Glossary of WWII Terms

OCTU - Officer Cadet TRaining Unit

Panzerfaust - The German hand-operated anti-tank weapon; unlike the US bazooka it required only one man to use and its penetrative power was often devastating at close range.

PPA - Popski's Private Army. (Popski's Private Army, officially No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA, was an unit of British Special Forces founded in Cairo in 1942 by Major (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Vladimir Peniakoff DSO MC. Popski's Private Army was one of several raiding units formed in the Western Desert during the Second World War. They also served in Italy and the Adriatic before they were disbanded in September 1945)

REME - Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers

RSM - Regimental Sergeant Major

RTU - Returned to unit, for those men who fail to make the grade in the SAS

RV - rendezvous

Schmeisser - Standard German issue sub-machine gun with a 9mm calibre and capable of firing 500 rpm, effective at 150 yards.

SD - Sicherheitsdienst, the German Security Service, about 3,000 strong.

SFHQ - Special Forces Headquarters

SHAEF - Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force

SIG - Special Interrogation Group

SOE - Special Operations Executive formed in 1940 to foment clandestine warfare in Occupied Europe

Spandau - The German army machine gun

SS - Schutzstaffeln, Nazi military force whose stated mission was the protection oof the Fuhrer and the security of the REich, who were supposed to be racially pure Germans, swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler and wore their SS number as a tattoo.

Sten gun - Mass produced and unreliable 9mm caliber sub-machine gun effective only at close range.

Thompson - US-made sub-machine gun with a .45 calibre and a range of 300 yards, capable of firing 725 rounds a minute.

Vickers K - Guns taken from Gloster Gladiator fiighter planes mounted in the front and back of SAS jeeps, capable of firing 1,200 rounds per minute.

WAAF - Womens Auxiliary Air Force

Wadi - The Arabic name for a dried up river bed or dry ravine.

WRNS - Women's Royal Naval Service


Bibliography
Stirling's Men: The Inside History of the SAS in World War II, by Gavin Mortimer. Cassell Military Paperbacks, 2004