Abgeschlossen

Shot down, destroyed

Abort*

Latrine

Abwehr

Security Personnel

Alles im ordung

All in order

American Red Cross

Supplier of food and clothing for POW’S

Amerikanisch

American

Appell

Roll call parade

Autobahn

Four-lane highway

A-1,A-2,A-3,A-4

American military functional groups

B-17, B-24

American four-engine heavy bombers

Barracks

Troop quarters

Bash* (or Food Bash)

Act of overeating; food binge

BBC

British Broadcasting Corporation

Belaria

Town near Sagan; location of another POW camp

Block*

Barracks

Block Commander

Barracks Commander

Blockbuster*

Very large bomb

Bolshevik

Communist

brace*

Standing at rigid (twanging*) attention (military jargon)

Burgermeister

Mayor

"C" Rations

Combat rations

cadre

Nucleus of trained personnel

camp*

Prison

CAVU

Ceiling and visibility unlimited

Center Camp*

One of the five segregated prisons of Stallag Luft III(others:North, South, East and West)

Chandelier*

Marker flares parachuted over target for night bombing

Chatter gun*

Machine gun

Coak-and-dagger*

Undercover group, Intelligence

C.O. or CO

Commanding Officer

Combine*

Organization of occupants of one room

Compound*

POW camp or Lager

Company grade officer

Captain or Lieutenant

Contrail*

Aircraft vapor trail

Cooler*

Slang for punishment cell

"D" bars

High energy candy bars included in "K" (emergency) rations

Detaining Power

Geneva Convention terminology in this case, Germany

Deutschland

Germany

D.P.*

Duty Pilot, code for block lookout duty at main entrance

Dulag Luft, or Dulag

German Air Force Interrogation Center

ersatz

Substitute

Essen

Eat, food

Feldwebel

Sergeant

Ferret*

Member of Abwehr (a tame ferret was one who gave some degree of assistance to POW’s)

Field grade officer

Major, Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel

Flak

Anti-aircraft artillery. (From German: Flugziogabwehrkanonen)

Flack alley*

Heavily defended industrial area of German Ruhr Valley

Flack House*

Red Cross rest and recuperation retreat

Flugzoigabwehrkanonen

Source of acronym, "Flak"

flap*

Uproar, panicky confusion

Fliegeralarm

Air raid alarm

Flieger

Flyer, aircraft

forts*

Flying Fortresses, B-17’s

Forty-and-eight*

Train cars that can hold forty men or eight horses

FOODACO*

Food Account

Fuhrer

Leader

G-two-ing*

Intelligence analyzing

Gefreidter

Private (soldier)

General

German General officer

Geneva Convention

1929 agreement for protection of prisoners of war

Gestapo

Geheime Staatspolizei, Nazi Political Police

GI*

"Government issue", also slang for American servicemen

Goon*

German

Goon Baiting*

Creating problems for guards

Goon box, goon tower*

Guard tower

Gravy train*

Easy job

Gremlin*

Fictitious gnome believed responsible for malfunctions of aircraft or equipment

Group

Division of US Air Force Wing containing four Squadrons

Hauptmann

Captain

Halifax

British four-engine heavy bomber

Heat suit

Flight suit that could be electrically heated by plugging into aircraft’s electrical system

Heavies

Heavy bombers; American B-17’s and B-24’s, British Lancasters and Halifaxes

Heer

Army

Herauf

Up! Roust!

Herr

Master, sir

Himmel!

Heavens

Hitler Jugend

Hitler Youth

Hundfuhrer

Dog Master

International Red Cross

one of three neutral organizations whose representatives were permitted direct contact with POW’s; the other two were the Swiss Legation in Berlin and the Swedish YMCA

IP

Initial Point, beginning of a bomb run to the target

Iron ration

Emergency ration

Jawohl

Yes sir, yes indeed

Jude

Jew

Jugend

Youth

"K" rations

Emergency rations

Kaputt

Out of order

Kein

No, not any, no one

Knickebrot

Miser bread, thin wafer, similar to rye

kohlrabi

Cabbage-turnip type vegetable

Kommandant

Commanding officer

Kommandantur

Command headquarters

K. P.

Kitchen police, or kitchen duty

Kriegie*

Slang for POW, from the German Kriegsgefangen

Kriegsmarine

Navy

Kuhler

Cooler, punishment cell

Kultur

Culture

Lager

Camp

Lagerfuhrer

Camp Commander

Lancaster

British four-engine heavy bomber

Leutenant

Second Lieutenant

Luftwaffe

Air Force

Major

German Major (pronounced ma-yor)

Man of Confidence

Camp leader elected by enlisted prisoners

Machine kaput

Plane out of commission

May West*

Life Preserver

Mein Kampf

My Struggle, Hitler’s autobiography

mess

Dining area

Mitte Lager

Center Camp

Mosquito

English twin-engine fighter-bomber

Nazi

Germany’s National Socialist Party

NCO

Non-Commissioned Officer

Nein, nichts

No, don’t

No-man’s land

Unoccupied area between opposing troops

Oberfeldwebel

Technical Sergeant

Obergefreidter

Private First Class, Lance Corpora

Obergrupenfuhrer

SS General

Oberst

Colonel

Oberstleutnant

Lieutenant Colonel

O D

Olive drab color

Offizier

Officer

OKW

Oberkommando Wehrmacht, German Supreme Command

Old Man*

Senior Officer, Commanding Officer

Padre

Father, or Chaplain

Parole

Written Promise of a POW to fulfill stated conditions in exchange for certain privileges; usually carried threat of death if violated

P-47

American fighter aircraft

Pop-to*

To come to attention

Potato masher*

German hand grenade with long handle

POW

Prisoner of war

Protecting Power

Swiss Legation in Berlin

Prima

Excellent

Purge*

Group of POW’s being transferred to a permanent camp

RAF

Royal Air Force

RAAF

Royal Australian Air Force

RCAF

Royal Canadian Air Force

RNZAF

Royal New Zealand Air Force

RSAAF

Royal South African Air Force

Red Cross

International charitable organization

Reich

Government

Redoubt

Secret military withdrawal area

Revier

Sick-bay, hospital

Rundfunk

Broadcasting system

SAO

Senior American Officer

sack*

Bed

Sagan

Town in Lower Silesia, location of Stalag Luft III

Sanitater

Medical orderly

Schiesshaus *

Crude slang for abort

Section

Military staff functional organization

Senior Officer

Hightest ranking officer

Siegfried Line

Line of fortifications between Germany and France at the beginning of WWII

Slush fund*

Fund to obtain small luxuries

Spam

Canned meat

Spoof raid*

Diversionary air raid

Squadron

One of four operational forces in an air force Group

SS

Schutzstaffel, German Protective Echelon, elite corps of the Nazi Party

Stalag

Contraction of German Stammlager

Stalag Luft

Air Force permanent POW camp, from German Stammlager Luftwaffe

Stammlager

Permanent POW camp

Statsfeldwebel

Master Sergeant

Stroller*

A guard who walked along the fence between guard towers

Swedish YMCA

One of the three neutral organizations whose representatives were permitted direct contact with POW’s; the other two were the International Red Cross and the Swiss Legation in Berlin

Swiss Legation

Pretecting Power; one of three neutral organizations whose representatives were permitted direct contact with POW’s; the other two were the International Red Cross and the Swedish YMCA.

Tee

Tea (tee is pronounced "tay")

Terrorflieger

Terror flyer

Tiefflieger

Low-flying aircraft

Truppenlager

Soldiers camp, German guards’ barracks

Unteroffizier

Corporal

USAAF or USAAC

Former names of U.S. Air Force: U. S. Army Air Forces, U. S. Army Air Corps

Vaterland

Native country, fatherland

Verboten

Forbidden

Vernicht

Kill

Vistula

River in Eastern Europe

Volkstrum

Senior Peoples Army

Voralarm

First alert

Vorlager

Front camp

Wehrmacht

armed forces

West Camp

One of five camps, or compounds, in Stalag Luft III

Westlager

West camp

Wing

Part of an Air Force Division

Zahlmeister

Quartermaster, German rations issuer

Zahnpulver

Toothpowder