AA – Anti-Aircraft.
Agent de liaison – An agent acting as a courier within a resistance network.
Arbeitstatistik – Office responsible for delegating work to prisoners.
Armistice Army – The French army of 100,000 men allowed under the terms of the German occupation.
Armée Secrète (AS) – The military wing of the Mouvements Unis de la Résistance.
Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) – A non-combatant military support service staffed by women.
BCRA – Bureau Central des Renseignements et d'Action, de Gaulle's Free French intelligence and resistance organization.
BEF – British Expeditionary Force.
Blockältester – Block Elder.
CD – SOE's Executive Director.
CNR – Conseil National de Résistance, a national council of resistance instigated by Jean Moulin in 1943.
Combat – A major resistance movement in the unoccupied zone.
Control Commission for Germany – Responsible for the post-war administration of Germany.
D/F – Direction-finding.
DF Section – SOE department responsible for organizing escape routes out of France.
DGSS – Direction Générale des Services Spéciales, the unified French secret service formed in November 1943.
Effektenkammer – Storehouse for prisoners’ belongings.
Electra House – A department of the Foreign Office in charge of propaganda. After breaking away from SOE in 1941 it became known as the Political Warfare Executive (PWE).
EU/P Section – SOE department to coordinate Polish resistance in France.
F Section – SOE department responsible for operations in France.
FANY – First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, a female civilian auxiliary service.
Feldgendarmerie – German military police.
FFI – Forces Françaises Interieurs, a French military organization commanded by General Koenig.
Franc-Tireur – French left-wing resistance group.
Front National – French communist resistance movement.
FTP – Franc-Tireurs et Partisans, the military wing of the Front National.
Gestapo – Geheime Staatspolizei, the SS secret security police.
GHQ – General Headquarters.
GL – Gun Laying.
GMR – Groupes Mobiles de la Réserve, mobile assault brigades attached to the Vichy police.
Guardia Civil – Spanish national paramilitary police force.
Hauptscharführer – Company Sergeant Major.*
Hauptsturmführer – Captain.*
Lagerältester – Camp Elder.
Letter box – Use of an agent or secret location to pass on messages within a resistance network.
Libération-Nord – Resistance movement in the occupied zone.
Libération-Sud – Left-wing resistance group in southern France.
LNA – Légion Nord-Africaine – an auxiliary police force consisting of Moroccans, Tunisians and Algerians, recruited by French gangster and SD collaborator Henri Lafont.
LDV – Land Defence Volunteers – a civil defence force (later renamed the Home Guard).
LOP – Letter One-Time Pad.
Luftwaffe – German Air Force.
Maquis – French resistance guerrilla groups.
Milice – Vichy paramilitary organization.
MI 5 – British internal security service.
MI 6 – British secret service, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS).
MI 9 – Responsible for aiding escape and evasion across occupied Europe.
MI R – A department of the War Office set up to research guerrilla warfare.
MUR – Mouvements Unis de la Résistance, a united Gaullist resistance movement formed from Combat, Libération-Sud and Franc-Tireur.
NAAFI – Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes, a trading and recreational organization serving the British Armed Forces.
NN – Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog), a Nazi directive to deport political prisoners secretly to Germany.
NCO – Non-Commissioned Officer.
Oberführer – Approximately equivalent to the rank of Brigadier.*
Obersturmführer – Lieutenant.*
OCM – Organisation Civile et Militaire, a resistance movement mainly composed of civil servants and army officers.
OCTU – Officer Cadet Training Unit.
ORA – Organisation de la Résistance de l'Armée, a resistance movement formed from officers of the French armistice army.
Playfair – A substitution cipher used by SOE and SIS agents.
POW – Prisoner of War.
PWE – See Electra House.
R5 – A designated military region covering Limoges and the Limousin.
RAF – Royal Air Force.
RAOC – Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
Relève – The exchange of French prisoners of war for civilian labour in Germany during 1942–3.
REME – Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
RF – Section SOE's Free French section.
Section D – A department of SIS responsible for research into sabotage and subversion in occupied Europe.
SFIO – Section Française de l'International Ouvrière, the French socialist party.
Sicherheitsdienst – SD, the SS counter-intelligence service.
SIS – Secret Intelligence Service.
SOE – Special Operations Executive.
SS – Schutzstaffel, the Nazi organization in charge of policing and state security.
STO – Service du Travail Obligatoire, the compulsory labour scheme to provide Germany with French workers from February 1943.
STS – Special Training School.
Stubendienst – Room/barrack orderly.
Sturmbannführer – Major.*
TR – Travaux Ruraux, an undercover French military counter-intelligence service working against the Nazis.
UHF – Ultra High Frequency.
Untersturmführer – Second Lieutenant.*
VHF – Very High Frequency.
Vichy – The French government under occupation, led by Maréchal Pétain.
Volkssturm – Nazi militia.
Waffen-SS – The military arm of the SS.
W/T – Wireless telegraphy.
Wehrmacht – German armed forces.
Zone non-occupé – The southern ‘free’ zone of France under Vichy rule.
Zone occupé – The northern half of France occupied by the Germans.
* Ranks given are equivalents in the British Army.