AUTHOR’S NOTE I have taken care to make the Encyclopedia of World War II especially useful to readers by providing cross-references from multiple directions For instance, where I provide a main entry under the Soviet operational name for a battle or campaign, I also include a cross-reference from the German term and vice versa Similarly, where I use a conventional military history reference such as Ardennes campaign, I add cross-references to the nearly exclusively American term, Battle of the Bulge, and the German code name Wacht Am Rhein To avoid cluttering the text unduly with cross-references, I not italicize ordinary terms such as “artillery,” “battleship,” or “infantry” in all cases Where such common terms are italicized it means the cross-reference has especially pertinent information to the main entry concerned To additionally ease visual clutter, I not place names of major statesmen in italics; Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Franklin D Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin are therefore never italicized unless there is a special reason for doing so in a particular main entry Similarly, I not italicize major militaries such as British Army, Red Army, Wehrmacht, Royal Navy, or Kriegsmarine, again with limited special exceptions Foreign language words are italicized only in the main entry headers to avoid sending readers on a mistaken search for a cross-reference that does not exist I not use noble titles or reference subsequent knighthoods or peerages, in preference for use of contemporary military or civilian government titles Hence, Lord Louis Mountbatten, or 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, is rendered simply as Louis Mountbatten, preceded by the appropriate naval rank he held at the time of the reference Similarly, Field Marshal 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis is rendered simply as General or Field Marshal Harold Alexander, according to his rank at the time Comparable treatment is given to German officers with noble titles, such as