Dictionary - TracesOfWar.com

Caliber: The inner diameter of the barrel of a gun, measured at the muzzle. The length of the barrel is often indicated by the number of calibers. This means the barrel of the 15/24 cannon is 24 by 15 cm long.
Cannon: Also known as gun. Often used to indicate different types of artillery.
Capitulation: Agreement between fighting parties concerning the surrender of a country or an army.
Carbine: Wapon with less ballistic power than a rifle of the same caliber because of its shorter barrel. The effective range varies from 200 to 300 m.
Carpet bombing: The opposite of precision bombing. Also known as area bombing, saturation bombing and obliteration bombing.
Cartouche: Also known as cartridge. Is used to fire grenades from cannons or houwitzers.
Casablanca Conference: Conference between the leaders of Great Britain and the USA (Churchill and Roosevelt). The conference took place from 14 to 24 January 1943.
Casemate: Enclosed bombproof area, made out of stone or concrete and used to install guns and/or other firearms. Casemates contain various loopholes to enable gunners to use their weapons. They are part of a larger defense system (roundel, bastion, fortress and others) or are an indiidual defensive position in a defense line. In the Netherlands the word (as kazemat) was standard use for a bunker or pillbox.
CATF (China Air Task Force): Successor of Chennault’s Flying Tigers. Established July 1942.
Cavalry: Originally the designation for mounted troops. During World War 2 the term was used for armoured units. Main tasks are reconnaissance, attack and support of infantry.
CBI: China Burma India theatre of operations in World War 2.
Chetniks: ( Serbo-Croation: Cetnici; ceta = troop ) The name for a very nationalist Serbian organisation of armed troops with its origin in the early 1900’s. During World War 2 they fought under Mihailoviç against the Germans and Croatians (cruel retaliations). Later against communists in particular, sometimes in co-operation with the Italian occupiers.
Cluster bomb: Bomb aimed against staff of people. Also against non-armored targets. Usual weight of 10-50 kg.
Collaboration: Cooperation of the people with the occupying forces, more generally spoken the term for individuals who cooperate with the occupying force is collaborator.
Commando troops: Special forces, deployed especially for missions behind enemy lines such as sabotage and reconnaissance.
Commonwealth: Intergovernmental organisation of independent states in the former British Empire. A bomber crew could include an English pilot, a Welsh navigator, air gunners from Australia or New Zealand. There were also non-commonwealth Poles and Czechs in Bomber Command.
Communism: Political ideology originating from the work of Karl Marx “Das Kapital” written in 1848 as a reaction to the so-called class struggle between the proletariat (labourers) and the bourgeoisie. According to Marx the proletariat would take over power from the well-to-do classes though a revolution. The communist movement aspires an ideal situation where the means of production and the means of consumption are common property of all citizens. This should end poverty and inequality (communis = common).
Concentration camp: Closed camp where people are being held captive that are considered to be anti- social, enemies of the state, criminal or unwanted individuals. These groups mostly do not get a fair trial or are condemned to doing time in a camp.
Condor Legion: Name of German air force (mainly) units that fought alongside General Franco during the Spanish civil war from 1936-1939.
Conference of Yalta: Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in Yalta on the Crimean from 4 to 11 February 1945. Important decisions were taken about the occupation of Germany and the establishment of the United Nations.
Confessing Church: German: Bekennende Kirche. Movement for revival within the German Protestant churches that developed during the 1930s from their resistance to Adolf Hitler’s attempt to make the churches an instrument of National Socialist (Nazi) propaganda and politics.
Convention of Geneva: Collective name for four treaties that were drawn up in Geneva to determine the rules for times of war as part of international law. These treaties dealt with issues such as the treatment of prisoners of war and wounded soldiers, the acknowledgement of the Red Cross as protected organisation in times of war, the rules of law concerning the war at sea and protection of prisoners of war and civilians in wartime.
Cookie: Highly explosive thin cased 4,000 lbs/1,800 kg cylinder, three quarters of their weight containing the explosive Amatol. With the intention to destroy roofs, glazing and windows by means of a big pressure wave. Cylinders were welded together into up to a maximum of three cookies. Also known as: air mine or blockbuster bomb.
Coup d’état: Attempt with the use of violence, to take over control of power in a state.
Cratering: Coming into being of craters on the battlefield after bombing or shelling.
Crimes against humanity: Term that was introduced during the Nuremburg Trials. Crimes against humanity are inhuman treatment against civilian population and persecution on the basis of race or political or religious beliefs.
Crisis Controle Dienst(CCD): Service established in the Netherlands by the Germans to control economic problems. This service checked the illegal collection and sale of food.

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