Direct Fire grand strategy; Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere; Harriman, W Averell; Hendaye protocol; Hitler, Adolf; Hoare-Laval Pact; Hoover-Stimson Doctrine; Hopkins, Harry; Hull, Cordell; Imperial Japanese Army; intelligence; Japanese Peace Treaty; Jiang Jieshi; Konoe Fumimaro; League of Nations; Lend-Lease; Litvinov, Maxim Maximovich; Lytton Commission; MAGIC; Maginot spirit; Montreux Convention; Moscow Conference; Munich Conference; Mussolini, Benito; Nazi–Soviet Pact; Nine Power Treaty; nonbelligerence; Placentia Bay Conference; Potsdam Conference; PURPLE; Québec conferences; Rapallo, Treaties of; Red Cross; Rhineland; Ribbentrop, Joachim; Roosevelt, Franklin; sanctions; San Francisco Conference; Stalin, Joseph; Stimson, Henry; Tehran Conference; Toˉgoˉ, Shigenori; Tripartite Pact; VENONA; Wallenberg, Raul; Washington Naval Conference; World Economic Conference; Yalta Conference DIRECT FIRE Aimed artillery fire at specific targets, usually in a close support role during an infantry assault See artillery; assault guns; indirect fire; self-propelled guns DIRECTION During 1941–1942, the Red Army used this designation for operational commands of groups of armies, or “Fronts.” Each Direction or Front was roughly equivalent to what other major powers called Army Groups Three Directions were established on July 10, 1941, as part of emergency defensive reforms undertaken even as much of the Red Army was collapsing under three simultaneous Wehrmacht advances in BARBAROSSA The Northwestern Direction under Marshal Kliment Voroshilov faced German Army Group North Western Direction defended against Army Group Center all the way to the suburbs of Moscow, first led by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko then by General Georgi Zhukov Southwestern Direction was badly led in the fight against Army Group South by Marshal Semyon Budyonny, then was handed off to Timoshenko It was driven beyond Kiev, losing vast numbers of men and tanks in some of the largest encirclements in the history of war A fourth Direction was set up in the Soviet far east on July 30, 1945, under Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky to prosecute the short Manchurian offensive operation against the Japanese in August It was dissolved on December 20, 1945 DIRECTION-FINDING (D/F) Locating the source of a radio transmission by triangulating its position from two listening posts or receivers Huff-Duff was the Western term for detection equipment that pinpointed high-frequency transmissions, especially from U-boats Shipborne Huff-Duff went operational in July 1941 This was a critical advance over older medium-frequency detection equipment, since U-boats communicated with their HQ by high-frequency transmissions The habit of Admiral Karl Dönitz of insisting on regular U-boat tracking reports thereafter enabled Western navies to locate boats by listening from shore stations Reliable shipborne D/F was introduced in combination with new radars That permitted anti-submarine escorts to establish an initial bearing, then estimate range, enabling them to force a U-boat to dive or allowing them to depth charge it By the fall of 1944 the Western Allies had 20 shore stations tracking U-boat 312