World War II Index/Glossary of Terms
Lidice
- This Czech village was decimated by German troops in June 1942, as revenge for Czech resistance fighters killing SS official Reinhard Heydrich.
Little Boy
- The nickname for the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.
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- The name given to a site on Guadalcanal where Marines fought hard on two nights in April 1942.
Lt.
- The common acronym for Lieutenant.
Luftwaffe
- The German airforce.
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- A peninsula in the Philippines retaken by the Allies in a massive amphibious assault on January 9, 1945. As part of the "strategic triangle" it was retaken in order to provide airfields for the bombing of Japan.
MAGIC
- The American code word for intercepted and decrypted Japanese diplomatic codes and ciphers.
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- Makin is an island in the Gilberts in the Central Pacific.
U.S. Marines landed on Makin on November 20, 1943 and overwhelmed the small Japanese garrison within four days.
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