Code words used by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War:
Angels – height in thousands of feet.
Balbo – a large formation of aircraft.
Bandit – identified enemy aircraft.
Bogey – unidentified (possibly unfriendly) aircraft.
Buster – radio-telephony code phrase for 'maximum throttle' or full power climb.
Cab rank – an airborne patrol of fighter-bombers near a combat zone which could be called upon to attack specific targets as necessary.
Channel Stop – air operations intended to stop enemy shipping passing through the Straits of Dover.
Circus – daytime bomber attacks with fighter escorts against short range targets, to occupy enemy fighters and keep them in the area concerned.
Diver – radio-telephony code word for a sighted V-1 flying bomb.
Fighter night – introduced in November 1940, night patrols above a specified height with orders to shoot down any multi-engined aircraft.
Flower – counter-air patrols in the area of enemy airfields to preventing aircraft from taking off and attacking those aircraft that succeeded.
Gardening – mine-laying operations.
Instep – missions to restrict attacks on Coastal Command aircraft by maintaining a presence over the Western Approaches.
Interdiction – missions to carry out low-level attacks against enemy communications: railways, shipping, and road traffic.
Intruder – offensive patrols to destroy enemy aircraft over their own territory, usually carried out at night.
Jager – a hostile aircraft that is at a higher altitude than the pilot's aircraft.
Jim Crow – coastal patrols to intercept enemy aircraft crossing the British coastline; originally intended to warn of invasion in 1940.
Kipper – patrols to protect fishing boats in the North Sea against air attack.
Mahmoud – bombing operations accompanied by de Havilland Mosquitoes equipped with rear-facing radar; if an enemy aircraft was detected a 180° turn would enable an attack.
Mandolin – attacks on enemy railway transport and other ground targets.
Moonshine – jamming operations, originally involving the Defiants of No.
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