Glossary of German Military Terms - List of Military Operations

List of Military Operations

The German term for "Operation" is Unternehmen, literally "undertaking".

• Adlerangriffe (Eagle Attack) series of raids against Royal Air Force (RAF).
• Adlertag — Eagle Day; day one of intense raiding against RAF 13 August 1940 known as Operation Eagle Attack (postponed from 10 August).
• Anton — occupation of Vichy France, November 1942; later known as Atilla.
• Atilla — occupation of Vichy France, November 1942 (previously, Anton).
• Aufbau Ost — Eastern Buildup; build-up of arms prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union.
• Barbarossa — invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Barbarossa, or "Red Beard" was the nickname for Emperor Frederick I, who attempted to unify Germanic states in the 12th century.
• Bernhard — scheme to counterfeit British bank notes and put them into circulation; begun in 1942.
• Bodenplatte — Base Plate; air offensive against Allied airfields in north-western Europe, New Year's Day 1945.
• Eiche — Oak; mission to rescue Benito Mussolini by Fallschirmjäger led by Skorzeny.
• Eisenhammer - Iron Hammer, planned strategic bombing raid on Soviet electric power generation water turbines, potentially knocking out three-quarters of all western Soviet electrical generation capacity, never carried out
• Fall Blau - Case Blue; summer offensive in Southern Russia.
• Fall Gelb — Case Yellow; invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
• Fall Grün — Case Green; intended invasion of Czechoslovakia.
• Fall Rot — Case Red; counterstrike against France in the event of an attack from the West.
• Fall Weiß — Case White; invasion of Poland.
• Felix — plan to capture Gibraltar in 1941. It never took place.
• Fischfang — Fish Trap; counterattack on the Allied beachhead at Anzio in February 1944.
• Greif — Griffin; dropping of English-speaking troops wearing American uniforms behind the Allied lines in the Ardennes, prior to the Battle of the Bulge.
• Herbstnebel — Autumn Mist; offensive in the Ardennes, December 1944. Better known as the Battle of the Ardennes.
• Herkules — projected invasion of Malta by Fallschirmjäger and the Navy. Never executed.
• Kathrin — Plan to help the Irish Republican Army to commit terrorism and disrupt British internal security.
• Merkur — Mercury (the planet or the Roman god, not the metal); airborne invasion of Crete 1941.
• Nordlicht — Northern Lights; attack on Leningrad in 1942.
• Nordwind — North Wind; counteroffensive in Alsace and Lorraine in January 1945.
• Panzerfaust — Armored Fist; the October 1944 mission to kidnap Miklós Horthy Jr, son of Hungarian Regent Admiral Miklós Horthy.
• Paukenschlag — Drumroll or Drumbeat; offensive against Allied shipping in US and Caribbean waters in the first half of 1942.
• Pastorius — U-boat operation involving U-202 and U-548 setting 8 agents ashore in the USA in June 1942.
• Reinhard — covername for the entire process of building extermination camps, deportation of Jews first to ghettos, then to the concentration camps for extermination and incineration. Named for SD chief Reinhard Heydrich.
• Seelöwe — Sea Lion; projected amphibious assault on Great Britain in 1940/41. It never took place.
• Steinbock - the German Luftwaffe bomber offensive against England from late January through the end of May 1944
• Stösser — parachute drop on evening of 16 December 1944; purpose was to seize a crossroads for Kampfgruppe Peiper during the Germans' Ardennes Offensive.
• Strafgericht — "punishment" air attacks on Belgrade, April 1941.
• Taifun — Typhoon; push towards Moscow in September 1941.
• Tannenbaum — "fir-tree"; projected invasion of Switzerland in 1940. Never carried out.
• Tiger — advance through the Maginot Line on the French border in June 1940.
• Wacht am Rhein — "Guard on the Rhine"; the December 1944 Ardennes offensive, known by Americans as the Battle of the Bulge.
• Walküre — Valkyrie Officially a Reserve Army contingency plan to restore law and order in the event a disruption caused by the Allied bombing of German cities caused a breakdown in law and order, or a rising by the millions of forced laborers German factories. Was, in fact, a major part of the failed July 20 Plot to arrest SS and other Nazi officials and seize control of the German government.
• Weserübung — Weser Exercise (commonly, Water Exercise); invasion of Denmark and Norway, 9 April 1940
• Wintergewitter — Winter Gale; unsuccessful attempt to relieve the 6th Army at Stalingrad in December 1942.
• Zitadelle — Citadel; attack on Soviet salient at Kursk, July 1943.