Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front, 1943-1945: Red Steamroller

Glossary

ABTU – Auto-Bronetankovoe Upravlenie (Main Tank Directorate), 1934–40.

AFV – Armoured Fighting Vehicle

AOK – Armeeoberkommando (Army)

AP – Armour Piercing

APCBC – Armour Piercing Composite Ballistic Cap (steel core)

APCR – Armour Piercing Composite Rigid (tungsten core)

APHE – Armour Piercing High Explosive

C² – Command & Control

cbm (m³) – Cubic meter of fuel, equivalent to 1,000 litres or 744 kg

Desantniki – Russian term for troops who rode mounted on tanks or other AFVs into battle

GABTU – Glavnoe Avto-Brone-Tankovoe Upravlenie (Chief Department of Autos and Armoured Vehicles), 1940–45.

GAU KA – Glavnye Artilleryiskye Upravlenue Krasnoy Armii (Main Artillery Directorate of Red Army)

Gefechtstroß – Combat Trains, including ammunition trailers

Gepäcktroß – Baggage Train, including field kitchens

GCC – Guards Cavalry Corps

GKO – Gosudarstvennij Komitet Oboroniy (State Defence Committee)

GMC – Guards Mechanized Corps

Großtransportraum – Large Transport (GTR)

GTC – Guards Tank Corps

HE-FRAG – High Explosive, Fragmentation

HEAT – High Explosive Anti-tank

HKL – Hauptkampflinie (main line of resistance)

HVAP – High Velocity Armour Piercing (Tungsten core)

Instandsetzungsgrupe – Repair Group

Kradschützen – Motorcycle infantry

KwK – Kampfwagenkanone (Fighting vehicle cannon)

LSSAH – Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

MC – Mechanized Corps

MD – Military District

NKO – Narodnyi Kommisariat Oborony (the People’s Commissariat of Defence)

NKTP – Narodnyi Komissariat Tankovoy Promyslennosti (the People’s Commissariat of the Tank Industry)

NKVD – Narodnyi Kommisariat Vneshnykh Del (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs)

OKH – Oberkommando des Heeres (German, Army High Command)

OTB – Otdel’nyye tankovyye batal’ony (Separate Tank Battalion)

OTTPP – Otdel’nyye Tyazhelij Tankovij Polk Proriva (Independent Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment)

PaK – PanzerAbwehrKanone (anti-tank gun)

PP – podderzhka pekhoty (infantry support tanks)

Pz.Rgt – Panzer Regiment

PzAOK – Panzerarmee

RKKA – Raboche-Krest’yanskaya Krasnaya Armiya (the Army of Workers and Peasants/the Red Army)

RVGK – Rezerv Verkhovnogo Glavnokomandovaniya (Reserve of Supreme High Command)

SAP – Samokhodno-Artillerijskij Polk (Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment)

SPW – Schützenpanzerwagen [Armoured Infantry Vehicle or APC]

SR – Schützen-Regiment [Motorized Infantry]

TA – Tank Army

TC – Tank Corps

TSAP – Tyazhelij Samokhodno-Artillerijskij Polk (Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment)

TTPP – Tyazhelij Tankovij Polk Proriva (Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment)

UABTTS – Uchebnyy Avtobronetankovyy Tsentr (Tank Automotive Training Centre)

UMM – Upravlenie Motorizatzii i Mekhanizatzii RKKA (Directorate of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army), 1929–1934. Re-named ABTU.

VA – vozdushnaya armiya (Air Army)

VAMM – Voennaya Akademiya Mekhanizatzii i Motorizatzii RKKA (Military Academy of Mechanization and Motorization of the Red Army)

V.S. – Verbrauchssatz

VVS – Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily (Military Air Forces) i.e. the Soviet Air Force

Vorausabteilung – Vanguard battalion (abbrev. V.A.)