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 US 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. See also Glossary of Nazi Germany Weimar paramilitary groups Ranks and Insignia of the German Army in World War II Ranks and insignia of the Schutzstaffel Comparative military ranks of