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Garand M1
Semi- automatic US rifle with a .30-06 calibre.
Gau
“Shire”. District in the Third Reich established by the NSDAP.
Gauleiter
Leader and representative of the NSDAP of a Gau.
Gee
Allied radio guided navigation system to direct bombers to their intended targets.
Generalgouvernement
That part of Polish territory occupied by the Germans in 1939. It was an autonomous part of Greater Germany. In August 1941 Eastern Galicia was added to the Generalgouvernement. It was governed solely by Germans under direction of Generalgouverneur Hans Frank. It was to become a full German province inhabited only by German colonists.
Germania
The capital of the Third Reich after the war. Designed by Albert Speer, but never realised.
Gestapo
“Geheime Staatspolizei”. Secret state police, the secret police in the Third Reich.
Ghetto
Part of a town separated from the outside world to segregate Jewish population. The establishment of ghettos was intended to exclude the Jews from daily life and from the rest of the people. From these ghettos it was also easier to deport the Jews to the concentration and extermination camps. Also known as “Judenviertel” or Jewish quarter.
Gleichschaltung
“Standardisation”, “equalisation”. Aim of the NSDAP to model all social and cultural organisations to the national socialist ideal. Nobility and other traditional structures were targeted, as were other pluralist phenomena.
Gouvernementsmarine
This navy originated from the colonial navy in the Dutch East Indies and had a civilian management. The tasks of the “gouvernementsmarine” were manning and maintaining lighthouses, beacons and buoys, sea mapping, the supply and transport of medical personnel.
Grease gun
Nickname for the US Thompson M3 submachine gun owing to its visual similarity to this mechanic’s tool.
Great Patriotic War
Soviet and Russian term for World War 2.
Greater Germany
“Grossdeutschland”. A Germany with boundaries enclosing all German speaking people. Aim of the Nazis.
Guadalcanal
First island in the Pacific liberated by US forces from the Japanese during World War 2. Between August 1942 and February 1943 a number of confrontations on land, at sea and in the air took place on this island.
Gulag
Officially the name for the governmental organisation responsible for the management of labour camps in the Soviet Union but later used to designate the camps themselves. The camps were situated in the northern areas of the Soviet Union and in Siberia. They were a major factor in the suppression of the Soviet people. Prisoners were mostly (real or perceived) enemies of the communist regime. From 1929 until Stalin’s death in 1953 18 million Soviet citizens were deported to the Gulag. It is estimated that 4.5 million of them died there.
Gustav Line
German defensive line in the south of Italy to prevent the advance of the Allies.