Glossary

Allies - Britain and the Commonwealth, as well as the USA. Norwegians, Poles, French and others who had escaped from Europe after German invasion also served in British combat groups.

Axis - The Axis powers were Germany, Japan and Italy.

Casualties - Casualties is a grouping of killed, wounded, prisoner of war, and escaped and evaded.

Canso - A flying boat used as a patrol bomber focused on attacking and disabling German U-boats. Canso is the Canadian designation. Other countries referred to it as a Catalina.

Convoy - a group of ships traveling together.

Depth Charge - An explosive device that detonates at a prescribed depth. Used as a weapon against U-boats.

Embargo - An official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country.

Enigma Machine - A German invention for encoding secret messages. The purpose of encoding is so that the enemy cannot receive and know your plans.

Evader - A downed flyer who has evaded capture by the enemy.

Espionage - Spying.

Exposure - When a person dies of exposure, it is usually because they have succumbed to the cold. They have been unable to keep warm enough.

Flak - Anti-aircraft fire. Often the fired shells are set to explode at a certain altitude. The resulting shrapnel may hit an aircraft. It is estimated that it takes on average a hundred bursts to take down an aircraft. However, because the aircraft were traveling in very large groups (up to 1,000 in a single sortie), the chances of hitting one were greatly increased.

Fleet Air Arm (FAA) - The aircraft division of the Royal Navy ie, aircraft flown from aircraft carriers, etc.

Halifax - A heavy bomber used by Britain and Commonwealth countries to bomb German factories and positions during WWII. It was built by the Handley Page Company in Britain. It went from a rather unsuccessful bomber (Mks II and V) to the better Mks III and VII later in the war. It was used to equip most of the Canadian heavy bomber squadrons in the period in 1942-1944. It was also used by Special Duties and Coastal Command squadrons.

Hurricane - a WW II fighter plane designed by Sydney Camm of the Hawker Aircraft Company. In the Battle of Britain, Hurricanes outnumbered Spitfires approximately 2 to 1.

Hyper Inflation - Monetary inflation occurring at a very high rate.

Incendiaries - fire bombs.

KIA - Killed in Action. That is a combatant who was killed as a result of enemy action or while on operational duty.

KIFA - Killed in Flying Accident (non-combat).

Lancaster - The heavy bomber used by Britain and Commonwealth countries to bomb German factories and positions during WW II. It was built by the Avro Company in Britain and by the Victory Aircraft Company in Malton, Ontario, Canada. It was also used after the war in Canada for maritime patrol as well as mapping the country from the air. The Lancaster replaced the Halifax bomber beginning in late 1942. Most Canadian bomber crew actually served on Halifax bombers.

Pathfinder - Highly trained crews making up selected squadrons whose job it was to identify and mark the targets for the Main Force bombers to attack.

Posthumous - After death.

POW - Prisoner of War. All combatant countries took prisoners of war. It is well recognized that the allies treated their prisoners well (some exceptions), while Germans treated their captives with respect, although in 1945, many were malnourished as were the Germans also. The Japanese were cruel and inhumane to their captives.

Sanctions - A threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule.

Spitfire - In 1940 terms, a fast, sleek fighter plane designed by RJ Mitchell of the Supermarine company.

RAF - Royal Air Force or the Air Force of Great Britain. In 1939 the British had a policy of allowing anyone from the British Commonwealth to enlist in their armed forces.

RCAF - The Royal Canadian Air Force. Canada's air transport, search and rescue, and combat force.

U-boat - In both World War I and World War II, a German combat submarine. U-boats were used to disrupt North Atlantic shipping of food and war supplies to Britain.

Code words used by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War

from Wikipedia

• Angels - height in thousands of feet.
• Bandit - identified enemy aircraft.
• Bogey - unidentified (possibly unfriendly) aircraft.
• Buster - radio-telephony code phrase for 'maximum throttle' or full power climb.
• Channel Stop - Air operations intended to stop enemy shipping passing through the Strait of Dover.
• Circus - daytime bomber attacks with fighter escorts against short range targets, to occupy enemy fighters and keep them in the area concerned.
• Diver - radio-telephony code word for a sighted V-1 flying bomb.
• Flower - Counter-air patrols in the area of enemy airfields to preventing aircraft from taking off and attacking those aircraft that succeeded.
• Gardening - mine-laying operations.
• Instep - missions to restrict attacks on Coastal Command aircraft by maintaining a presence over the Western Approaches.
• Intruder - offensive patrols to destroy enemy aircraft over their own territory, usually carried out at night.
• Jim Crow - coastal patrols to intercept enemy aircraft crossing the British coastline; originally intended to warn of invasion in 1940.
• Kipper - patrols to protect fishing boats in the North Sea against air attack.
• Mahmoud - sorties flown by de Havilland Mosquitoes equipped with rear-facing radar; when an enemy aircraft was detected a 180° turn enabled an attack.
• Mandolin - attacks on enemy railway transport and other ground targets.
• Noball - attacks on V-weapons launch sites and related targets.
• Ramrod - short range bomber attacks to destroy ground targets, similar to Circus attacks.
• Ranger - freelance flights over enemy territory by units of any size, to occupy and tire enemy fighters.
• Rhubarb - fighter or fighter-bomber sections, at times of low cloud and poor visibility, crossing the English Channel and then dropping below cloud level to search for opportunity targets such as railway locomotives and rolling stock, aircraft on the ground, enemy troops, and vehicles on roads.
• Roadstead - dive bombing and low level attacks on enemy ships at sea or in harbour.
• Rodeo - fighter sweeps over enemy territory.
• Rover - armed reconnaissance flights with attacks on opportunity targets.
• Scramble - fast take-off and climb to intercept enemy aircraft.
• Tally-ho - radio-telephony code word for 'enemy in sight'.

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