- Landstorm
- Before 1940 this term designated the various volunteer formations the army in the Netherlands. It was dissolved shortly after the German invasion in May 1940.
- Landstorm Nederland
- During the German occupation a territorial unit of the Waffen-SS quartered in the Netherlands, consisting of mainly Dutch volunteers. Initially established as the Landwacht Nederland in March1943 the name was later changed because another organisation with the same name was established. The Landstorm was deployed against the Allies. At its peak it numbered 8,000 men. It was known as the 34. SS- Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Landstorm Nederland. In 1944 a total of 22,000 Dutchmen served in the Waffen-SS.
- Landtag
- House of representatives of a German federal state (Land).
- Landwacht
- Armed NSB-members with police authority.
- Laskaren
- Term for Asian or Indonesian.
- Lazarettschiffverband
- German flotilla in the occupied Netherlands that consisted of confiscated mine sweepers and towboats. Its task was to save crashed aviators from the sea. As of January 1941 the flotilla was changed to the Nederlandse Zeereddingsdienst.
- LB
- Landing Barge (without engine or ramp).
- LBC
- Landing Barge Cable.
- LBE
- Landing Barge Emergency Repair.
- LBF
- Landing Barge Flak.
- LBG
- Landing Barge Gun.
- LBK
- Landing Barge Kitchen.
- LBO
- Landing Barge Oil.
- LBR
- Landing Barge Ramp (without engine).
- LBV
- Landing Barge Vehicle.
- LBW
- Landing Barge Water.
- League of Nations
- International league of Nations for cooperation and security (1920 – 1941). The League was located in Geneva, in neutral Switzerland. During the 1930s the league of nations could do little against aggressive behaviour of Japan, Manchuria, Italy, Abyssinia and Hitler. The league of nations was in fact the predecessor of the United Nations.
- Lebensborn
- Meaning “Fount of life”. Programme of the SS with the aim of breeding the Aryan super race. In special homes Aryan women were impregnated by Aryan SS-officers
- Lebensraum
- “Living space”. Nazi term indicating the need for the overpopulated German lands to expand.
- Leibstandarte
- Elite troops, originally Hitler’s body guards. Starting as a motorized infantry regiment it grew into a Panzer division.
- Lend- Lease Act
- Lend-Lease legislation (1941) enabling the allied countries to “lend” weapons from the United States.
- Leningrad, siege of
- Siege during 900 days in which the city heroically held out against German besiegers. August 1941-January 1944.
- Lichtenstein
- German air interception radar system on board of a nightfighter.
- Lidice
- Village in Czechoslovakia which was demolished in 1942 as a retaliation against the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich . The men were brought before a firing squad while the women were sent to concentration camps.
- Liquidate
- Annihilate, terminate, destroy.
- LL-device
- Mine sweeping device against magnetic mines. At variable time intervals a heavy electric current was passed through a long cable towed by a minesweeper which disrupted the magnetic field and detonated the mine.
- Locarno, conference of
- Conference in 1925 resulting in an agreement between France and Germany guaranteeing their respective borders.
- Lubbe, Marinus van
- Dutch communist activist. Condemned to death and executed by the Nazis in 1934 after setting fire to the Reichstag.
- Luftschutz
- Air Protection. German measures taken to protect cities and civilians from air attack.
- Luftwaffe
- German air force.
- Luger
- German weapon’s designer. Also the (incorrect) nickname for the German (Pistole 08) 9 mm handgun.
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