German Military Abbreviations - United States Army

1 U. S. army "itriy W1Ci ,.Al2 _ ___ SERIES, NO. 12 APRIL 12, 19iGERMANMILITARY ABBREVIATIONSP!!AlI ei .D i BYMIlITARY INTELLIGENCE SERVICEWAR DEPARTMENTm_ J* L& ttvf betA. ~~"' ''-wNOT TO BErn IMILITARY INTELLIGENCE SPECIAL SERIES,SERVICE No. 12 WAR DEPARTMENT MIS 461 WASHINGTON, April 12, 1943 NOTICE1. Publication of Special Series is for the purpose of providing officers withreasonably confirmed information from official and other reliable Nondivisional units are being supplied with copies on a basis similar tothe approved distribution for divisional commands, as follows:INFANTRY DIVISION CAVALRY DIVISION ARMORED DIVISIONDiv Hq 8 Div Hq 8 l:)iv lq 11 Rcn Tr 2 Ord Co 2 Re Bn 7 Sig Co 2 Sig Tr 2 Engr Bn 7 Engr Bn 7 Ren Sq 7 Med fBn 7 Med Bn 7 Engr Sq 7 Maint Bn 7QM Co 7 Mied Sq 7 Sup Bn 7Hq Inf Regt, 6 each 18 QM Sq 7 )iv Tn flq 8 Inf Bn, 7 each 63 Hlq Cav Brig, 3 each 6 Armnd Regt, 25 each 5()

2 Hq Div Arty 8 C'av Regt, aO each 80 FA BIn, 7 each 21FA Bn, 7 each 28 EHq Div Arty 3 Intf Regt 25FA Bn, 7 each 21150 ItrDistribution to air units is being made by the Assistant Chief of Air Staff,Intelligence, army Air Each command should circulate available copies among its within the Military service is permitted provided the source isstated, and the information is Readers are invited to comment on the use that they are making of thispublication and to forward suggestions for future issues. Such correspond-ence may be addressed directly, to the D)issemnination Unit, Military Intel-ligence Service, War I)epartnlent, Washington, I). publications of the Military Intelligence Service include: Tactical andTechnical Trends (biweekly); Intelligence Bulletin (monthly); Military Reportson the United Nations (monthly).

3 Requests for additional copies of all publications of the Military IntelligenceService should be forwarded through channels for rW V L DTABLE OF CONTENTSS ection 1. INTRODUCTION Page1. GENERALXII .. 12. PRIN( IPLES OF FORMATI( )N .-------------------. 23. ScoI'E O)F THIS Di(cI'IONARY ---- 34. ORGANIZATION OF TI11S I)ICTIONARY -4 Section II. Abbreviations ..7 Section III. EXAMPLES .---- .. 243 IIIS ection I. INTRODUCTION1. GENERALP erhaps to a greater extent than any other army , theGerman Armed Forces employ Military Abbreviations ontheir maps and charts, on task force tables of organization,on direction and location sign posts in combat zones, onfield orders, and, in short, in every case where abbrevia-tions may possibly be used.

4 These Abbreviations areoften used in connection with Military symbols (seeGerman Military Symbols, January 1943, Military Intelli-gence Service). A thorough knowledge of both abbrevia-tions and symbols is therefore essential to Military per-sonnel engaged in the interpretation of captured is no "easy road to knowledge" in regard to thesemilitary Abbreviations . Many words are abbreviated inmore than one manner, sometimes in the course of a singledocument. Individual commanders frequently improviseabbreviations, which will be understandable from thecontext to the German officer reading them, but maycause considerable difficulty to the non- German . A1 German Military Abbreviations thorough foundation in the German language is useful,but not infallible, in determining the meaning of a par-ticular abbreviation-guessing, in this, as in all militaryintelligence work, is PRINCIPLES OF FORMATIONW hile the Germans do not follow any consistent pro-cedure in abbreviating, the following tendencies can beobserved:a.

5 Whenever possible the Germans keep enough of theoriginal word structure to make the abbreviation arecognizable skeleton of the word for which it example is abkdrt. for Another common tendency is to lop off syllables ofthe word being abbreviated; the degree to which this iscarried depends on the writer's haste and the amount ofcomprehension he expects in the reader. Here also theGermans attempt to leave enough of the distinctive struc-ture of the word to give the reader a clue. The wordBefehlshaber, for instance, can be abbreviated Befhb.,Befh., or In the case of compound words , the Germans oftenmake an abbreviation by taking elements or initial lettersfrom each of the component parts. An example is Sometimes this procedure results in a pronounceablecombination of letters, and the abbreviation gains cur-rency as a word.

6 Flak for Flugzeugabwehrkanone, Gestapofor Geheime Staatspolizei, and Stuka for Sturzkampfflugzeugare familiar SCOPE OF THIS DICTIONARYB ecause of the extent of the field, it is unlikely that anydictionary of German Military Abbreviations could be"complete." New Abbreviations , whether as the resultof developments in Military equipment and tactics, or asthe temporary short-cuts of an individual commanderwriting orders, will continue to come into these the intelligence officer must deal to the best ofhis ability. A good working knowledge of the abbrevia-tions commonly in use at present will help in interpretingthese new coinages. Frequently the meaning can beinferred from the context. The present list aims at areasonable completeness, within the following limits:a.

7 Military terms borrowed from other languages inuse during the first World War and earlier have frequentlybeen replaced in the present German army by Germanequivalents. A considerable number of these older termshave been retained in this list, but not German writers often use cortbinations of singleabbreviations. The policy of this dictionary has beento include these combinations when they are encounteredfrequently, but otherwise to list the component partsseparately. For instance, Divisionsalfklarungsabteilu ngwill be found under , and separate entrieswill be found for Div., , Aufkl., and for it would be necessary to look underEisb. and Besides strictly Military terms the present dictionarycontains Abbreviations for many general German wordsand expressions which are likely to occur in Military docu-3 German Military Abbreviations ments.

8 In deciding which of these nonmilitary abbrevia-tions to include, the aim has been to put in those whichwill probably occur most frequently rather than to includeall possible In a few cases German Abbreviations will be foundidentical with those used in the U. S. army . Examples areApr. for April and mm for millimeter. Abbreviations ofthis type have not been included. But where a differenceexists which might prove confusing, the German abbrevia-tion has been given. Examples are Dez. for December,and mm2for square While this dictionary is primarily for the use of armypersonnel, a certain number of naval and aeronauticabbreviations are included in it. It is inevitable that suchabbreviations will be encountered in Military documents,and the more familiar the intelligence officer is with them,the ORGANIZATION OF THIS DICTIONARYIn using this dictionary the following principles oforganization should be kept in mind:a.

9 Abbreviations are arranged alphabetically, firstaccording to the abbreviation itself, then according to theword or expression abbreviated. Thus A. for Abteilungprecedes A. for Ausbildung, and both these abbreviationsprecede The umlaut is equivalent to the addition of e afterthe vowel; consequently d- follows ad- and precedes The German capital I, often written J, will be foundunder 5d. The German practice varies in use of the periodfollowing an abbreviation. In this list the period isusually not given, but an abbreviation given here withouta period may appear in a document with A German abbreviation frequently can stand foreither the singular or the plural of the word it this list the English meaning is usually given in thesingular II.

10 ABBREVIATIONSAA bbreviation GermanA--,-- ..--- Abschnitt .. Abschusspunkt -__A --------------- Abteilunhmg Alarm I A lt -----amn--. Arnt ..- an Anhalt ..Anhanlg Anleitung__Anlnerk Ar Arbeits- ..---- ------ Arbeitszillg ..- .. ---Armee ..Artillerie ..ArtilleriefuihrerA --_------------ Artillerieschule sector; section; zonepresent positionl (antiair-craft artillery).. section; detachnment; depart,-ment; battalion-defensealarmgeneral (adjective).. prefix Alt (old)-- in nanmes oftow lisat the; on at; on; totrailer; supporter; followerAnhalt (G(erman, pro' )appelndix; sul)plenmnlilnstructioins; direction ; remark; annotationare (tmeasure.: .squr-reya rds)laborwork arnl (formationr a(bove armTcorps).)