World War Secret Codes - USA National Archive

Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

Terms, Names, Organizational Abbreviations, and Code Words in OSS Records

Some interesting or relevant WW2 codes exchnaged across the global war front are here in the format -

Code word: Used for whom or for what

Abwehr:  German military intelligence

BIA : Burma Independence Army

Birch : OSS agent that penetrated Germany through Scandinavia in 1945

BNA: Burmese National Army

Boston: Series Intelligence reports based on George Wood/Kappa information

BPF: Burma Patriotic Front

Broadway: British Intelligence (MI6 Headquarters)

Cassia: Anti-Nazi underground group in Vienna, Austria

CBI: China-Burma-India Theater of Operations

Cousins: The British

Crossword: British designation for Operation Sunrise

Crown Jewels: Germans deemed to be important for postwar purposes

Drum :Presumably an OSS staff member at Bern, Switzerland and point of  contact  for “Drum” messages early in the war

Fat Boy: German Reichsmschall Hermann Goering

Flash: Allen Dulles evening radiotelephone transmission

Flute: Professor Paul Scherrer

Force 136 :British SOE in the Far East

Forking : Code name for a German Jew residing in Ascona, Switzerland that was a

source for Allied intelligence

Friends: British

FTP: Communist-controlled French resistance groups

G-2: US Army Intelligence

George : Project  Established June 6, 1942 for the purpose of securing from sources abroad  secret information. George Project located in New York City under the

cover of the Western Continents Corporation.

Grand : German Foreign Ministry or German Government in Berlin (in Kappa

Messages)

Gray : A Kappa indicator signifying Finland

Green:  A Kappa indicator signifying Italy

Gregory: OSS chief in Lisbon, Portugal

Grimm: Germany

Harvard Plan:  A German-language propaganda periodical produced in Washington and  distributed by OSS Stockholm

HIHI :A Trans-Pyrenees Chain of agents operated by OSS Spain

HOHO: A Trans-Pyrenees Chain of agents operated by OSS Spain

IB or IBT : India Burma Theater of Operations [beginning 1944]

INA : Indian National Army

JA : Jewish Agency for Palestine

Jack and Jill: A German opposition group associated with Breakers

J-E : (Joan Eleanor) Two-way communications device which enabled an agent on the ground  to talk directly with an appropriately equipped OSS representative flying  in a plane above him

J-E Operations OSS Missions beginning in November 1944 using J-E

Jennings, Charles B: Fictitious name of Washington recipient of Dulles evening radiotelephone  transmissions

Jonny :A left-wing resistance movement in Vienna, Austria

Kappa: Indicator for messages containing information and documents obtained

from the German Foreign Ministry by Fritz Kolbe (code named George  Wood)

KMT :Koumintang, Chinese nationalist party

Latte :A Kappa indicator for Budapest, Hungary

Lavender: A Kappa indicator for China

MID: Military Intelligence Division, US Army

MI5: British Counter Intelligence

Nabors: The Germans (“neighbors” to the Swiss)

Operation Sunrise: Negotiations for the German surrender in Italy

Orange: A Kappa indicator signifying Bulgaria

ORI :Italian resistance

Orion : Ion Antonescu, Romanian leader 1940-1944

Ostrich: Operation OSS operational plans for reconnaissance trip to Manchuria

OVRA: Italian secret police

Paradise: Name for certain Kappa cables involving the penetration of Germany

Phillips, Carr: Cover name for an Italian opposition figure

Roberts Commission: The American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historical Monuments in War Areas

Rote: Kapelle Red Orchestra, a Soviet spy network

SA: German stormtroopers

SAARF: Special Allied Airborne Reconnaissance Force, activated by SHAEF on

March 29, 1945, to send team to various POW camps in enemy territory

SAFEHAVEN : Project to trace the movement of German funds and physical wealth to hideouts in European countries and to other continents

Saint :OSS indicator for messages containing security and counter-intelligence

SF :Special Funds, OSS organization that provided finances for maintenance

of agent cover

SIPO: German Security Police

SIS: Secret Intelligence Service, British MI6

“The Spider” :Man of Morrish extraction who passed mail to Lisbon, Portugal for OSS  Bern, Switzerland

Spinister: Code name for an important source on France in Geneva, Switzerland

Spirit: Geneva, Switzerland

Stallion: OSS Agent in Lebanon and Syria

Squirrel :OSS Agent in Syria

T-Forces :Target-Forces developed under SHAEF G-2 for the exploitation of enemy

material and documents

Toledo: Indicator for messages dealing with chemical and biological warfare

Intelligence

Top: Zurich, Switzerland

Uncolored: Signifies Denmark in Kappa messages

Vessel :Indicator for a series of reports from a source (now regarded as probably

spurious) in the Vatican

Werewolves: Nazi organization trained to wage guerilla warfare after the defeat of

German military forces

Wood, George Fritz Kolbe

Wood Traffic Material received from George Wood and messages generated by it

X-2: Counter Intelligence Division, OSS

Zigzag : U.S. source, former member of Abwehr IIIF in Berlin, identified former

Nazis for the U.S.

Zulu: The British

http://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassified-records/rg-226-oss/terms.pdf