A note on translations, ranks, measurements, dates etc.

Notes

There are some notes to be made on the translation of military terminology from a foreign language to English, as well as the conversion of ranks from their native system to the next closest comparable rank as they are used in the U.S. or British armed forces.

It should be noted that I am "only" fluent in Dutch, English, and German, in that particular order. Additionally, I have a somewhat weak command of French, and am capable of reading Cyrillic.

The translations provided are in no way to be taken for 100% accurate. Translation is, as they say, interpretation.

The specialized nature of the texts, that is, military parlance, further complicates the matter. To give a few examples of this, what the British military considers a machine carbine, that is, a submachine gun, is not quite the equivalent of what the Germans considered their Maschinenkarabiner, the predecessor to their StG44 assault rifle. Another example would be a class of weapons known in English as machine pistols, which would deceptively seem to be a translation of the German Maschinenpistolen. However, the German language uses the word "Reihenfeuerpistolen" to refer to such weapons.

Furthermore, there is the matter of converting units of measurement from the metric system to the U.S. customary system and imperial system. As I myself am most familiar with the metric system, and it is the most used system worldwide, it will be the primary system used. However, where appropriate, the imperial system will be used accordingly. It would for example, sound strange to refer to the Thompson submachine gun solely as a 11.43mm weapon, when the .45 inch measurement is what we are familiar with.

Finally, there is the matter of ranks. It is only possible to give the approximate rank equivalent when considering the ranks of another military. Approximate is very much the key-word, as the requirements for promotions may very much differ between nations, and even branches within the same armed force. The paramilitary political organizations that existed in world war II, notably the Waffen-SS, "Blackshirts", and NKVD create even more complex differences in ranks.

As a guide for ranks, the NATO rank scale will be used.