Office of the Historian

List of Abbreviations, Symbols, and Code Names

Editor’s Note.—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.

  • 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