Introduction
This list deals primarily with Anglo-American acronyms during the war years,
1939-1945. Foreign acronyms that were well-known or adopted by the English-speaking
military may also be included, especially certain German words. It's not an
academic work by any means. No sources or references are listed. I mean this
material to be useful for gamers and writers who'd like to spice up their work
with some of the language of the time and that's all.
Right now the list is heavily American. If anyone knows any appropriate British, Australian, etc. acronyms of the period, I'd be happy to add them. The same goes for any other American acronyms .
Send information and questions to faskew at yahoo dot com.
NOTE: I've written the address this way to thwart the evil spam bots that harvest addresses from Web sites. Redo the address to the typical name@ etc. before using.
Civilian Slang
Military Terms
Soldier Slang
US WW2 Phonetic Alphabet
WW2 Main Page
| AA | Allied - Anti-Aircraft, especially anti-aircraft fire |
| AP | Allied - Armor piercing |
| AOV | British - Armored Observation Vehicle |
| ARV | Allied - Armored Recovery Vehicle - a truck or tank that could tow disabled tanks back to repair facilities. |
| AT | Allied - Anti-Tank |
| AVRE | British - Armored Vehicle Royal Engineers -Tanks modified for engineer support. |
| AWOL | US - Absent Without Leave - desertion. |
| BAR | US - Browning Automatic Rifle |
| BEF | British Expeditionary Force, the troops in France in 1940. |
| CDL | British - Canal Defence Light - Usually an obsolete tank modified with a spotlight where the turret had been. Spotlights were used to defend the Suez canal by blinding German pilots during night attacks. |
| CIB | US - Combat Infantryman Badge - Established in 1943 to help infantry morale. Included extra pay. Eligible soldiers were supposed to be infantry who had been in combat, but many rear echelon types also got the badge while some, like combat medics, were originally excluded. |
| CO | US - Commanding Officer |
| CP | US - Command Post |
| CS | British - Close Support - Early British tanks didn't have an anti-infantry HE round, so a few of each type were equipped with a 3.7 in. howitzer instead of the 2 pdr gun. |
| DLM | French - division légère mécanique, light mechanized division, the first combined arms motorized units. There were 3 such divisions ready in 1940. |
| DP | Displaced Person - refugee, homeless, etc. |
| DZ | Drop Zone - area that paratroops hoped to land on. |
| ETO | US - European Theater of Operations |
| FFI | Allied - French Forces of the Interior - Armed and organized Resistance fighters who rose up to fight Germans during the Allied invasion |
| FO | US - Forward Observer - An officer from an artillery unit who was temporarily attached to a front line unit in order to call in artillery for them. |
|
FUBAR |
US - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition (or Repair) |
| GI | US - military personnel [from Government Issue?] |
| GIs | US - Diarrhea or dysentery. [from gastrointestinal?] |
| HE | Allied - High Explosive |
| HMG | Allied - Heavy Machine Gun - typically about a 50. caliber or 12.7mm gun, often set on a 360 degree anti-aircraft mount. |
| HVAP | Allied - High velocity armor piercing. |
| ICS | British - Infantry Close Support - Armored vehicle carrying gun meant for infantry support. |
|
JANFU |
US - Joint Army-Navy Fuck Up |
| KIA | US - Killed In Action |
| LD NBC | US - Line of Duty Non-Battle Casualty - Any seriously sick soldiers, plus the accidentally injured |
| LMG | Allied - Light Machine Gun - typically about a .30 caliber or 7.62mm gun with a bipod and belt fed ammo. |
| MG | Allied - Machine Gun |
| MIA | US - Missing In Action |
| MMG | Allied - Medium Machine Gun - typically about a .30 caliber or 7.62mm gun mounted on a tripod and with ammo fed from a box. |
| MOS | US - Military Occupation Specialty, a code assigned to each job in the military - Some upper level US planners tended to treat soldiers as interchangeable parts in a machine. |
| MP | US - Military Police |
| NCO | US - Non-Commissioned Officer, that is, sergeants and corporals. Officers were commissioned by Congress. |
| OCS | US - Officer Candidate School |
| OKH | German - Oberkommando des Heeres, Army High Command |
| OP | US - Observation Post |
| PFC | US - Private First Class |
| PX | US - Post Exchange, a store located on army posts |
| RAF | British - Royal Air Force |
| RN | British - Royal Navy |
| SCR | US - Signal Corps Radio, for example the SCR 300 |
| SHAEF | Allied - Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force - Allied HQ in Europe after the D-Day invasion. |
| SIW | US - Self Inflicted Wound - A not uncommon practice to get out of combat, normally by shooting a foot. |
| SNAFU | US - Situation Normal, All Fucked Up |
| SOP | US - Standard Operating Procedure |
| SP | Allied - Self-propelled, as in a 75mm SP gun |
| SP | US - Shore Patrol, Navy military police. |
| SS | German - Schutzstaffel, Guard Detachment. Originally Hitler's personal bodyguard, later the Waffen or fighting SS was formed. Waffen SS units tended to have better training, equipment, and morale than other German units, plus more men per battalion, etc. , all of which made them tough adversaries. |
|
TARFU |
US - Things Are Really Fucked Up |
| TOT | US - Coordinating the fire from several artillery batteries so that shells from all of them hit the target at exactly the same time, without warning. The effects of TOT could be devastating. |
| USO | US - United Services Organizations, the people who brought entertainers such as Bob Hope to the troops |
| VT | Proximity fuse for anti-aircraft and artillery shells. Shell detonated when close to the target. Used at the Battle of the Bulge. |
| WIA | US - Wounded In Action |
| WP | White phosphorus - a type of artillery shell or grenade. |
| XO | US - Executive Officer, 2nd in command of a unit |
| ZI | US - Zone of the Interior, the United States itself |