Dictionary - TracesOfWar.com

Saturation bombardment: Also known as area bombing, carpet bombing or obliteration bombing.
Schutzstaffel (SS): The Schutzstaffel commanded by Heinrich Himmler was a very powerful organisation within the Third Reich. The original goal of the SS was to protect Adolf Hitler and other Nazi’s but soon the SS was deployed for several military, security and police tasks. The SS guarded inter alia the concentration camps and manned the Einzatzgruppen. The armed branch of the SS was the Waffen-SS.
Second Front: During World War 2 the name of the front that the American and Brits would open in the West to relieve the first Russian front.
Service pay: Wages of a soldier.
SHAEF: Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, the Allied High Command in Western-Europe after the Normandy landings.
Shah: Title of the Persian kings.
Shakedown cruise: Navy slang for a sea trial when a navy vessel (post-construction of after a major overhaul) goes to sea for extensive testing and training, prior to become fully operational.
Shelling: Indication for shooting targets with grenades. Both from artillery and armoured artillery.
Siam: Name of Thailand
Sicherheitsdienst (SD): The national socialistic intelligence and counterespionage service of the SS.
SIPO: ”Sicherheitspolizei”. Combination (since 1936) of the Gestapo and criminal police.
Sitzkrieg: German name for the tense period during which there was no military action prior to the German invasion of France and the lower countries in May 1940.
Slaves: Several nations of people, mainly in Eastern Europe, belonging to the Indo-Europeans. (Polish, Russians, Serbs and Ukrainians).
SMERSH: SMERSH or SMERJS, is a Russian acronym that can be translated as, “Death to Spies”. It was founded in 1943 as a counterespionage service unit of the Red Army. Its most important task was securing the areas where the Red Army was active in combat by fighting (alleged) partisans, saboteurs, spies and criminals at the front.
Sniper: Military sniper who can eliminate individual targets at long distances (up to about 800 meters).
Socialism: Political ideology aiming at slight or no class differences. Means of production are owned by the state. Evolved as a response to capitalism. Karl Marx tried to substantiate socialism scientific.
SOE: Special Operation Executive. British organisation during World War 2 conducting secret operations and espionage.
Soviet republic: Regime based on the principle of the council system. Selected representatives have direct executive power. Regime was established after World War 1, also for some time in Bavaria and Hungary.
Soviet Union: Soviet Russia, alternative name for the USSR.
Spanish civil war: Fierce and cruel civil armed conflict in Spain from 1936 to 1939 between left (from anarchic to liberal) and right (church, nobility and army). In 1936 the fascist-oriented general Franco started military uprisings. With the help of Hitler and Mussolini he beat the republicans who vainly were supported by the International Brigade.
Spruchkammer: Courts established in Germany after the war which dealt with denazification processes. These courts could classify the accused in five categories: main culprits, guilty, less guilty, opportunist and innocent.
Squadron: A military unit in the Belgian navy usually six to eight small ships operating together under one command. The smallest military unit in the Dutch air force of about 350 men. In most countries is the designation of a military unit thesize of a company. It is either an independent unit, such as a battery, or part of a bigger Calvary unit. In the air force it is the designation of a unit of aircrafts.
SS Verfügungstruppe: Military troops of the SS at the ready that were deployed to suppress armed uprisings. These units also fought alongside the German Army during the attack on Poland in September 1939. The SS disposal troops were the basis of the eventual Waffen-SS that became the nucleus of the SS-DT, the death head’s associations and Adolf Hilter’s body guards.
Stalin line: Line of defence that was built by the Russians along their Western border during the interbellum period. But through the expansions in the West (the Baltic states, Poland, Bessarabia etc.) the boundary shifted and the Stalin line was no longer the first line of defence during the German invasion in 1941.
Stalinism: Period in history of the Soviet-Union during which Stalin was the undisputed leader. The regime was totalitarian. Personality cult, terror of the secret police, cleansing, liquidations and an exaggerated chauvinism were characteristics of Stalinism. Many Eastern European countries adopted this form of dictatorship after the war.
Stammlager: Main or base camp. One of the 22 concentration camps with multiple subsidiary external camps.
Standarte: Paramilitary unit, about the size of a regiment, within the Sturmabteilung (SA) and Schutzstaffel (SS).
Stavka: The high command of the Russian military forces in World War 2, chaired by Stalin.
Steel helmet: Name of the helmet worn by German soldiers during World War 2. Stahlhelm was also a union for German front soldiers of World War 1.
Stolperstein: Literally Stumble Stone. Designed and initiated in 1997 by German artist Gunter Demnig who laid the first Stolperstein in Berlin's Kreuzberg district. It acts as a remembrance to victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution during WWII, whereby the name, date of birth, death, and place of death of the relevant victim are punched on a brass plate at the top of a concrete stone that measures 10x10 cm. The Stolperstein is then embedded in the sidewalk right in front of the victim's former home. While originally intended for Holocaust victims, it now also commemorates other victims of other Nazi terror.
Strategic bombing: Bombardments on the enemy’s means of warfare. Factories, oil industry, utilities, airfields, shipyards, arms factories, transport target, etc.
Strategical: Multiple meanings. Used by the Americans to indicate air force units that had bombers.
Strategy: Art of warfare, the way in which war should be conducted in general.
Sturmabteilung: Storm detachment. Semi-military section of the NSDAP. Founded in 1922 to secure meetings and leaders of the NSDAP. Their increasing power was stopped during “The night of the long knives”, 29 and 30 June 1934.
Sudeten Germans: Name for over 3,000,000 Germans living near the border of Czechoslovakia until 1945.
Sulfa powder: Medicine. Powder used to sprinkle on wounds.
Superpower: Countries with great power such as the Soviet Union and the United States.
Surface raiders: Heavily armed and fast merchant vessels, mostly used by the Germans in the early years of both World Wars.
Surrogate: Literally meaning substitute. Due to a shortage of raw materials during World War two various surrogate products were sold. Surrogate coffee is an example of a product that was offered instead of real coffee.
Swastika: Equilateral cross, symbol of Nazi-Germany.
Synagogue: Jewish house of prayer.

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