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In the US military services, an oak-leaf cluster is an insignia consisting of oak leaves and acorns awarded to holders of certain decorations to indicate a further award of the same decoration.
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The SOPELEM OB-25 is a French passive night weapon sight designed for use with most larger infantry weapons in moonlight or starlight. The OB-25 contains an image intensifier and provides a magnifcation factor of 4 and has a typical range of 300 metres.
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The OB-44 are French passive night observation binoculars. The OB-44 offer a magnification factor of three and focus from 20 metres to infinity. The OB-44 include a microchannel inverter image intensifier for observation in moonlight or starlight, and are equipped with both automatic and manual gain control.
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The SOPELEM OB-48 is a French passive weapon sight designed for use as a small arms sight, and used with sniping rifles for example. The SOPELEM OB-48 contains a micro-channel multiplier image intensifier and provides a magnification of 3.5.
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In fortifications the oblique flank refers to that part of the curtain whence the fire of the opposite bastion may be discovered.
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Oboe was a British radar-based blind bombing system of the Second World War adopted by the RAF in 1942. It used two transmitters based in the UK; one tracked the bomber, guiding it on a course across the target. The other also tracked the bomber and ordered it to drop its bombs at the computed bomb-release point. Since accuracy was of a very high order, bombing became very accurate, and the system was used by the Pathfinder force to drop marker bombs for the rest of a bombing force.
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The OF 37 is a French hand grenade made of either an aluminium case packed with 90 grams of TNT explosive. A fragmentation model made from a cast-iron case is also produced.
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An off-route-mine is a form of ambush weapon which detects a passing object, and fires at it automatically. A typical example is an anti-tank rocket launcher placed on a stand, fitted with a sensor to detect a passing tank and a computer to calculate the range and course of the vehicle and then to fire the rocket at the correct time. Such a weapon can be concealed near a road and left unattended.
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The OGPU was the name of the Soviet Military Intelligence service during the period 1923 to 1934.
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The Okhrana was the Tsarist Russian security and intelligence agency from 1881 to 1917. After the Bolshevik revolution, the Cheka modelled itself on the Okhrana which had successfully used penetration agents and agents provocateurs.
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The Old Hundredth was a nickname of the 100th Regiment of Foot.
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In fortifications the open flank refers to the part of the flank covered by the orillon.
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Operation Abigail was a British RAF attack on the town of Mannheim on the 16/ 17th of December 1940 during the Second World War, in retaliation for the German raids on Coventry and Southampton.
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Operation Aphrodite was a proposed, but abandoned, American plan to load surplus bomber aircraft with explosives and fly them via the south coast of England where the two-man crew would bail out and other planes would guide the bombers to V-1 sites in Europe where they would be crashed.
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Operation Bellicose was a British RAF shuttle-bombing raid on Friedrichshafen on the 20th of June 1943 during the Second World War.
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Operation Channel Stop was mounted as a preliminary to the D-Day landings by the Allies during the Second World War to prevent the passage of enemy shipping through the Straits of Dover during the hours of daylight.
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Operation Chastise was a bombing raid carried out by nineteen Lancasters of No 617 Squadron, RAF on the night of the 16th/17th of May 1943 during the Second World War against the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams in the Ruhr valley. The raid used the new bouncing bombs invented by Barnes Wallis. The raid was led by Guy Gibson who was later awarded the Victoria Cross, thirty-two other members of the Squadron was also decorated. The raid was designed to flood the Ruhr valley, where most of Germany's war industry was located, thus severely hampering her efforts to manufacture weapons. The raid was immortalised in the film 'The Dam Busters'.
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Operation Choir was an operation conducted by MI5 during the 1950s to bug the offices of the Russian Consulate in the Bayswater Road. The operation made the first use of the probe microphone which was lodged in a gap between the dividing wall of the consulate and the adjoining building. Sound to the microphone was to be conducted through a drilled pin hole in the consulate wall. However, the Russians were alerted and the operation never received any intelligence.
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Operation Crossbow was the Allied defensive measures adopted against flying bomb attacks on the British Isles.
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Operation Dragoon was the codename for the Allied invasion of occupied Southern France in the Second World War.
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Operation Gold was a joint MI6 and CIA operation to intercept Soviet-block communications in East Berlin during the 1950's. A 500 metre underground tunnel was dug from west Berlin into East Berlin to intercept landlines running from the Soviet Military and intelligence headquarters in Karlshorst. Details of the operation were passed by the British KGB spy George Blake (who was asked to liase with the CIA on the construction of the tunnel) to his Soviet controller in 1954, and the Soviets were aware of the entire operation even before it started. None the less, to protect their agent they did not reveal their knowledge of the tunnel until 1956 when they pretended to accidentally discover it.
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Operation Party Piece was a successful MI5 operation during the 1950s in which they burgled the headquarters of the Communist Party of Great Britain and copied the 55,000 membership files contained there. The headquarters were at a flat in Mayfair, and when the couple who lived there were away in the Lake District one weekend a team from MI5's A2 department entered the flat and picked the locks on the filing cabinets and photographed the contents with a Polaroid camera.
Research Operation Party Piece
Operation Phoenix was an extensive CIA assassination operation staged during the later stages of the Vietnam War. At one stage the brief was to eliminate 1800 key Viet Cong and Communist figures a month. Many of the arrested suspects were summarily executed.
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Operation Plainfare was an Allied operation forming part of the 'Berlin Air Lift', to transport food and fuel to Berlin between June 1948 and May 1949 after all surface communications were closed by the Soviets on the 31st of March 1948.
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Operation Sunshine was a British MI5 assassination operation targeting Colonel Grivas the leader of the EOKA guerrilla army in Cyprus during 1959. The plan was that Grivas should be located, and then a large body of British troops would surround his base, and order him to surrender. The British knew that Grivas would never surrender and intended to kill him. However, a settlement of the Cyprus affair meant that the operation was abandoned before completion.
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Operation Tiepin was a 1950s MI5 operation conducted to bug the offices of the Communist Party of Great Britain by using a microphone concealed in a coal chute in the premises of the Communist Party in King Street, London.
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Operation Vittles was an Allied operation forming part of the 'Berlin Air Lift', to transport food and fuel to Berlin between June 1948 and May 1949 after all surface communications were closed by the Soviets on the 31st of March 1948.
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Operation yatso was a proposed KGB operation to disrupt relations between Greece and Turkey in 1969. Operation yatso was proposed to be a minor sabotage operation, involving a small explosive device which would be detonated close to a house owned by the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, with the blame directed at a Greek citizen. The purpose of the proposed operation was to exacerbate the poor relationship between the NATO partners of Greece and Turkey thereby weakening American policy in south-east Europe. The text of the KGB special political action proposed by the Athens residency in April 1969 and published in this edited form by Vasili Mitrokhin, follows:
'The operation is codenamed Yatso. The aim and purpose of the operation is to cause moral and political damage to the south-east wing of NATO. Constant disagreements between Greece and Turkey cause great concern to the leadership of the USA and NATO and are a weak link in American policy in the area of south-east Europe. Carrying out a Lily on the Vaza could exacerbate relations between Greece and Turkey.
The operation would be carried out in the name of a Greek who had come from Turkey and was dissatisfied with the situation of the Greek minority there (there can also be another variant for carrying out the sabotage). Vaza is a two-storey house in Thessaloniki. The house and its annexe belong to the Turkish consulate-general...There is no furniture, only a table, iron troughs and a cooking stove. On the upper floor of the house there are displays with Ataturk's clothes and a photographic portrait of him. Apart from a desk there is no furniture. Next to the Vaza, about 15-20 m away, there is the two-storey building of the Turkish consulate-general. This house is also used as living accommodation for consulate officials. The Vaza and the consulate have a common courtyard. (A detailed description of the lay-out of the houses and the courtyard is attached.) The most suitable place for planting a Bouquet is in the bushes growing about one metre from the Vaza. The Vaza is not open to the general public. It can be visited with the permission of the Turkish consulate; a special official is assigned to watch over the Vaza and to accompany visitors to the Vaza. The Vaza and the consulate are guarded round the clock by two gendarmes. The guard posts are mobile and the approaches to Vaza are restricted. The most convenient time to approach the target is at nightfall. Specifications of the Bouquet. The size and weight of the Bouquet must be related to the results which are desired from the attack on the Vaza. Evidently, there is no point in causing serious damage to the Vaza; it is better to achieve a moral and political effect. When calculating the force of the Bouquet, one must bear in mind that the distance from the Splash to the consulate living quarters is 15 - 20 m. ...In order to increase the impact and achieve the desired results, the Bouquet must be wrapped in a newspaper published in Turkey for Greek citizens. The temperature in Thessaloniki ranges in winter from
w zero to 14 C, while in summer it ranges from 24 C upwards. Occasionally there are thick fogs.
The Gardener must be sent to the country as a foreign tourist at the height of the tourist season. The greatest influx of tourists occurs from June to August. According to his identity documents, the Gardener's identity documents must show him to be a citizen of a country friendly to Greece or a neutral state (the USA, Britain, East Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Canada, Libya), excluding the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Holland and Belgium. On arriving in Athens the Gardener can hire a motor car, visit historical sites in the south of the country and some of the islands. Simultaneously, the Gardener is acclimatizing himself and becoming fully accustomed to the situation in the country. After collecting the Bouquet from the residency via a DLB, the Gardener travels to Thessaloniki by rail. The estimated time span for carrying out the Lily and for the Gardener's activities is as follows: After arriving in Athens, the Gardener can hire a motor car the next day, spend one or two days in Athens and its suburbs, then travel the following route by
car: Athens-Patrais-Navplion-Epidhauros-Korinthos-Athens. This route will take the Gardener four or five days. On arriving in Athens, the Gardener books into a hotel.
The next day he places a signal indicating he is ready to carry out the DLB operation to receive the Bouquet. The DLB operation takes place next day. After collecting the Bouquet, the Gardener leaves by the next train to Thessaloniki, having previously booked out from the hotel. A train leaves Athens at 11.42, and arrives at Thessaloniki at 19.29; he travels in a first-class compartment. At Thessaloniki he does not stay at a hotel. In order to acquaint himself with the situation around the Vaza he walks past the Vaza after checking for surveillance. As darkness falls, the Gardener goes off on a route of his own choice, but at the final stage goes into the old fort, where he inserts the little flower into the Bouquet. From the northern gates of the fort, the Gardener goes down Isail Street which leads to the Vaza and comes out on St Paul Street. This takes 15-20 minutes. On coming out on to Isail Street, the Gardener goes from the garage towards St Paul Street. While moving along the fence, the Gardener causes the Splash. The Gardener can throw the Bouquet into the bushes which are close to the Vaza fence or he can drop the Bouquet on the ground inside the Vaza fence. (A diagram of the route and of the location of the installations is attached).
After completing the Splash, the Gardener goes out on Ayios Dhimitrios Street and moves in the direction of the stadium (20-25 minutes walk). In the stadium area there is some waste ground where the Gardener can bury the TWA or BOAC airline bag used for keeping and transporting the Bouquet. From Thessaloniki, the Gardener can go to Athens by train or air (buying the air ticket 5-10 minutes before take-off, using any surname). If the situation does not permit the Gardener to put the Bouquet together, then he can get rid of it ... in the area of the stadium where there is some waste ground. If he attracts the attention of the Vaza security guard, he must say
that he is a foreign tourist going from the fort to the delta Hotel, where he intends to spend the night, but that this is his first visit to the town and he is not sure of the way to the hotel.'
Research Operation Yatso
The Opinel is a range of French folding knives. They are simple, low-cost general purpose tools generally with a carbon steel blade and a turned wooden handle. A steel collar can be turned when the knife is open to lock the blade.
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The OpTex Button Cam is a miniature CCD colour or black & white camera with a 3.6mm pinhole lens built into the back of a shirt button. With the front aperture of the lens no more than 1mm in diameter the Button Cam is ideally suited for covert surveillance, slipping neatly through the button hole of most shirts. To keep the front of the shirt flat, press studs are provided for sewing into the shirt above and below the camera. For better concealment, ten matching buttons are supplied allowing the camera to easily blend into the clothing being worn. The colour version is powered by four AA batteries located in a battery pack holder supplied with the camera. The black and white version is powered by a 12Volt NiCad battery pack. For increased personal security both cameras are fitted with a single power in/video out cable measuring less than 2mm in diameter.
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The OpTex Glasses Cam is a special camera designed for covertly recording live events. The Glasses Cam has been designed to blend in with standard commercial glasses, making its detection less likely. The main feature of the system is that the lens is fitted in the nose-bridge thus providing a ' What you see is what you take' approach, and with virtually no front element exposure the camera is an ideal tool for covert surveillance. As an added measure of realism the glasses use UV protected and have photo sensitive lenses that automatically adjust their tint to the ambient brightness. The recording cables run through a pair of permanent lanyards which can be run undetected down the users back to a box containing audio and video outputs and the camera's 12v NiCad battery power supply.
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The OpTex Pen Cam is a covert surveillance camera inserted in a chunky ball pen casing, with the lens next to the pocket clip and the microphone on the top of the cap. The Pen Cam incorporates a 3. 7mm pinhole lens, a 1/3' inter line colour CCD-camera and an FET amplified microphone. The output signal travels down a cable attached to the bottom of the pen casing, which can be passed through a hole in the pocket where the pen is placed, allowing it to be concealed inside the lining of the jacket. The video and audio signals can be fed directly into a recorder or via one of the OpTex miniature 10 mW, 60 mW or 400 mW microwave transmission systems for remote parallel surveillance and/ or recording.
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The OpTex Watch Cam is a fully functional standard Casio style Digital watch, re-engineered to contain an ultra-miniature monochrome PAL camera viewing through an almost invisible aperture. Flesh coloured cable carries the information from the strap of the watch to the body-worn battery pack and interface unit. Together with the internal microphone, the Watch Cam system provides the ultimate in covert close quarters video monitoring. It can be connected to a video recorder or an optional microwave transmitter.
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The Ordnance Board was a department concerned with the management of forts, armaments, garrisons and stores. It was recognised as a civil department by Charles II in 1683 and in 1689 was divided into military and civil departments before being transferred to the War Office by parliament in 1855.
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An oreillet was an oval or circular plate forming a protective ear-piece connected to the steel helmets used by English soldiers during the reign of Henry VI. They were fastened with hinges to allow them to be lifted up, and were frequently perforated to allow the wearer to hear better, and sometimes had a spike projecting from the centres.
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In fortifications an orillon was a semi-circular projection made at the shoulder of a bastion for the purpose of covering the retired flank.
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The Orion 110 is a German small-arm night sight similar to the Orion 80 but larger, employing a three-stage image intensifier. The Orion 110 provides a magnification of 6 and can focus from 20 metres to infinity.
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The Orion 80 is a German small-arm night sight employing a three-stage image intensifier. The Orion 80 provides a magnification of 4 and can focus from 20 metres to infinity.
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The OSS Sleeve Dagger is a British stabbing weapon consisting of a 7 inch long stainless steel spike, half of which is a triangular cross-section blade with fullers ground into flats culminating in a sharp spear point.
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Otobreda is an Italian manufacturer of naval weapons systems, field artilleries, armoured vehicles, gun turrets and ammunition. Otobreda is also specialised in the design and production of small calibre automatic guns.
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In fortifications outworks are minor defences constructed beyond the main body of a work. Examples include ravelin, lunette, hornwork, etc.
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The OZM-4 is a Soviet pressure, command or tripwire detonated booby-trap anti-personnel mine. When detonated it bounds 1.5 to 2.4 metres into the air and explodes showering fragments over a 50 metre diameter.
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Abbreviations
Warfare
