What does "GO 40 WD 45" mean in relation to the Central Europe battles
and campaigns of World War II?

Hi Sigma,

As my comment was a sufficient answer, I have posted it as answer
below:

The only reference to the meaning of "GO 40 WD 45" that I have been
able to find is from a posting in a newsgroup where someone else was
asking the same question:
 
‘…Normandy GO 33 WD 45 Northern France GO 33 WD 45 Rhineland GO 40 WD
45
Would someone in this NG please explain the code here?’ 
 
…This means that these campaigns were declared (authorized, defined --
I'm
not sure of the enabling terminology) by General Order of the War
Department
in 1945.’ 
Link to posting from group us.military.army:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=6NMQ7.24341%24Yy.298844%40rwcrnsc53&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2B%2522GO%2B40%2BWD%2B45%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D6NMQ7.24341%2524Yy.298844%2540rwcrnsc53%26rnum%3D1
 
 
So GO = General Order of   
WD 45 = War Department 1945 
 
Search Strategy:
I searched for "GO 40 WD 45" in Google Groups (
http://groups.google.com/ )
and I used the following search terms in Google:
"GO 40 WD 45" WW2 

The website which SgtCory refers to may also be of interest:
http://www.qmfound.com/qm.html

Kind regards,
Ali

Hi,

The only reference to the meaning of "GO 40 WD 45" that I have been
able to find is from a posting in a newsgroup where someone else was
asking the same question:

‘…Normandy GO 33 WD 45 Northern France GO 33 WD 45 Rhineland GO 40 WD
45
Would someone in this NG please explain the code here?’

…This means that these campaigns were declared (authorized, defined --
I'm
not sure of the enabling terminology) by General Order of the War
Department
in 1945.’
Link to posting: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=6NMQ7.24341%24Yy.298844%40rwcrnsc53&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3D%2B%2522GO%2B40%2BWD%2B45%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D6NMQ7.24341%2524Yy.298844%2540rwcrnsc53%26rnum%3D1


So GO = General Order of  
WD 45 = War Department 1945

Please let me know if this answers your question and I will post it as
one.
Regards,
Ali

Ali,

Fellow researcher sgtcory here....


Take a look here to aid you in your research of this subject. Being
prior military, I knew what some of it meant (General Order) :

http://www.qmfound.com/qm.html

Should help you further -

Take care,

SgtCory

Yes. That is a sufficient answer for me. Thanks.

Thanks SgtCory, this was an apt question for you ;O)
Ali