Office of the Historian

List of abbreviations, symbols, and code names

(This list does not include: standard abbreviations in common usage; unusual abbreviations of rare occurrence which are clarified at appropriate points; and those abbreviations and contractions which, although uncommon, are understandable from the context.)

  • ACC, Allied Control Commission
  • A–D, Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Dunn
  • AFHQ, Allied Force Headquarters
  • AGWAR, Adjutant General, War Department
  • ALLSTATE HORSESHOE, A phrase used between Stettinius and his estate, the Horseshoe, indicating that all was going well
  • AMG, Allied Military Government
  • AOC, Air Officer Commanding
  • ARGONAUT, Code name for the Yalta Conference; also used to refer to military discussions at Malta as well as at Yalta
  • ASDIC, Allied Submarine Devices Investigation Committee (World War I); also any type of underwater supersonic echo-ranging equipment of vessels
  • ASV, Airborne search radar
  • AUNOJ, See AVNOJ
  • AVNOJ, Anti-Fascist Assembly of National Liberation of Yugoslavia
  • BMA, British Military Authority
  • BMWT, British Ministry of War Transport
  • BROADSWORD, Code name for the operation to liberate Malaya and open the Straits of Malacca
  • CAC, Country and Area Committee, Department of State
  • cc, carbon copy
  • CCAC, Combined (American and British) Civil Affairs Committee
  • CCS, Combined (American and British) Chiefs of Staff
  • CM-in, Classified message—incoming
  • CMTC, Combined Military Transportation Committee
  • C of S, Chief of Staff
  • ComNavGr, Commander, Naval Group
  • Cong, Congress
  • CRICKET, Code name for Malta as a geographical location
  • D-Day, The term used to designate the unnamed day on which an operation commences, or is to commence; sometimes used with specific reference to the day of Allied cross-Channel assault (June 6, 1944)
  • dukw, amphibious truck
  • EAC, European Advisory Commission
  • EAM, National Liberation Front (Greece)
  • EE, Office of Eastern Europe Affairs
  • EUR, Office (Bureau) of European Affairs, Department of State
  • EW, European War
  • FAN, Military communications indicator
  • FEA, Foreign Economic Administration
  • FEC, Far Eastern Commission
  • FOX, Military communications indicator
  • FRANTIC, Code name for England-to-Russia air-shuttle bombing operations
  • G–1, Army general staff section dealing with personnel at the divisional or higher level
  • G–3, Army general staff section dealing with operations and training at the divisional or higher level
  • Gestapo, German Secret State Police
  • GRENADE, Code name for the attack by the 9th Army from the Roer to the Rhine near Düsseldorf
  • HC, Hospital Corps
  • HMG, His (Britannic) Majesty’s Government
  • HMS, His (Britannic) Majesty’s Ship
  • ILO, International Labor Organization
  • JCS, Joint (United States Army and Navy) Chiefs of Staff
  • jg, junior grade
  • JLC, Joint Logistics Committee
  • JPS, Joint Staff Planners
  • JSSC, Joint Strategic Survey Committee
  • JWPC, Joint War Plans Committee
  • Le, Office of the Legal Adviser, Department of State
  • LOYALIST, Code name for the operation to liberate Burma
  • L/T, Assistant (Assistant Legal Adviser) for Treaty Affairs, Department of State
  • LVT, Landing vehicle, tracked
  • M, Communications indicator
  • MAGNETO, Code name for Yalta as a geographical location
  • MANHATTAN DISTRICT, Code name for the atomic-bomb-development project
  • MC, Medical Corps
  • MC-V(s), Medical Corps, Volunteer (Specialist)
  • ME, Division of Middle Eastern Affairs, Department of State
  • MILEPOST, Code name referring to stockpiling of supplies in eastern Siberia for the use of Soviet forces in the war against Japan
  • MR, Map Room at the White House or at the conference. Served as communications center for the President
  • MWT, Ministry of War Transport (British)
  • NAF, Military communications indicator
  • Narkomindel, People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (Soviet)
  • NCR, Communications indicator
  • NEA, Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, Department of State
  • NIACT, a communications indicator requiring attention by the recipient at any hour of the day or night
  • NKVD, People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (Soviet)
  • OCTAGON, Code name for the Second Quebec Conference, September 11–16, 1944
  • OPD, Operations Division, War Department General Staff
  • para, paragraph
  • PM, Prime Minister
  • RAF, Royal Air Force (British)
  • RANKIN “C”, Code name for a plan that provided for Allied action in case of German unconditional surrender and cessation of organized resistance
  • ReEmbs, Regarding the Embassy’s (telegram)
  • ReEmbstel, Regarding the Embassy’s telegram
  • Ret, retired
  • RN, Royal Navy (British)
  • S, Office of the Secretary of State
  • SA, National Socialist Storm Troops (German)
  • SACMED, Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean
  • SACSEA, Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia
  • SC, Supply Corps
  • SCAEF, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force
  • SCAF, Military communications indicator
  • SCC, Secretary’s Coordinating Committee
  • SEAC, Southeast Asia Command
  • Sec, Secretary
  • ser, series
  • sess, session
  • SHAEF, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force
  • SM, Secretarial memorandum, Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • SPA, Office of Special Political Affairs, Department of State
  • SS, National Socialist Elite Guard (German)
  • SSR, Soviet Socialist Republic
  • Stat, The Statutes at Large of the United States
  • S/W, Secretary of War
  • SWNCC, State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee
  • TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority
  • U, Office of the Under Secretary of State
  • UJ, “Uncle Joe” Stalin
  • UK, United Kingdom
  • UNA, Bureau of United Nations Affairs, Department of State (now IO, Bureau of International Organization Affairs)
  • “Uncle Joe”, Marshal Stalin—term used in correspondence between Roosevelt and Churchill
  • UNRRA, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
  • Urtel, Your telegram
  • USA, United States of America; United States Army
  • USAAF, United States Army Air Forces
  • USMC, United States Marine Corps
  • USN, United States Navy
  • USNR, United States Naval Reserve
  • V-E Day, The day of Allied victory in Europe
  • VERITABLE, Code name for the offensive by the northern group of armies to cross the Rhine
  • VHB, Very heavy bomber
  • VHF, Very high frequency
  • VLR, Very long range (aircraft)
  • WAAF, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (British)
  • WAR, Military communications indicator
  • WEARY WILLIE, Code name for the use of war-weary heavy bombers to be radar controlled and directed as single missiles against otherwise impregnable targets
  • WPB, War Production Board
  • WSA, War Shipping Administration
  • Yugos, a Yugoslav