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Z batteries were British anti-aircraft rocket batteries in the Second World War first employed in 1942 and usually operated by Home Guard units.
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A zeriba or zareeba was a British defensive enclosure formed of prickly brushwood, designed to offer protection against a surprise attack to troops camped behind it. Zeribas were used by British troops in Egypt in the late 19th century.
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In small arms, zero is a term referring to a projectile falling or striking where the sights are aiming. A weapon which fires a projectile to the point where the sights are aimed is referred to as 'zeroed'.
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The Zion Mule Corps was a wholly Jewish unit of the British Army. It served with distinction in Gallipoli in 1915, carrying rations and ammunition to the forward troops, and after the evacuation of the peninsula the corps was merged with the Jewish regiment in 1917. It was formed in Egypt from Zionist refugees from Palestine by a Lieutenant Jablonsky, a Russian journalist, and commanded by a British officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson.
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The Zouave were French infantry soldiers, first raised in 1831 from the Zouave (Zouaoua, Zwawa) Berber tribe from Algeria. Later the French Zouave infantry were comprised solely of French soldiers, and were elite corps. The Zouave troops were famed for their uniform based on Moorish dress consisting of a short, blue, embroidered jacket and baggy red trousers reaching to just below the knee. A force of troops, named the Papal Zouave were later formed for the defence of the Vatican by an exiled French soldier. The term came to be used for soldiers in other corps modelled on the French Zouaves, such as several regiments of American volunteer Union troops of the American Civil War who modelled themselves upon the French Zouave troops, adopted the uniform to a degree and called themselves Zouave.
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Zyklon-B was a poison gas used in Nazi extermination camps. It was a cyanide compound originally developed for fumigation purposes in the 1920s. It was actually a crystalline compound which gave off hydrogen cyanide gas when exposed to the air. It was first used against humans in a euthanasia programme in 1939, aimed at ridding Germany of lunatics, incurable invalids, and other 'undesirables'. The victims were induced to enter a 'shower bath', Zyklon-B was released, and the gas killed them in a few minutes. When the extermination camps were set up, this method was adopted as standard and was responsible for several million deaths. The inventor, Dr Bruno Tesch, was convicted of war crimes and executed for his manufacture and supply of the substance to the camps.
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Abbreviations
Warfare
