Techpubs style

From Battleground Europe Wiki

Contents 1 WWII Tech Pubs Style Guide 1.1 General Rules 1.1.1 Dates 1.1.2 Weapon Abbreviations 1.1.2.1 German: 1.1.2.2 French: 1.1.3 Country-specific rules 1.1.3.1 UK: 1.1.3.2 Mainland European countries: 1.1.3.3 US: 1.1.4 All naval articles regardless of country of origin: 1.2 Units and Conversions 1.2.1 Converting: 1.3 Units 1.3.1 Area 1.3.2 Length/Distance 1.3.3 Mass/Weight 1.3.4 Power and Fuel Consumption and RPM 1.3.5 Speed/Velocity 1.3.6 Time 1.3.7 Volume

WWII Tech Pubs Style Guide

(from Webs)

General Rules

Even if you use American spelling, note that "catalog" is an abomination. Spell it like catalogue, dialogue, prologue, epilogue....

Use no dash between an adverb and an adjective it is describing (i.e. "well known", not "well-known"), but use a dash for compound adjectives (e.g. "farm-raised" or "hand-lettered"). This also applies to things like this: The gun's 20-mm shell could not penetrate the tank's armour of 60 mm. "20-mm" is a compound adjective and takes a dash, whereas "60 mm" is a noun and does not. This is similar to this plainer sentence: The one-year-old boy ate the cracker that was three months old. (Yes, that's experience talking)

Numbers up to and including ten are written. Eleven and up are written in digits, unless they start a sentence. Also, write "two million" and "36 million", but those damned decimals screw everything up, don't they?

Use "Great Britain" instead of "United Kingdom" or "UK". At the time of WWII, "Great Britain" was the accepted common name of what is commonly called the United Kingdom today.

Use "aircraft" wherever possible. The US uses "airplane" and the UK uses "aeroplane".

All foreign words are italicized and, at first appearance in an article, are translated in brackets. Foreign place names, company names, personal names, unit names, and abbreviations are not italicized. Note that we have accepted "Stuka" and "Stukas" as English words and have not italicized them. "Panzer", however, remains italicized. So do the word portions of foreign unit designations.

Examples:

• German Panzertruppe (armored force)
• Four battalions of Char B1s (Tank B1s) were split between two demi-brigades (half-brigades) in the 1ère Division Cuirassée de Réserve (1st Reserve Armored Division; 1st DCR).
• The Panzerkampfwagen IV (Armored Fighting Vehicle IV; shortened to either Panzer IV or PzKpfw IV)....
• The PzKpfw IV Ausf. D, which first appeared in October 1939, was considered the first true production model in the Panzer IV series.
• In 1935, the Heereswaffenamt ordered prototype vehicles from four companies: Daimler-Benz; Krupp; Maschinenfabrik-Augsburg-Neurnberg AG (MAN); and Rheinmetall-Borsig.

Dates

• Example one: Sept. 22, 1940
• Example two: January 1944 (use the full month name if there is no date)

Here are the month abbreviations: Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. As a rule of thumb, any month with four or fewer letters in its name is not abbreviated.

Weapon Abbreviations

Here are our conclusions:

German:

• MG 15 (with a space - not MG15, MG17, etc.) and MG-FF/M
• Ausf. (not Ausf)
• Bf 109E-4 (not Bf109E-4)

French:

• SA 35 L/17
• Renault R35 (not R-35)

Country-specific rules

• All countries:
• All engines should be rated in electric horsepower, not metric horsepower, with the exception of naval engines, explained below. Put metric kilowatt conversions in brackets.

UK:

Use British spelling. Use imperial measurements with metric measurements in brackets.

Mainland European countries:

• Use British spelling.
• Use metric measurements with US measurements in brackets.
• German gun calibres use cm starting at 2 cm.

US:

• Use US spelling.
• Use US measurements with metric measurements in brackets.

All naval articles regardless of country of origin:

• Use spelling according to country.
• Use knots and nautical miles with metric measurements in brackets.
• Engine power should be rated in shaft horsepower (shp) with kW in brackets.
• Use italics for ship names.

Units and Conversions

Mathematical precision asks us to maintain a proper number of sigdigs (significant digits) despite units, but for our purposes that isn't always practical. Through experience, I've managed to come up with the following rules of thumb where sigdigs may not apply.

Converting:

• millimetres to inches -> two decimal places in inches (but note that 7.49 mm, for example, would use the standard three sigdigs as 0.295 in)
• centimetres to inches -> one decimal place in inches
• metres to feet -> one decimal place in feet

You get the idea.

Units

Here's an alphabetical list of units and their abbreviations.

Note that the abbreviations do not take an "s" to indicate plural.
Note that rpm is revolutions per minute.
For rounds per minute, use "rounds/min".

Area

• square feet = sq ft
• square metre = sq m
• square etc. = sq etc.

Length/Distance

• centimetres = cm
• fathom = change it to feet (1 fathom = 6 feet)
• feet = ft
• inch = in
• kilometres = km
• metres = m
• mile, nautical = nm
• mile, statute = mi
• millimetres = mm
• yard = yd

Mass/Weight

• gram = g
• kilogram = kg
• ounce (avoirdupois, not troy) = oz
• pound = lb
• stone = in your dreams, you cheese-eating dandies
• ton, UK (long) = long ton
• ton, US (short) = ton
• tonne, metric = tonne

Power and Fuel Consumption and RPM

• horsepower (British or electric) = hp
• horsepower (metric) = PS
• kilowatt = kW
• litres per 100 kilometres = L/100 km
• megawatt = MW
• miles per Imperial gallon = mpg (Imp)
• miles per US gallon = mpg
• revolutions per minute = rpm
• shaft horsepower = shp
• watt = W

Speed/Velocity

• feet per second = ft/sec
• furlongs per fortnight = fu/fo
• kilometres per hour = km/h
• knots (nautical miles per hour) = kt
• metres per second = m/sec
• miles per hour = mph

Time

• second = sec
• hour = hr
• minute = min

Volume

• cubic inches = cu in
• gallons, US = US gal
• gallons, Imperial = Imp gal
• gross restricted/registered tonnage = GRT
• litres = L

Note: This matches the International System of Units [[1]] Bloo