Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

A–20, twin-engine light bomber aircraft (Boston)

A.A., anti-aircraft

A–B, American-British

ABC–1, document designation for report, dated March 27, 1941, entitled “United States-British Staff Conversations”

ABDA, American-British-Dutch-Australian Command

ADBU, Australian-Dutch-British-United States

Acrobat, Allied plan for the advance from Cyrenaica into Tripolitania

Admiral Q., code name for President Roosevelt

AGWar, Adjutant General, War Department

Air Commodore F., code name for Prime Minister Churchill

Alex, code name for President Roosevelt

AMMISCA, American Military Mission to China

Anakim, Allied plan to retake Burma and open the line of communications to China through the port of Rangoon

Anfa, suburb of Casablanca and site of the Casablanca Conference of January 1943; frequently used as a code word to refer to the Conference

Arcadia, code word for the First Washington Conference, December 1941–January 1942

A/S, anti-submarine

A.S.V., Airborne Search Radar

A.T.L., Tank Landing Craft, ocean going

A.V.G., American Volunteer Group

B–17, four-engine heavy bomber aircraft (Flying Fortress)

B–18, twin-engine medium bomber aircraft

B–24, four-engine heavy bomber aircraft (Liberator)

B–25, twin-engine medium bomber aircraft (Marauder)

Bolero, build-up of U.S. forces and supplies in the United Kingdom for cross-Channel attack; sometimes used to refer to the projected cross-Channel attack itself

Boston, see A–20

Brimstone, Allied plan for the capture of Sardinia

C–1, C–2, C–3, C–4, types of standard cargo vessels developed by the U.S. Maritime Commission

Cannibal, Allied plan for the capture of Akyab in Burma

Catalina, or PBY, naval patrol bomber aircraft

C.C.O, Chief of Combined Operations (British), Lord Mountbatten

C.C.S., Combined Chiefs of Staff

C.I.G.S., Chief of the Imperial General Staff

C.N.A.C., China National Aviation Corporation

C.O.S., Chief(s) of Staff

C.P.S., Combined Staff Planners

C.S.A.B., Combined Shipping Adjustment Board

DD, destroyer (naval vessel)

D.W.I., Dutch West Indies

E–boat, anti-submarine naval craft

E.T.O., European Theater of Operations

F.O., British Foreign Office

Former Naval Person, code name for Prime Minister Churchill

G–2, G–3, and G–4, intelligence, operations, and supply sections of a divisional or higher staff

G.A.F., German Air Force

G.H.Q., General Headquarters, specifically of the U.S. Army before the reorganization of 1942

Gestapo, Geheime Staatspolizei (German Secret State Police)

Grey, British series designation for telegrams from Churchill, during the Arcadia Conference

G.S.C., General Staff Corps (U.S. Army)

Gymnast, proposed British invasion of French North Africa; sometimes used to refer to a proposed American-British combined invasion of North Africa (see Super-Gymnast)

H.A.A., heavy anti-aircraft

Hadrian, proposed Allied plan for a landing on the Cotentin Peninsula in France as a limited bridgehead operation on the continent in 1943

Hurricane, British fighter aircraft

Husky, Allied plan for the capture of Sicily

I.C.I., Imperial Chemical Industries

J.C.C.S., American designation for papers of the First Washington Conference

J.P.C., Joint Planning Committee; an American-British planning group at the First Washington Conference

Jupiter, proposed plan for Allied operations in northern Norway

JW, code designation for convoys following the Arctic route from the United Kingdom to the Soviet Union; replaced the PQ convoys

Kittyhawk, a type of fighter plane

L. of C., lines of communication

L.C.A., Landing Craft, Assault

L.C.I., Landing Craft, Infantry

L.C.I.(L), Landing Craft, Infantry, Large

L.C.M., Landing Craft, Mechanized

Liberator, see B–24

L.R., long range

L.S.T., Landing Ship, Tank

L.S.T.(2), Landing Ship, Tank (Mark II)

Magnet, movement of U.S. forces to Northern Ireland

M.G.B., Motor Gunboat

M.R., medium range

MT, Military Transport

M.T.B., Motor Torpedo Boat

N.E.I., Netherlands East Indies

Newberg, series designation for telegrams from the President at Casablanca

OPM, Office of Production Management

P–40, Army pursuit aircraft

PBY, or Catalina, naval patrol bomber aircraft

PQ, code letter designation for convoys pursuing the Arctic route from the United Kingdom to the Soviet Union

QP, code letter designation for convoys pursuing the Arctic route from the Soviet Union to the United Kingdom

R.A.F., Royal Air Force (British)

Ravenous, plan for the recapture of northern Burma

R.D.F., Radio Direction Finder

R.F.C., Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Rejoined Naval Person, code name for Prime Minister Churchill

R.N., Royal Navy

Roundup, plan for major American-British cross-Channel operation in 1943

Sledgehammer, limited cross-Channel invasion of the continent, either to take advantage of an early collapse of Germany or as a “sacrifice” operation to aid the Soviet Union

S.O.E., Special Operations Executive

S.O.S., Services of Supply

SPAB, Supply Priorities and Allocations Board

Sprawl Plan, British plan for the establishment of certain military forces in Turkey in case of attack by the Axis

Super-Gymnast, proposed American-British combined invasion of French North Africa; as an actual operation, redesignated Torch (see below)

Symbol, code word for Casablanca Conference, January 14–24, 1943

Taut, British series designation for telegrams to Churchill during the Arcadia Conference

Telescope, British series designation for telegrams from Eden to Churchill at Casablanca

Torch, Allied invasion of North and Northwest Africa, November 1942

Tube Alloys, code name for atomic energy research and development

V.L.R., very long range

WJ, see JW

Wellington, type of British fourengined bomber

W.S.A., War Shipping Administration

W.W., British series designation for papers of the Arcadia Conference

Foreign Relations of the United States, The Conferences at Washington, 1941–1942, and Casablanca, 1943

List of Abbreviations, Symbols, and Code Names