The WWII Phonetic Alphabet
The phonetic alphabet is used to facilitate clear, understandable communications. It replaces the common pronunciations of each letter, with a separate and distinct word that stands for that letter. Each word starts with it's corresponding letter.
The reason for this is that under high ambient noise conditions, such as in a vehicle, in combat, or when using communitcations equipment with a lot of static, it is easy to mistake the common pronunciations of the letters of the alphabet. For example, the letters b, c, d, e, g, p, t, v, and z could all be misunderstood and mistaken for another letter if using the common pronunciation.
The World War II phonetic alphabet is different from the modern phonetic alphabet. The modern phonetic alphabet is more international in nature and is used by the military of several countries, as well as in aviation and other applications. Oddly enough, many U.S. police departments still use the WWII version.
The World War II Phonetic Alphabet:
Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George, How, Item, Jig, King, Love, Mike, Nan, Oboe, Peter, Queen, Roger, Sugar, Tare, Uncle, Victor, William, X-Ray, Zebra.
The Modern Phonetic Alphabet:
Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, Yankee, Zulu.
The World War II German Phonetic Alphabet:
Anton, Berta, Caesar, Dora, Emil, Friedrich, Gustav, Heinrich, Ida, Julius, Konrad, Ludwig, Martha, Nordpol, Otto, Paula, Quelle, Richard, Siegfried, Theodor, Ulrich, Viktor, Wilhelm, Xanthippe, Ypsilon, Zeppelin.
Additionally, the Germans used several more to signify ch, and vowels with an umlaut (the two dots over a letter) This program does not allow the use of umlauts, so the letters are shown with an e attached: ae=Aerger, ch=Charlotte, oe=Oedipus, ue=Uebel.
