RI, R2, R3, etc.: The 12 military regions of Resistance France, of which six were in the southern zone: the regions of Lyon (RI), Marseille (R2), Montpellier (R3), Toulouse (R4), Limoges (R5) and Clermont-Ferrand (R6). Regional military leaders on the ground had an extremely wide range of coordination and command powers over fighting units in the SNM and FFI organisation.

RAID: Throughout Europe, including the occupied USSR and the Baltic States, the Nazis carried out raids to round up Jews with or without the local authorities’ help. In eastern and central Europe they were confined to ghettos before being exterminated. In western Europe the raids started in 1941. Jews were parked in transit or internment camps: Drancy, Pithiviers, Rivesaltes in France; Westerbork in the Netherlands. The transit camps were usually the last stop before deportation to extermination camps.

RAIL RESISTANCE: A highly effective sabotage operations network organized among railway workers. It had its own organisation in the MUR, but all the corps in the Resistance - the FTP, maquis, SOE, Groupes Francs, AO, etc.- worked closely with the railway saboteur and intelligence networks.

REICHSSICHERHEITSHAUPTAMT (RSHA): The Reich’s main security office. Created by decree on 27 September 1939, it was headed by Heydrich and then by Kaltenbrunner. It was the supreme organ of the SS led by Himmler.

RELÈVE: Exchange. The growth of the war industry resulted in a huge labour shortage. At first, workers drawn by propaganda promises of high wages volunteered to leave for Germany. As the war hardened in 1942, Reich labour commissar Fritz Sauckel required each occupied country to send workers to Germany. The same year, Pierre Laval, trying to lighten the terms of the Armistice, asked the Nazis to repatriate one French POW for every three workers leaving for Germany. This was called the “relève”. The swap turned out to be a fool’s bargain because very few POWs were actually released. The Resistance rejected the compromise and insisted that the only way to bring the POWs home was to defeat Germany.

RESISTANCE MOVEMENT: men and women from all social and political backgrounds intent on opposing Nazi occupation created the earliest Resistance movements as early as 1940. They wrote, printed and distributed newspapers and leaflets to inspire a spirit of resistance and organize patriotic events.

RESISTANCE NETWORK: Resistance networks gathered military intelligence and sent it to the Allies, plotted escapes, hid Allied airmen and picked up parachuted agents. They also organised landings and take-offs to and from the United Kingdom.

REVIER (KRANKENBAU, LAZARETT, SANITÄTLAGER): Depending on the camp, these words meant infirmaries and hospitals. They came under the authority of a Lagerartz, an S.S. doctor

ROYAL AIR FORCE: RAF pilots became famous during the Battle of Britain. Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid them a stirring tribute when he said, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. The RAF lost 56,000 killed in three years.

ROYAL NAVY: On 3 September 1939 Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty, the equivalent of the Minister of the Navy. Alexander succeeded him when he became prime minister on 10 May 1940. The Royal Navy covered itself in glory during the Battle of the Atlantic. Despite losing nearly 3,000 ships in 1940 and 1941, it managed to keep food and supply lines open.