German state were murdered. The six death camps were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdenak, Chelmno, and Belzec. The majority of prisoners brought to extermination camps were killed within 24 hours of arrival. See: Concentration camps
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Denazification Allied initiative to rid Germany, Austria, and formerly German-occupied lands of Nazi influence in government and society following WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Desert Fox See: Rommel, Erwin
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Desert Rats Nickname given to the British Seventh Armored Division, which fought against the Italians and then the Germans in North Africa.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Detachment, Operation Code name for the U.S. invasion of Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945.
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Code name for the U.S. operation to break through the German Gustav Line opening the way to Rome, May 12, 1944. Also known as the Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Dieppe Northern French coastal town and site of an Allied raid, August 19, 1942, where mostly Canadian troops tested the feasibility of an amphibious assault against the German's Atlantic Wall defenses. More than half of the 6,000 troops who made it to shore were either killed, wounded or captured.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Doenitz, Karl Admiral of the German navy. On April 30, following Hitler's suicide, Doenitz became leader of Germany, as provided by Hitler's will. Found guilty of war crimes (see Laconia Order) at Nuremburg, he served 10 years in prison.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Doolittle Raid Sixteen twin-engines B-25s flew off the deck of the U.S.S. Hornet and attacked the Japanese homeland. This raid, which took place on April 18, 1942, raised the spirits of the American people so soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Double-Cross System Name given to a special British counterintelligence group tasked with finding German spies in Great Britain and turning them into counter-spies for the Allies. One of the most successful counterintelligence operations in history.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z DOW Military abbreviation for "died of wounds"
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Downfall, Operation Code name for the overall Allied plan to invade Japan starting in October 1945. It consisted of Operations Olympic and Coronet. The operation was cancelled following Japan's surrender in August 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Dragoon, Operation Code name for the Allied invasion of southern France, August 15, 1944. It was originally scheduled to take place simultaneously with Operation Overlord at Normandy, but needed forces could not be freed from Italy in time. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Dresden German city that was the target of a major Allied air raid, February 14, 1945. Between 30,000 and 100,000 people died when a firestorm consumed much of the city.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Dunkirk Northern French port city and location of "Operation Dynamo," one of the greatest military evacuations in history. 198,229 British and 139,997 French troops retreating from the German invasion of France were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk to Great Britain between May 26 and June 4, 1940.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Dynamo, Operation Code name for the British evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk following the German invasion of the West in May 26 and June 4, 1940.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Eben-Emael Belgian fortress captured by German glider-borne paratroopers on May 10, 1940. It was reputed to be impregnable, but quickly fell to fewer than 100 German troops, who captured the 1,200 Belgians defending the fortress.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Eden, Anthony British foreign secretary to Winston Churchill from 1940-1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Eichmann, Adolf German SS officer and administrator of the "Final Solution," responsible for the transport of Jews to the concentration camps. After the war he was captured by Israeli agents in Argentina and stood trial in Israel, where he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Einsatzgruppen "Action Groups," special killing squads of the German army that would follow the troops through Eastern Europe exterminating Jews.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Einstein, Albert Jewish physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 who fled Germany in 1933 to escape Nazi tyranny. A letter he wrote to FDR in August 1939 warning of possible German nuclear research convinced the president to proceed with atomic bomb development.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Eisenhower, Dwight U.S. general and Supreme Allied Commander of all troops in the European Theater during WWII and later President of the United States. He oversaw the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Normandy, as well as the Allied drive into Germany.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z El Alamein Egyptian city and site of two major battles between the British and the Germans in WWII. In the second, October 23-November 5, 1942, the Afrika Korps under General Rommel was turned back from Cairo after his defeat by forces under British Field Marshal Montgomery.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Enigma German coding machine thought to produce unbreakable codes. British cryptologists broke the Enigma code early in the war and supplied top secret (Ultra) decryptions to Allied war planners.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Enola Gay Name of the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945. Pilot Col. Paul Tibbets, Jr., named the plane after his mother.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Enterprise, USS (CV-6) American aircraft carrier that fought in most major battles in the Pacific Theater. Although hit by a kamikaze pilot in 1945, she survived the war and was scrapped in 1958.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ETO European Theater of War
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Eugenics Pseudo-scientific and social philosophy aimed at bettering society through by studying and controlling society's racial, genetic, and physical attributes. Nazi Germans used these ideas to promote "racial hygiene" in their quest for an Aryan Europe.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Executive Order 8802 Order by Roosevelt, June 25, 1941, banning discrimination in hiring in defense plants and establishing the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Roosevelt acted under pressure from black civil rights activists.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Executive Order 9066 Order by Roosevelt, February 19, 1942, authorizing the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans along the West Coast for national security reasons. Nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans and resident Japanese would soon be forcefully relocated to ten internment camps for the remainder of the war.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Falaise Gap Site of an attempted Allied encirclement of German forces in France that failed due to stubborn leadership on the part of Field Marshal Montgomery.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Fascism The political system put in place in Italy by Benito Mussolini, featuring nationalism, militarism, totalitarianism, corporatism, and anti-Communism. Elements of Fascism were incorporated into Nazi ideology and practice. The term is derived from the Latin word fasces, a bundle of rods, and the symbol of magistrates in ancient Rome.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Fat Man Code man for the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The bomb used plutonium for its explosive force.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z FFI French Forces of the Interior; French Resistance fighters in the latter stages of WWII, once the liberation of France had begun. FFI forces were more formally organized into light infantry units and attached to regular French forces.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Fifth Column Term used to describe secret sympathizers behind enemy lines that engaged in espionage, sabotage, and other types of subversive activity.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Final Solution Nazi euphemism for the plan to kill the Jews of Europe. See: Wannsee Conference
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Firebombing Bombing technique using relatively small incendiary bombs meant to start massive fires in dense urban areas. The most infamous incidents of firebombing during WWII occurred when the Germans firebombed British cities during the Blitz, the Allies firebombed Dresden and the U.S. firebombed Tokyo.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Fireside Chats Name given to speeches made by Roosevelt to the American people over nationwide radio broadcasts throughout the Great Depression and WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Five-star Rank Highest rank created by the U.S. military to recognize top military leaders. They include Army generals George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur and Henry Arnold, and fleet admirals Ernest King, William Leahy and Chester Nimitz.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Flak Name given to anti-aircraft fire during WWII. The term comes from the German Flieger Abwehr Kanone, or anti-aircraft cannon.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Flattop Slang term for aircraft carrier.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Flossenburg Nazi concentration camp in Bavaria built in 1938. Among the 30,000 people who died there were Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonheoffer, and scores more conspirators in the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Flying Tigers See: AVG
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ford Island Island in Pearl Harbor where U.S. battleships were moored at the time of the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Four Chaplains Name refers to Methodist minister George L. Fox, Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Catholic priest Jon Washington, and Reform Church reverend Clark Poling who gave their lives aboard the USAT Dorcester when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat, February 3, 1943. Each gave up his life vest to another sailor. All four were posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Four Freedoms Universal goals articulated by Roosevelt in his State of the Union address of January 6, 1941. They were Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Foxhole U.S. slang for a hole dug in the ground to protect infantrymen.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Franco, Francisco Spanish dictator who accepted aid from Hitler and Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39. He later claimed to support the Axis, but refused to enter WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Frank, Anne Young Jewish girl whose family hid in an attic in Amsterdam for over two years before being discovered by the Nazis. A diary she kept during the ordeal was later found, published, then made into a stage play and movie. Anne, her sister, and their mother died in concentration camps. A museum stands on the site where Frank and her family spent two years in hiding.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Frank, Hans Nazi governor of Poland who was responsible for numerous atrocities. The Nuremberg War Crimes court tried, convicted and then hanged him in 1946.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Frank, Otto Father of Anne Frank and the sole survivor of his family.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Free French Forces French citizens who served with the Allies after the Franco-German armistice in 1940 and before August 1, 1943 (according to the French government's official definition).
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z French Resistance The collective name for varied groups and individuals who resisted against the German occupiers of France and the Vichy French regime. Resistance took many forms, including sabotage, spying, political agitation and, on a few occasions, open fighting. See: Maquis, Guerilla, Free French Forces, and FFI
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Fuchida, Mitsuo Japanese navy pilot who commanded the air assaults on Pearl Harbor.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Führer or also Fuehrer German word for supreme leader. Hitler declared himself Führer on August 19, 1934, a year and a half after becoming German chancellor
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z FUSAG First U.S. Army Group, a totally fictitious force set up under the command of General George S. Patton to deceive the Germans into thinking the invasion of France would come somewhere else other than Normandy.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Galvanic, Operation Code name for the U.S. assault on Tawara and Makin in the Gilbert Islands, in the Central Pacific, November 20-23, 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Garbo British code name for counter-spy Juan Pujol, who helped the British deceive the Germans about the location for Operation Overlord. He created a network of fictitious agents that supposedly supplied information to Garbo that the invasion would take place at the Pas-de-Calais.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gas chambers Apparatus for killing; an enclosed, sealed room in which poisonous gas is released. The six Nazi death camps in Poland were outfitted with gas chambers in which millions of Jews and other "enemies of the Third Reich" were murdered. See: Zyklon-B
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Genocide The deliberate annihilation of an entire people or nation. See: Holocaust
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gestapo German secret police during the Nazi era. The name derives from a contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei: "Secret State Police." Part of the Schutzstaffel (SS). The Gestapo operated without judicial oversight and had the authority to investigate treason, espionage and sabotage cases, and cases of criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and Germany.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ghetto A portion of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure. During WWII in Europe, the Nazis forced large population of Jews into walled-off portions of numerous cities. Most Jews from the ghettos were eventually deported to death camps.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z GI The term commonly used to describe soldiers in the U.S. Army. The term is often thought to be derived from "Government Issue," but may also have derived from "GI" for "galvanized iron" as used to denote equipment such as metal trash cans in U.S. Army inventories and supply records.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gilbert Islands Pacific islands and site of U.S. assaults on Tarawa and Makin, November 20, 1943. These islands then served as bases for the U.S. assaults on the Marshall Islands in February 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Goebbels, Joseph Hitler's minister of propaganda. Goebbels controlled all aspects of mass media in Nazi Germany, including movies, newspapers, radio and the theater. He oversaw the production of anti-Semitic propaganda films, as well as slanderous attacks on the enemies of the Nazi state. He committed suicide in Hitler's bunker along with his wife Magda and their six children the day after Hitler killed himself.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Goering, Hermann Hitler's head of the Luftwaffe and one-time successor. Although he survived the war, the Nuremburg War Crimes tribunal convicted the one-time air ace. Before his sentence could be carried out, Goering killed himself by swallowing poison in 1946.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gold Beach D-Day beach assaulted by the British 50th Division on June 6, 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gold Star Mothers Term given to U.S. women whose son had died in military service. They would indicate this loss by hanging a service flag with a gold star in their windows. See: Service Flags
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Goodwood, Operation Code name for the British attempt to breakout from Normandy near the city of Caen, July 18, 1944. The attempt failed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gott mit Uns God is with us; slogan worn on Wehrmacht belt buckles. The Waffen SS wore the motto Meine Ehre heißt Treue (my honor is loyalty).
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere Term used by Japanese military and political leaders for their sphere of influence over east Asia and the western Pacific.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Great Escape Escape of 76 prisoners from Stalag Luft III sixty miles northeast of Berlin on March 25, 1944. All but three were recaptured.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Great Patriotic War Soviet term for the war against Germany and the Axis, 1941-1945. More than 20 million Russian and other Soviets died on the Eastern Front during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gremlins Mythical creatures that were blamed for mechanical failures in aircraft.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Grief, Operation Code name for the German effort during the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944, to infiltrate American lines with German soldiers dressed as GIs in order to spread confusion and fear.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Guadalcanal The first U.S. offensive of World War II which commenced on August 7, 1942, initiated in order to stop the Japanese advance on Australia.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Guam Island in the western Pacific Ocean. The first U.S. territory to be taken by the Japanese following the attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S. forces returned on July 21, 1944, to recapture the island from Japanese military occupation.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Guernica Basque city destroyed by German planes on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. It was the first modern case of terror bombing and became a symbol of anti-fascism.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Guerrillas Those practicing unconventional warfare against invading or occupying forces. Guerrilla armies were active against the Nazis throughout Europe and against the Japanese throughout Asia and the Pacific. The term derives from the Spanish for "little war."
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gung Ho Chinese for "work together." It was the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps unit known as "Carlson's Raiders" during World War II.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gunnerside, Operation Code name for the British/Norwegian attack on the Norsk Hydroelectric Plant, in Norway, where the Germans were producing heavy water to use in their nuclear research.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Gustav Line German defensive line across central Italy. It was finally breached by the Allies in May 1944 after a six-month fight.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Halsey, William "Bull" U.S. Navy admiral who commanded the U.S. Third Fleet in the Pacific during WWII. After the war, he was promoted to Fleet Admiral (5-star rank).
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hammelburg Raid Failed attempt by special task force to free Allied POWs from German prisoner of war camp near Hammelburg, Germany. Patton's son-in-law was one of the camp's POWs. Of the roughly 300 men of the task force, 32 were killed in action during the raid and only 35 made it back to Allied-controlled territory, with the remainder being taken prisoner.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hartmann, Erich Known as the "Blond Knight of Germany," this Luftwaffe fighter pilot became the greatest air ace of all time with 352 victories.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Heavy Water Common name for deuterium oxide, material used by German nuclear scientists to moderate and control atomic reactions.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hedgehog Underwater beach obstacle made of welded steel girders. The Germans
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hedgerow In French bocage; high rows of bushes, trees, and stones that divided farm fields throughout the Normandy countryside. Hedgerows provided defensive cover for German troops in the weeks following D-Day and led to fierce fighting, as the Allies had to take fields one at a time.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Heer The German army during WWII and one of three branches of the Wehrmacht. See: Kreigsmarine and Luftwaffe
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Henderson Field Airfield located on Guadalcanal which was partially completed by the Japanese and then captured by U.S. forces on August 8, 1942. An ensuing assault by the Japanese to retake the airfield lasted from October 23-26 and was repulsed. The field was named for Marine Major Lofton Henderson who was killed at the Battle of Midway.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hess, Rudolph Hitler's Nazi Party secretary who later parachuted into Great Britain in an attempt to initiate peace terms with the Allies in May 1941. Hess was later tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life imprisonment in Spandau Prison. He died there in 1981.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Heydrich, Reinhard SS general and Nazi overseer of Czechoslovakia. He chaired the 1942 Wannsee Conference which finalized plans for the extermination of all European Jews. A British-trained Czech soldier assassinated him in June 1942. As a result, SS troops organized a reprisal against the Czech town of Lidice; every single person was executed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Higgins, Andrew Jackson New Orleans-based boat designer and builder. During WWII, Higgins designed the LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel) with its distinctive front ramp. More than 12,500 were built and used in every major Allied amphibious assault of WWII. Eisenhower once said, "He's the man who won the war for us."
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Himmler, Heinrich German head of the SS He oversaw the Nazi concentration camps, extermination camps and death squads and for much of the war was the second most powerful man in Germany. Himmler committed suicide after his capture by the British in 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Himmler, Operation Code name for a German raid on a radio station in Gleiwitz, Germany, on August 31, 1939. The Germans blamed the Poles for the raid and used it as a pretext for their invasion of Poland the next day.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hirohito Emperor of Japan during WWII. Although in Japanese custom and religion of the time, he was considered the supreme ruler and even a deity, debate continues as to Hirohito's control over Japan's wartime actions. Some claim he wielded little power against his military government, while others say he was complicit and even pro-active in wartime decision making. After the war, Hirohito remained on the throne, but as a figurehead only.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hitler Youth Paramilitary youth organization of the Nazi Party from 1922-1945. Established to indoctrinate young Germans into Nazi ideology, including physical fitness, moral superiority and anti-Semitism, some Hitler Youth as young as twelve were serving in combat by the end of the war.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hitler, Adolf Nazi Party leader and German dictator from 1933 to 1945. Austrian by birth, Hitler rose to power in the economic and social chaos of post-WWI Germany. He established the Third Reich, re-militarized Germany, enacted virulently anti-Semitic laws and policies, and started WWII in Europe by invading Poland in September 1939. He committed suicide on April 30, 1945, as Soviet troops poured into Berlin.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hobart's Funnies Nickname for specialized tanks used by the Allies on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Designed by engineers under the command of British general Percy Hobart, they included a swimming tank (DD), a tank that could clear mine fields (crab) and one that carried its own ditch-spanning bridge (ARK).
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Holocaust From the Greek "holos" (completely) and "kaustos" (burned sacrificial offering); term used to describe the killing of six million European Jews by the Nazis during WWII; the most infamous attempt at genocide in history. Besides Jews, the Nazis killed millions of other "enemies of the Third Reich," including Communists, homosexuals, Roma (gypsies), Jehovah's Witnesses, those with physical or mental disabilities, etc. See: Shoah
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Holocaust Denial A modern-day anti-Semitic effort to deny, excuse or minimize the history of the Nazi genocide against the Jews.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Home Front Term given to the United States during WWII, as opposed to the battle fronts. A vast majority of Americans (114 million out of 130 million) experienced WWII on the Home Front.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hornet, USS (CV-8) U.S. aircraft carrier; notable for launching the Doolittle Raid and as a participant in the Battle of Midway. She was sunk October 26, 1942, during the Battle of Santa Cruz off Guadalcanal.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Huff Duff Term coined for High Frequency Direction Finder or HF/DF; a British system of finding ships, planes and other radio transmission points using multiple detectors to locate intersecting points.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hull, Cordell U.S. Secretary of State from 1933 to 1944 - the longest tenure in that office. Hull received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hump, The Name given by Allied pilots in WWII to the supply route their flew over the Himalayan Mountains from India to China. Pilots started flying the Hump in April 1942 when the Japanese blocked the Burma Road.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Hurtgen Forest Forested region of western Germany and site of a series of battles between U.S. and German forces between September 1944 and February 1945. German forces inflicted heavy losses on U.S. forces (33,000 killed), but ultimately could not stop the Allied advance into Germany.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Husky, Operation Code name for the Allied invasion of Sicily, July 10, 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Iceberg, Operation Code name for the U.S. invasion of Okinawa, April 1, 1945, the largest amphibious invasion of WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Indianapolis, USS (CA-35) U.S. Navy battleship. After delivering the atomic bombs to the island of Tinian in the Pacific (Operation Bronx Shipments), a Japanese submarine, the I-58, sank the ship with a torpedo, with the loss of most of her crew to exposure and shark attacks. The Indianapolis was the worst disaster in U.S. Naval history.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Iron Bottom Sound Name given by U.S. sailors to Savo Sound off Guadalcanal due to the large number of ships sunk there during the months-long battle against the Japanese for the Solomon Islands.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Island Hopping U.S. strategy to defeat the Japanese Empire in the Pacific, specifically by landing forces on and retaking Japanese-held islands, starting in the Solomon Islands and advancing through the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas and Volcano Islands, as well as New Guinea and the Philippines, until they reached Japan.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Isolationists Term describing people in the U.S. who wanted to keep the U.S. out of WWII. Most visibly represented by the America First Committee, Isolationism virtually disappeared following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Issei Japanese term for the first generation of Japanese to immigrate to North and South America. The children of this generation born in the new country were called Nisei; the grandchildren, Sansei.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Iwo Jima Island in the Volcano Islands, 700 miles south of Japan, and site of a major Marine Corps battle against Japanese forces, February 19 - March 26, 1945. The objective was to neutralize Japanese forces on the island that threatened U.S. B-29 raids on Japan from bases in the Marianas Islands. More Medals of Honor were awarded for actions on Iwo Jima than in any other Marine Corps battle.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Japanese American Internment Camps Sites established to house nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese resident aliens mostly from the West Coast who were forcefully interned by the U.S. government starting in April 1942 and for the remainder of the war. The ten sites were Gila River and Poston in Arizona, Rowher and Jerome in Arkansas, Grenada in Colorado, Heart Mountain, in Wyoming, Manzanar,in California, Topaz in Utah, and Minidoka in Idaho. See: Executive Order 9066
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Jerry Allied nickname for German soldiers during WWII
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Jewish Brigade Formation in the British Army made up of 30,000 Palestinian Jewish volunteers and others during WWII. They fought in North Africa, Italy, Belgium and Holland, and helped smuggle refugee Jews into Palestine at the end of the war.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Jodl, Alfred German general and chief of operations staff for the Wehrmacht. He was tried for war crimes at Nuremberg, found guilty, and executed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Jubilee, Operation Code name for the failed Allied raid on the French port city of Dieppe, August 11, 1942. Of the 6,086 soldiers (mostly Canadian) who made it ashore, 3,623 were either killed, wounded, or captured.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z July 20 Plot Failed plot by group of German conspirators to assassinate Hitler by placing a bomb in his headquarters on July 20, 1944 (Operation Valkyrie). The bomb exploded, but Hitler was only slightly wounded. More than 5,000 resistance members were imprisoned and 200 conspirators executed by the Nazis in retaliation.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
D-Day beach assaulted by the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, the Canadian 2nd Armored, and the 4th Special Service Brigade Commando on June 6, 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z K Ration U.S.-made individual daily combat food ration. Each box contained breakfast, dinner (lunch), and supper. Items were specially packed in cans or wrapped in waxed paper to ensure freshness.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Japanese for divinity wind; name used by U.S. military for Japanese suicide pilots who crashed their bomb-laden planes into Allied ships toward the end of WWII. The Japanese military used the term tokubetsu kōgeki tai (Special Attack Units), not kamikaze. U.S. military reckons approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, and killed 4,900 sailors.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Kasserine Pass Location of a series of battles between U.S. and German forces in Tunisia, significant as the first large-scale meeting of U.S. and Axis forces. The untested U.S. forces were ineptly commanded and were decisively routed, suffering heavy losses. The Army instituted successful changes in command structure and unit organization.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Mass execution of 22,000 Polish army officers by Soviet security forces on March 5, 1940. The Soviet Union denied the massacre until 1990.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Keitel, Wilhelm German general and head of the high command of the German armed forces during WWII. He was tried for war crimes at Nuremberg, found guilty, and executed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z KIA Military abbreviation for "killed in action"
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Kilroy Was Here Graffiti used by American GI's around the world during WWII. There are many competing claims to its derivation. The slogan was usually accompanied by a doodle of hands and a face peeking over a wall.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Kimmel, Husband Admiral in the U.S. Navy and Commander of the Pacific Fleet on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was relieved of that command and retired in 1942 while defending himself before boards of inquiry. In 1999, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution exonerating Kimmel and his Army counterpart General Walter Short.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z King, Ernest US fleet admiral, commander in chief and chief of naval operations (COMINCH-CNO) for the Navy during WWII. He was the second admiral, after William Leahy, to be promoted to five-star rank.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Kiska One of two Aleutian islands of Alaska invaded by the Japanese June 7, 1942, as a diversionary tactic during the Battle of Midway. The other was Attu. The islands were liberated in 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The German navy during WWII and one of three braches of the Wehrmacht. It was led first by Erich Raeder and then by Karl Doenitz during the war. See: Heer and Luftwaffe
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
German for "Night of Broken Glass"; organized attacks by Nazis and their followers against Jewish property, synagogues and individuals on November 9, 1938. In the aftermath, “for their own protection,” thousands of Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Kursk City in western Central Russia and location of strategic offensives and the largest tank battle in history, between German and Soviet forces, July-August 1943, when the German forces attempted an encirclement of a Soviet army, but was instead destroyed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Kwajalein Japanese-held island in the Marshall Islands, Pacific, assaulted by U.S. forces on February 1, 1944. The battled lasted a week and resulted in 373 American deaths and nearly 8,000 Japanese deaths.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Laconia Order Order issued by German Admiral Karl Doenitz in September 1942 forbidding German vessels from rescuing survivors of German naval attacks at sea. The order followed an incident where German ships were fired upon while picking up survivors from the British ship Laconia, which was sinking after a German attack
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Laval, Pierre Vice-premiere and prime minister of Vichy France. An active collaborator with the Nazis, he was tried for treason after the war and executed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z LCI Landing Craft Infantry; a sea-going amphibious assault ship that could carry more than 200 soldiers or Marines and land them directly onto beaches.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z LCVP Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel; popularly called "Higgins boat" after its designer Andrew Jackson Higgins. LCVPs could carry up to 36 soldiers or Marines and were equipped with a ramp on the front by which troops could quickly disembark.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z League of Nations International organization formed after WWI to settle disputes between nations. The U.S. did not become a member, and that, along with other structural weaknesses in the organization made the League incapable of averting WWII. The League was disbanded after WWII and replaced by the United Nations.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Leahy, William U.S. fleet admiral, Chief of Staff to presidents Roosevelt and Truman, and the first U.S. military officer to hold a five-star rank.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Lebensraum German for "living space"; concept used to advance German territorial desires in the East. In "Mein Kampf," Hitler wrote of his belief that the German people needed more living space and that they were entitled to the lands of Poland, Russia and other Slavic areas.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z LeClerc, Philippe Free French general whose 2nd Armored Division led the liberation of Paris in August 1945 and Strasbourg soon after.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ledo Road 1,000-mile supply road built by the Allies during WWII from India to China to take the place of the captured Burma Road
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Lend-Lease Economic program established by the U.S. to supply Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China and other Allied nations with war materials between 1941 and 1945. A total of $50 billion of supplies were provided ($700 billion in today's dollars). Lend-Lease represented a move away from neutrality in 1941 before the U.S. entered the war.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Leningrad Soviet city that was besieged by the Germans for 900 days between August 1942 and January 1944. More than one million people in the city died, most of them from starvation.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Leyte Gulf, Battle of Site of the Pacific battle on October 22 - October 27, 1944, that put an end to the Japanese fleet as an offensive force.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
U.S. cargo ships that were relatively cheap and easy to build. U.S. shipbuilders built 2,751 Liberty Ships during WWII that served as a vital supply line to Allied forces and civilians around the world. See: Victory Ships
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Lidice Czechoslovakian town that was liquidated by the Nazis on June 10, 1942, in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia. All men of the town were shot, the women and children were sent to concentration camps, and the town was burned and bulldozed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Little Boy Code name for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. It used enriched uranium for its explosive force.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Lodz Ghetto Jewish ghetto established by the Germans in Poland's second largest city. Of its 200,000 Jews, only an estimated 900 survived the ghetto's liquidation by the Nazis in August 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Lord Haw Haw Pseudonym for William Joyce, an American-born, British-raised Fascist, who broadcast English language Nazi propaganda on German radio aimed at Allied troops. After the war he was found guilty of treason and hanged.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z LST Landing Ship Tank; sea-going amphibious assault ship that could carry eighteen 30-ton tanks or twenty-two 25-ton tanks or 33 heavy trucks, and over 200 troops. More than 1,000 were built in the United States during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ludendorff Bridge Bridge spanning the Rhine River near the western border of Germany and Belgium. The bridge was captured by Allied forces, March 7, 1945, enabling them to establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the river and continue to push into Germany.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The German air force during WWII and one of three branches of the Wehrmacht. It was led by Hermann Goering for most of the war. See: Heer and Kreigsmarine.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z LVT Landing Vehicle Tracked; also known as amtrak or amphibious tractor. An amphibious vehicle that could be piloted through the water or driven on its tracks over terrain, carrying up to 30 Marines or a jeep.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z M-1 Garand rifle U.S. semi-automatic, clip-fed rifle; the standard weapon of U.S. infantrymen during WWII, designed by John C. Garand. Considered one of the best rifles used by any country during the war.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z MacArthur, Douglas U.S. Army general; commanded U.S. and Allied forces on the Philippines before the war and led its liberation in 1944. MacArthur, one of only five five-star Army generals, oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945-1951.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Magic U.S. code name for the information gathered by deciphering the Japanese diplomatic code. See: Purple
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Post-WWII effort by the War Shipping Administration to bring home more than eight million U.S. servicemen and women from Europe, the Pacific, and Asia. It took more than a year to accomplish.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Line of French defensive fortifications along the German border built during the interwar years to preclude any future German invasion of France. While technically impressive and strong, it was sidestepped by German forces, who invaded France through Belgium in the north (1940).
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Malinta Tunnel Large bomb-proof bunker complex on the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, Philippines, equipped with supplies and a 1,000-bed hospital, that served as MacArthur's headquarters during the Battle of Corregidor
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Malmedy Massacre Town in eastern Belgium and site of a Nazi war crime, when, on December 17, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, 84 U.S. prisoners of war were murdered by German SS troops.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Manhattan Project Code name for the U.S. effort to build an atomic bomb during World War II. At that time it was the most expensive scientific undertaking ever, costing $2 billion ($24 billion in 2008 dollars) and employing 130,000 people.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Maquis Rural guerilla bands of the French Resistance
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Marco Polo Bridge Incident Battle between Japanese and Chinese forces near Beijing, July 7, 1937, which sparked the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The battle was instigated by Japanese forces looking for an excuse to begin a larger military conquest of China.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Island chain in the north-western Pacific that includes Saipan, Guam and Tinian. U.S. forces recaptured the islands from Japanese military occupation in the summer of 1944, later using them to launch bombing raids on Japan, including the two atomic bomb flights.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
See: Philippine Sea, Battle of
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Code name for the failed Allied effort to capture a series of bridges in Holland from the Germans in September 1944, using a combination of airborne and armored troops.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Pacific island group east of Micronesia that includes Eniwetok, Kwajelein and other atolls U.S. forces retook from Japanese military occupation in early 1944, as part of their island-hopping campaign, after the Gilbert Islands and before the Mariana Islands.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
U.S. Army general and chief of staff; the highest-ranking Army officer during WWII. Marshall oversaw the largest build-up of the U.S. military in history, became the first five-star general and later served as U.S. secretary of state, where he organized the Marshall Plan of economic assistance to war torn Europe.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Austrian town and site of a complex of Nazi concentration camps. They were the last to be liberated, just days before Germany surrendered in May 1945. Between 120,000 and 320,000 people died in this complex.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ME 109 Messerschmitt Bf 109; ubiquitous German fighter plane of WWII. The ME 109 scored more aircraft kills in the war than any other aircraft.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Medic Trained soldier who provides first aid on or near the battlefield. See: Corpsman
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Meeting House, Operation Code name for the U.S. Army Air Force fire bombing of Tokyo, March 9, 1945. The B-29 raid killed 100,000 Japanese. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Mein Kampf German for "My Struggle"; book written by Adolf Hitler while in prison in 1923 following a failed coup against the German government. In it he wrote of his desire for a return to German greatness and his strident anti-Semitism and anti-Communism.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Mengele, Josef German SS doctor who conducted medical experiments on prisoners in Auschwitz and conducted daily selections of prisoners to be sent to the gas chambers. Known as the "Angel of Death." He escaped to South America after the war.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Merchant Marine U.S. maritime agency that delivered cargo to all theaters of war. Nearly 250,000 sailors served in the Merchant Marine during WWII, with over 9,000 dying - a rate of 1 in 24, higher than any other branch of service. More than three million tons of U.S. merchant ships were lost during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Mers-el-Kebir Port town in northwestern Algeria; on July 3, 1940, following the German defeat of France, the British Royal Navy destroyed the French fleet there to stop it from falling into German hands. More than 1,200 French sailors were killed and relations between Britain and France were severely strained.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Mexico The only Latin American country to send troops to the Pacific Theater; Squadron 201 (the Aztec Eagles) was attached to the U.S. Army Air Force's 58th Fighter Group and flew P-47s in combat in the Philippines and Formosa during the last two months of the war. See: Brazil
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z MIA Military abbreviation for "missing in action"
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Midway, Battle of U.S. Naval refueling station and airbase located 1,136 miles west of Hawaii and the target of a major Japanese operation in June 1942 to draw out the American carrier fleet for destruction. Although the Americans were outnumbered, the Japanese lost the bulk of their carrier fleet.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Miller, Dorie African American hero at Pearl Harbor. Miller was a U.S. Navy mess attendant aboard the U.S.S. West Virginia when the Japanese attack occurred. He pulled his wounded commanding officer to safety and then fired upon attacking Japanese planes, shooting down at least one. Miller was awarded the Navy Cross. He died when the USS Liscome Bay was sunk off Tarawa, November 24, 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Missouri, USS (BB-63) U.S. battleship, nicknamed Mighty Mo and Big Mo, aboard which the Japanese signed their surrender in Tokyo Bay, on September 2, 1945. She saw action at the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, earning 11 battle stars.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Officially called the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, signed in Moscow on August 24, 1939. It renounced warfare between the two countries and pledged neutrality by either party if the other were attacked by a third party. This treaty opened the way for Germany to invade Poland one week later.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Italian mountain site eighty miles south of Rome and location of a historic Benedictine monastery destroyed by U.S. bombing in February 1944 during the Italian Campaign. Debate continues today as to whether German forces were using the abbey as an observation point
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
British field marshal and commander of Allied troops in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy and during the Allied advance to the Rhine. He gained fame as the victor over Rommel at El Alamein in Egypt, but his over-cautiousness in battle and tendency to claim credit for others' victories led to friction within the Allied command.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Mulberry Harbors Prefabricated harbors secretly built in Great Britain that were floated across the English Channel and sunk off the Normandy coast after D-Day. They created sheltered areas for ships supplying the build-up of invasion forces before the port of Cherbourg could be taken.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Munich Agreement Agreement between British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, German Fürher Adolf Hitler and others September 30, 1938, wherein Germany was permitted annexation of the Sudetenland, an area of western Czechoslovakia with many German inhabitants. See: Appeasement
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Mussolini, Benito Italian dictator and founder of the Fascist party in Italy. Became part of the Axis powers with Adolf Hitler and was later executed by his own people in 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Nagumo, Chuichi Japanese admiral; commander of the 1st Air Fleet's attack on Pearl Harbor and of Japanese naval forces at Midway. He lost his command after that naval loss and later committed suicide after losing the battle for Saipan.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Nazi A member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. At its height the political party had 8.5 million members, including nearly all members of the German government.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Night and Fog Decree A directive of Hitler implemented by Chief of Staff Wilhelm Keitel resulting in kidnapping and disappearance of political activists throughout Nazi Germany's occupied territories. It was signed December 7, 1941.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Night of the Long Knives Purge of important members of the German SA by the SS and Gestapo, June 30-July 2, 1934. Hitler felt that the SA threatened his power.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Nimitz, Chester U.S. fleet admiral; held the dual command of commander-in-chief, Pacific Fleet for U.S. Naval Forces and commander-in-chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, for U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces during WWII. He oversaw the U.S. island-hopping campaign through the central Pacific.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Nisei Japanese term for the children of the generation of Japanese to immigrate to North and South America. The first generation of immigrants is called Issei; the grandchildren, Sansei.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Region of northwest France and location of the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion of western Europe (operation Overlord). |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z NSDAP National Socialist German Workers' Party, or in German, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; commonly known as the Nazi Party. This was the party of Adolf Hitler, whose regime (1933-1945) was known as the Third Reich.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Nuremberg Rallies Annual Nazi Party gatherings in the German city of Nuremberg from 1923 to 1938. These grand propaganda pageants were used to promote unity between the German people and the Nazi Party.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A series of post-war trials against suspected Nazi war criminals, conducted by the Allied Powers in the bombed-out German city of Nuremberg. At the first and best known, from November 14, 1945, to October 1, 1946, major Nazi leaders such as Hermann Goering, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Keitel, Hans Frank, Ernst Kaltenbrunner and others were sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Nuts! Famous reply given by U.S. General Anthony McAuliffe to a German demand that he and his besieged 101st Airborne Division troops surrender, in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, December 22, 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Okinawa Japanese-occupied island halfway between southern Japan and Taiwan and site of the largest amphibious assault of WWII, starting April 1, 1945. The almost two-month long battle cost 12,500 U.S., more than 60,000 Japanese, and between 75,000-140,000 civilian lives.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht; in English, High Command of the Armed Forces. Part of the command structure of the armed forces in Nazi Germany, replacing the War Ministry in 1938.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Code name for the planned U.S. invasion of Kyushu, Japan, by the Sixth Army, scheduled for October 1945. The Japanese surrender in August 1945 made it unnecessary. See: Operation Downfall
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
D-Day beach assaulted by the U.S. 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions on June 6, 1944. Known as "Bloody Omaha" due to the large number of American deaths that day.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z OPA Office of Price Administration; the U.S. government agency, established August 28, 1941, charged with stabilizing prices and overseeing rationing procedures and schedules during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Oppenheimer, Robert Physicist who headed the Manhattan Project; known as the "Father of the atomic bomb." After WWII Oppenheimer argued for international control of atomic weapons.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Town in central-western France and site of a Nazi atrocity, June 10, 1944, when SS troops murdered 642 inhabitants of the town, including 247 women and 205 children, in retaliation for French Resistance activities.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Office of Strategic Services; the first U.S. extraterritorial secret service. It was founded in June 1942 to collect and analyze strategic information and assist anti-Axis forces around the world. The OSS was the forerunner of the CIA.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Code name for the Allied invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944, popularly called D-Day. It was originally planned for June 5, but bad weather delayed its start by one day. It was one of the largest, most complex and secretive military operations in history.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Office of War Information; the official U.S. agency for the control of information to the public during WWII. Most U.S. wartime propaganda materials, including posters, films and radio shows, were created by or encouraged by the OWI.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z P-38 U.S. fighter airplane, nicknamed Lightning, with distinctive twin boom and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. It was used extensively in the PTO and CBI Theater. America's top ace, Richard Bong, scored 40 kills in a P-38.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z P-51 U.S. long-range fighter plane, nicknamed the Mustang. It was flown mostly as a bomber escort over Europe an helped the Allies achieve air superiority over the Luftwaffe.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Pact of Steel A ten-year agreement to encourage joint military and economic policy, signed May 22, 1939; officially called the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Panay Incident A Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy gunboat Panay while she was at anchor on the Yangtze River, China, December 12, 1937. The U.S. was not at war with Japan at the time, but the incident inflamed U.S. attitudes toward Japan and her recent invasion of China.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Panzer In German broadly translated as armor; generic term for German tanks throughout WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Panzerfaust German infantry anti-tank weapon, designed to be fired once, then discarded. The larger, reusable version was the Panzerschrek. See: Bazooka and PIAT
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Paperclip, Operation Code name for the U.S. effort to extract German scientists from Germany toward the end of WWII. Many of these scientists went on to help the U.S. develop missile and space technologies |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Partisans Term for irregular forces or detached troops operating behind enemy lines or in occupied areas. There were several partisan armies operating in Europe during WWII, the best organized being the main Yugoslav resistance movement under Tito.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Pastorius, Operation Code name for a failed German attempt to infiltrate eight saboteurs into New York and Florida from U-boats in June 1942. All eight were captured and tried, with two receiving lengthy jail terms and six being executed. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Patton, George U.S. Army general and commander of forces in North Africa and Sicily, and leader of the U.S. Third Army through France and into Germany. Patton was a tough general who often courted controversy with other commanders, politicians and the press. He was killed in an automobile accident in Luxemburg, in December 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Paulus, Friedrich von German general and commander of troops at Stalingrad. After losing three quarters of a million men in the battle, Paulus surrendered his army to the Soviets and was taken captive. He is the only German field marshal ever to be taken captive.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Pearl Harbor U.S. port city located on Oahu, Hawaii, and location of the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941, which brought the U.S. into WWII. The U.S. Pacific fleet had been brought from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor on May 7, 1940.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Petacci, Clara Benito Mussolini's mistress. She was shot by Italian partisans along with Mussolini on April 28, 1945, in northern Italy.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Petain, Philippe French general and politician. Petain was a hero of WWI who served in the French government between the wars and assumed leadership of the collaborationist Vichy French government after the fall of France to Germany in June 1940. After the war he was tried for treason and condemned to death, a sentence that was commended to life in prison.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Philippine Sea, Battle of Largest aircraft carrier battle in history, fought between U.S. and Japanese naval forces off the Mariana Islands, June 19-20, 1944. The U.S. decisively defeated the Japanese, sinking three carriers and 600 Japanese aircraft. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Term used to describe the period of time in western Europe from September 1939 to May 1940, when the Britain and France had declared war on Germany, but no military actions took place.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z PIAT Projector, Infantry Anti-Tank; a British anti-tank rocket launcher, similar to the U.S. bazooka and the German panzerfaust, but with no back blast and harder to load.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Pink Triangle The symbol Nazis forced homosexuals to wear in concentration camps.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Plan Orange Code name for the U.S. interwar plan for a war with Japan. It assumed an attack by Japan on the U.S.-held Philippines, not an attack on Pearl Harbor.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ploesti Romanian city and site of oil refineries that supplied Germany with the majority of its fuel during WWII. The Allies conducted air raids over the city on August 1, 1943, and again in April 1944, to knock out these facilities.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z PLUTO Pipe Line Under the Ocean; a top-secret Allied project to design, build and lay flexible pipelines from southern coastal England to Normandy to supply gasoline to the advancing armies in the months after D-Day. PLUTO pipelines pumped 172 million gallons of gasoline to Normandy.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Pogrom Anti-Jewish riot, often including beatings, arson and murder, organized, encouraged or allowed by the local or national government.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Port Chicago California naval installation and site of an accidental explosion of ammunition on July 17, 1944. The explosion killed 320 people, mostly African American recruits. The lack of safety procedures, even after the accident and discriminatory treatment led to a mutiny by 258 African American sailors, followed by their courts-martial.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Potsdam Conference Meeting of Allied leaders in Germany, July 16 to August 2, 1945, to determine the fate of recently defeated Germany. Attendees included U.S. president Harry Truman, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and British prime minister Winston Churchill. During the conference, Churchill's Conservative Party lost an election to the Labor Party, so the new prime minister, Clement Attlee, took Churchill's place.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z POW Military abbreviation for "prisoner of war"
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Propaganda Concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions and behaviors of large numbers of people. During WWII, most countries produced posters, newsreels, films, radio announcements, etc., to encourage its citizens to support its wartime policies
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z PT-109 Torpedo boat commanded by Lieutenant (and future U.S. president) John F. Kennedy, which was rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri on August 2, 1943 off the Solomon Islands. Kennedy's actions saving his crew made him a war hero.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z PT-boat U.S. torpedo patrol boat used extensively in the Pacific to harass the Japanese fleet.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z PTO Pacific Theater of Operations
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Purple U.S. code name for the Japanese diplomatic code before and during WWII. See: Magic
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Pyle, Ernie Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. war correspondent. Pyle traveled with the troops in Europe and the Pacific and wrote about their daily experiences, both routine and terrifying. He was killed by a Japanese sniper on Ie Shima off Okinawa on April 18, 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Quisling, Vidkun Norwegian collaborator with the Nazis who was executed at war's end. Nazi collaborators came to be called Quislings.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Radar Acronym for Radio Detection and Ranging, an electronic system for locating distant objects using radio waves. Radar was first used by the British to locate incoming German planes during the Battle of Britain.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ramsay, Sir Bertram British admiral; organized the evacuation from Dunkirk and commanded naval forces at D-Day. Ramsay was killed in an airplane crash on January 2, 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Rationing A system of apportioning scarce resources to ensure adequate supply and fair distribution. During WWII the following items were rationed in the United States and other countries: tires, gasoline, shoes, canned goods, cheese, meat, coffee, sugar and tobacco.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Red Ball Express Name given to the supply route from Normandy inland to the advancing Allied armies. From August 25 to November 1944, the Express delivered 500,000 tons of fuel, ammunition, and supplies to the front. 75% of its drivers were African Americans.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Name given by the Gestapo to several resistance spy rings in Germany and Nazi-occupied countries with Communist and Soviet connections.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Reichstag Fire Burning of the German parliament building, February 27, 1933. Hitler, who had been made German chancellor just one month earlier, blamed the fire on arson committed by Communists, using the event as an excuse to assume greater power over the German state.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Reuben James, U.S.S. (DD-245) U.S. Navy destroyer and the first U.S. ship lost in WWII, sunk off Iceland by a German U-boat on October 31, 1941 (prior to the U.S. entry into the war).
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Reynaud, Paul French premier in June 1940 when France was overrun by the Germans. He was arrested and spent the rest of the war in concentration camps.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Roma A widely dispersed ethnic group, originally from India, that have long been the target of discrimination throughout Europe. Between 500,000 and 1,500,000 Roma were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Roma are also called Gypsies; The Sinti, a sub-group of Roma was also targeted by the Nazis.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Rommel, Erwin German general. Rommel fought on the Eastern and Western Fronts at the beginning of the war, commanded the Afrika Korps and led the defense of Normandy following D-Day. Implicated in the plot to assassinate Hitler, July 20, 1944, Rommel died from an alleged cyanide overdose.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Rommel's Asparagus Anti-glider poles positioned in fields along the Atlantic Wall to disrupt any attempted Airborne landings. Rommel was in charge of strengthening the Atlantic Wall in the Normandy region.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Roosevelt, Franklin Delano U.S. president throughout most of WWII and the only person ever to be elected president four time (1932, 1936, 1940, 1944). He led the U.S. though the Great Depression, maintained U.S. neutrality in WWII until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and coordinated with Churchill and Stalin the eventual Allied victory over the Axis. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945, three weeks before the German surrender, and was succeeded by Vice President Harry Truman.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Roosevelt's Sausage Nickname the Soviets gave to Spam, a Lend-Lease favorite in Russia
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Rosenberg, Alfred Nazi Party official who developed many key Nazi ideological creeds, including its racial theories, Lebensraum and the persecution of the Jews. He served as Reichsminister for Occupied Territories. Rosenberg was tried at Nuremberg, found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and hanged.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Rosie the Riveter The nickname given to U.S. women who worked in defense factories during WWII. A rivet is a metal fastener that holds plates of metal together, as in aircraft and ship production.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
German general who held high commands on several fronts including the invasion of Poland, the invasion of the West, Operation Barbarossa and the defense of the West. After D-Day he urged Hitler to seek peace with the western Allies.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z SA Sturmabteilung; German for "assault section," usually translated as "stormtroopers." A paramilitary organization, often called the "Brown Shirts," that helped bring Hitler to power through violence and intimidation. They were superseded by the SS after the "Night of the Long Knives."
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Saipan Largest of the Marianas Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean and site of a three-week battle between U.S. Marines and Japanese forces beginning June 15, 1944. The victory was the most costly to date in the Pacific War for the U.S. 2,949 Americans were killed and 10,364 wounded, out of 71,000 who landed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Saukel, Fritz Nazi minister for labor (1942-45), responsible for organizing slave labor resources for the Reich from German-occupied lands. Found guilty of war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials, he was sentenced to death and hanged.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Savo Island, Battle of The first major naval engagement between U.S. and Japanese forces in the Guadalcanal campaign, August 8, 1942. A Japanese warship task force surprised and routed the Allied naval force, sinking one Australian and three American cruisers, while taking only moderate damage in return.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Two failed Allied air raids on ball bearing factories in the German city of Schweinfurt, August 17 and October 14, 1943. The factories were rated as one of the highest priority targets. Allied bomber, flying with insufficient fighter cover, suffered great losses.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Sealion, Operation Code name for Hitler's planned invasion of Great Britain. The German's inability to defeat the RAF made the amphibious invasion untenable. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Seebees Construction battalions; U.S. Navy engineering units charged with clearing jungles, building roads and airfields and constructing pots and bases. Their motto is "Construimus, Battuimus," or "We Build, We Fight"
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Selassie, Haile Emperor of Ethiopia when Italy invaded in 1935, he protested Italy's use of poison gas warfare to the League of Nations, and was sent into exile in Britain until returning to rule Ethiopia in 1941.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Semper Fidelis "Always Faithful"; motto of the U.S. Marine Corps
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
"Always Prepared"; motto of the U.S. Coast Guard
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Service Flags Banner that U.S. families hung in their windows to indicate that a family member was serving in the Armed Forces. The number of stars represented how many family members were serving. See: Gold Star Mothers
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Port city on the Crimean peninsula, part of the Soviet Union during WWII, and site of a 250-day bombardment and siege by Axis forces in 1942. It fell to the Germans, but was liberated by Soviet forces in May 1944
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force; the designation for General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters for the planning and execution of the D-Day invasion and the battle across Europe.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Sherman Tank U.S. medium tank; served as the primary tank for U.S. forces in WWII, with a production of more than 50,000.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Shingle, Operation Code name for the Allied landings at Anzio, Italy, January 22, 1944. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Shoah Hebrew biblical word meaning “destruction,” which has became the standard Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
U.S. Army general in charge of military installations on Hawaii on December 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked the Japanese. He was removed from that command, accused of dereliction of duty and demoted in rank. In 1999, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution exonerating Short and his Navy counterpart Admiral Husband Kimmel.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Siegfried Line German defensive line of bunkers, tunnels, and anti-tank obstacles built during the late 1930s facing the French Maginot Line; called the Westwall by Germany.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Site S Code name for Alamogordo, NM, as the main assembly and testing site for the Manhattan Project's atomic bombs.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Skorzeny, Otto German commando in the Waffen-SS during WWII. Skorzeny fought on the Eastern Front, led the commando raid that rescued Mussolini from his Italian captors in 1943, and commanded Operation Grief behind Allied lines during the Battle of the Bulge.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Slapton Sands Coastal area of southwest England and site of a German E-boat attack on Allied troops training for the Normandy D-Day landings, April 28, 1944. More than 600 U.S. Army and Navy personnel were killed, more than would be killed on Utah Beach on D-Day.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Smith, Holland U.S. Marine Corps general; known as the "father of U.S. amphibious warfare." He led the V Corps in amphibious assaults on the Gilberts, the Marshalls and the Marianas Islands in the Pacific and commanded the assault troops on Iwo Jima. His nickname was "Howling Mad."
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Smith, Walter Bedell U.S. general and Eisenhower's chief of staff at SHAEF. After the war he served as ambassador to the Soviet Union.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z SOE Special Operations Executive; a British commando organization established in November 1940 to encourage and support anti-Nazi activities in German-held areas.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Solomon Islands Pacific islands east of Papua New Guinea and site of the first U.S. amphibious assaults against the Japanese in WWII. The main target was Guadalcanal, a battle that lasted six months, from August 1942 - February 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Sonar Acronym for Sound Navigation and Ranging, a technique for using sound waves, usually underwater, to detect and direct vessels. WWII saw great advances in sonar technology, leading to more effective submarines, torpedoes, mine detection and anti-submarine measures.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Southwick House Manor house north of Portsmouth, England, and headquarters of SHAEF, where much of the planning for Operation Overlord took place.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Speer, Albert Hilter's chief architect and German minister of armaments during WWII. Speer was tried for war crimes at Nuremberg, found guilty of using slave labor and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Spitfire British fighter aircraft and mainstay, along with the Hurricane, of the RAF during the Battle of Britain.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z SS Schutzstaffel; German for "protective squadron." An elite Nazi military organization separate from the German army, that served as Hitler's personal guard. Led by Heinrich Himmler, the SS was responsible for the Nazi concentration camps and death camps and most other war crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z St. Mere Eglise Town in western Normandy; one of the first French towns liberated on D-Day.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Stalag In German, the term for prisoner of war camp. Stalag Luft were POW camps reserved for captured airmen.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Stalin, Josef Soviet dictator during WWII and one of the "Big Three" Allied leaders. He signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in order to annex eastern Poland, but later had to defend his country against a German invasion. Stalin's policies before, during and after WWII led to the deaths of millions of Soviets, Poles and others.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Stalingrad Soviet city and location of one of the turning point battles of WWII. The battle between the Germans and the Soviets lasted from August 21, 1942, to February 2, 1943. 1.7 million to 2 million Axis and Soviet soldiers were either killed, wounded or captured during the Soviet's successful defense of the city.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Newspaper published by the U.S. Army for its soldiers overseas. It included news stories, essays, humorous articles, and the popular Willie and Joe cartoons by Bill Mauldin.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Stilwell, Joseph U.S. Army general who held commands in the CBI Theater, leading U.S., Chinese and British troops to recapture the Ledo Road.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Stuka Name given to the German Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber ground attack aircraft. Stukas were instrumental in the success of the German Blitzkreig attacks.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Sudetenland Western regions of Czechoslovakia with many ethnic Germans that Hitler demanded be incorporated into the Third Reich in 1938.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Five U.S. siblings who died when their ship, the light cruiser U.S.S. Juneau, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, November 13, 1942, off the coast of Guadalcanal. The military thereafter adopted policies that limited the risk to troops if they had already lost family members in combat.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Suribachi Highest elevation on Iwo Jima (546 ft.) and site of the famous flag-raising by five U.S. Marines and one Navy corpsman on February 23, 1945, four days after the invasion of the island. The photograph of the flag raising there by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal is one of the most famous images to come out of WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Swastika Ancient symbol adopted by the Nazi Party in German. It continues to be identified with Nazism.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Sword Beach D-Day beach assaulted by the British 3rd Division, the 27th Armored Brigade and the 1st Special Service Brigade Commando on June 6, 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z T-34 Soviet medium tank produced in large numbers that served as the backbone of the Red Army's armored units.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Taranto Coastal harbor city in southern Italy. The RAF staged the first all-aircraft naval attack in history, destroying the Italian fleet at anchor on November 11, 1940. The success of this operation helped the Japanese plan their attack on Pearl Harbor one year later.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, Central Pacific Ocean, and site of a costly three-day battle, November 20 - 23, 1943, in which U.S. forces took the islands from Japanese occupiers. The battle became known as "Bloody Tawara."
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tedder, Sir Arthur British RAF officer who commanded air operation in North Africa and Sicily and became Deputy Supreme Commander of SHAEF under Eisenhower for Operation Overlord.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Teheran Conference Meeting between U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin November 28 - December 1, 1943, in Iran. At the conference it was decided that the western Allies would launch a cross-Channel attack in May 1944 and that the Soviets would enter the war against Japan after Germany was defeated.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Third Reich Nazi designation for the German regime from January 1933, when Hitler came to power, to May 1945, when Germany surrendered, ending WWII in Europe. Germans considered the First Reich to be the years of the Holy Roman Empire (800-1806) and the Second Reich to be the German Empire of 1871-1918.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Third Republic French designation for the French regime between 1870 and July 10, 1940. It followed the collapse of French Emperor Napoleon III and ended with the French surrender to Germany in 1940.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tiger Tank Common name of a German heavy tank of WWII
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Timoshenko, Semyon Soviet military commander and senior professional officer of the Red Army at the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tinian Island in the Marianas Island chain, just south of Saipan, and site from which both atomic bomb raids against Japan were launched in August 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tito, Josip Broz Leader of the anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia known as the Partisans during WWII. Later president of Yugoslavia.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tobruk Libyan seaport near Egypt and site of several battles between Axis and Allied forces.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tojo, Hideki Japanese army general and prime minister of Japan from October 18, 1941 to July 22, 1944. He is considered responsible for authorizing the murder of more than 8 million people in China, Korea, the Philippines, Indochina and the Pacific, as well as thousands of Allied POWs. He was tried for war crimes, found guilty and hanged after the war.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tora! Tora! Tora! Code words used by the Japanese to indicate that the attack on Pearl Harbor had achieved complete surprise.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Torch, Operation Code name for the Allied invasion of North Africa, November 8, 1942. The invasion area was controlled by Vichy France, who was not a belligerent. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Torgau Town in northwestern Germany on the Elbe River and site of the first meeting of Soviet troops (coming from the east) and U.S. troops (coming from the west) on April 25, 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Treblinka Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland. Approximately 750,000 Jews and other enemies of the Nazi state were murdered here between July 1942 and October 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tricycle British code name for counter-spy Dusko Popov. Popov aided the British deception effort against the Germans preceding Operation Overlord.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Trinity Code name for the first atomic bomb test at Alamogordo, NM, July 16, 1945. The heat-fused sand beneath the test site has been termed trinitite.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tripartite Pact Military alliance treaty signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy, September 27, 1940, officially establishing the Axis Powers
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Truman, Harry U.S. vice president and president during WWII. Truman became Roosevelt's vice president following FDR's fourth election to office in 1944. At Roosevelt's death, less than three months later, Truman became the 33rd president, overseeing the final month of war in Europe and the final four months of war with Japan. Truman authorized the use of atomic weapons on Japan.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Tuskegee Airmen Popular name for a group of African American fighter pilots who flew with distinction as the 332nd Fighter Group in the ETO. They received their training at the Tuskegee Institute, a black university in Alabama.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z U-boats In German, Unterseeboot; German submarines primarily of WWI and WWII. In WWII, U-boats primarily focused on attacking Allied merchant shipping in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. In all, U-boats sank 175 warships and 2,825 merchant ships.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ultra Code name given to the information gathered by the Allies from decrypted German Enigma codes. Ultra was one of the most closely-guarded secrets of WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Unit 731 Biological and chemical warfare research unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that conducted notorious human experiments on civilians and POWs during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z United Nations International organization of countries establish June 25, 1945, to facilitate cooperation in international security, law, development and human rights. The UN effectively replaced the League of Nations.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z USO United Service Organizations; a private, non-profit organization that provided morale and recreational services to U.S. and Allied troops throughout the world during WWII. It was established in February 1941. During the war the U.S.O. presented more than 400,000 shows, featuring stars such as Bob Hope, Dinah Shore, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and the Andrews Sisters.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Utah Beach D-Day beach assaulted by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division on June 6, 1944.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z V-1 German guided missile, nicknamed the "flying bomb" and "buzz bomb," used against Britain and Belgium in the last year of WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z V-2 German rocket weapon fired at Britain, Belgium and France in the last year of WWII. The V-2 was the world's first ballistic missile and the first man-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Valkyrie, Operation Code name for the planned assassination of Hitler by German Count Claus von Stauffenberg and others, July 20, 1944. The attempt failed. See: Flossenberg |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Varsity, Operation Code name for the Allied airborne assault on Germany across the Rhine River, March 24, 1945, the largest airborne operation in history with nearly 17,000 paratroopers. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z VE-Day Victory in Europe Day; May 8, 1945, the date that the Allies accepted the surrender of Germany.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Vergeltungswaffe German for retaliation or vengeance weapon; a class of weapons that included the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Vichy Resort town in central France and the capital of unoccupied France during WWII. The Vichy government was led by Marshal Henri Petain and collaborated with Nazi Germany.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Victory Gardens Vegetable and fruit gardens grown by Americans in back yards and vacant lots to supplement their rationed food during WWII. By 1944, there were 20 million Victory gardens being grown in the U.S. providing 40% of the nation's vegetables.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Victory Ships U.S. cargo ships that began replacing Liberty Ships by the end of WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Victory Speed Limit Term in the U.S. given to a motor speed limit of 35 miles per hour, set nationally to reduce wear on heavily rationed tires.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z VJ-Day Victory over Japan Day; can refer either to August 15, 1945, the day Japan announced its surrender or September 2, 1945, the day the Japanese signed the surrender document aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z V-Mail Short for Victory Mail; a U.S. mail delivery system designed to reduce
the bulk of soldiers' letters needing to be transported around the
world. Letters were photographed on microfilm, shipped to the U.S.,
developed onto photographic paper and then delivered. 150,000
microfilmed letters could be shipped in one mail bag, as opposed to 37
bags for paper letters. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z WAC Women's Army Corps; established as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in May 1942 and the WAC in 1943. About 150,000 women served in the WAAC and WAC during WWII. Its first director was Oveta Culp Hobby.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Waffen-SS Combat arm of the Schutzstaffel ("Protective Squadron"), or SS. In contrast to the Heer, Germany's regular army, the Waffen-SS was composed of volunteer troops with particularly strong personal commitments to Nazi ideology and selected on racial basis. During WWII it grew to 39 divisions, which served as elite combat troops alongside the regular army.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Wake Island U.S.-held Pacific island that was attacked by the Japanese the same day as Pearl Harbor. Japan occupied the island for the rest of the warl.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Wannsee Conference Conference of Nazi officials, January 20, 1942, at which an action plan for the total annihilation of European Jews was established.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z War Bond A type of savings bond issued by governments to help fund wars and control inflation. 85 million Americans purchased $185 billion of War Bonds during WWII.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Warsaw Ghetto The largest of the Jewish ghettos established by the Nazis in Poland. Between 1941 and 1943 the population dropped from 450,000 to 70,000 due to starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps. An uprising of Jewish resistance fighters held off the German SS for three months in early 1943, before the ghetto was finally destroyed.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z WASP Women Air Force Service Pilots; created September 10, 1942, civilian female pilots employed to fly military aircraft under the direction of the United States Army Air Forces during the war. More than 1,200 women pilots ferried soldiers and supplies across the U.S., freeing up male pilots for combat service.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Watchtower, Operation Code name for the U.S. assault on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, August 7, 1942, the first amphibious assault by U.S. forces in WWII. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z WAVES Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service; women's auxiliary branch of the U.S. Navy, established August 1942. More than 85,000 women served in the WAVES during WWII. It's first director was Mildred H. McAfee.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Wehrmacht German for defense force; name of the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Wehrmacht Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe (air force).
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Weygand, Maxime France's last military commander before the French capitulation. He later served with the collaborationist Vichy French government.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Willie and Joe Cartoon G.I. characters created by wartime cartoonist Bill Mauldin. They became synonymous with the average American infantryman.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Wingate, Orde British major general and organizer of the guerrilla Chindit units that fought behind Japanese lines in Burma. Wingate died in a plane crash in the Burmese jungle.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Winter War Name that refers to war between the Soviet Union and Finland, which began when Soviet forces attacked Finland, November 30, 1939. The greatly outnumbered Finns fought the Soviets to a standstill, leading to a peace treaty in March 1940. The Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for launching this war.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Wolf packs Groups of U-boats that attacked Allied shipping convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z X-Day Date set by Japanese admiral Isoruku Yamamoto for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z XX See: Double-Cross System
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Yalta Conference Wartime meeting between the Big Three, February 4-11, 1945 in the Crimean town of Yalta. At the conference the leaders discussed scenarios for partitioning Germany and Stalin pressed for post-war Soviet influence in Eastern Europe.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Yamamoto, Isoruku Japanese fleet admiral and commander-in-chief of the Japanese navy in WWII. He oversaw the planning and execution of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Midway. He died when his plane was ambushed by U.S. P-38 fighter planes over the Solomon Islands, April 18, 1943.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Yamato Japanese battleship; the largest battleship ever built, the Yamato remained sheltered in port following the Japanese aircraft carrier losses at Midway. She was finally sent to defend Okinawa when the U.S. attacked the island and was quickly sunk by U.S. carrier-based planes on April 7, 1945.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Yank, The Army Weekly Weekly magazine published by the U.S. military during WWII. Written by enlisted men and containing a pin-up girl in each edition, it was more popular than Stars and Stripes, achieving a worldwide circulation of 2.6 million readers.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Yellow Star The symbol Nazis forced Jews to wear in Germany and throughout the Third Reich. It was meant to identify, isolate, and humiliate them.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Yellow, Operation Code name for Hitler's invasion of the western Europe, originally planned for the autumn of 1939, and launched on May 10, 1940. See: Ardennes |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Z, Operation Code name for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. The plan was overseen by Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto and was based on the success of the British aerial torpedo attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto in November 1940. |
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Zero Japanese fighter plane of WWII built by Mitsubishi. At the beginning of the war the Zero was considered the best carrier-based fighter plane, but by war's end it had been surpassed by U.S. planes. In the end Zeros were used by Kamikaze pilots.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Zhukov, Georgi Soviet military commander who, more than any other officer, led the Red Army to victory over the Axis. He led Soviet forces at Stalingrad, Leningrad, in Operation Bagration and in the capture of Berlin.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Zyklon-B Trade name of a cyanide-based pesticide infamously used by the Nazis to kill prisoners in death camp gas chambers. |