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WWII Trivia #1

Can you name these people, places, battles, and words from the Second World War?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 19, 2019
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First submittedMarch 22, 2013
Times taken164,781
Average score75.0%
Rating4.36
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Hint
Answer
Country invaded by Germany
on September 1, 1939
Poland
German word for "lightning war"
Blitzkrieg
Name of the German air force
Luftwaffe
Turning point of the Pacific theater
Battle of Midway
Largest concentration camp
Auschwitz
English translation of "panzer"
Tank
German city that was firebombed in
February 1945, killing 25,000
Dresden
German encryption machine cracked
by British & Polish codebreakers
Enigma
Town from where the British
evacuated France in 1940
Dunkirk
Term for a German submarine
U-Boat
Term for Japanese suicide bombers
Kamikaze
The U.S. nuclear program
Manhattan Project
Hint
Answer
December 7, 1941,
a date that will live in ...
Infamy
Name for June 6, 1944
D-Day
What the V stands for in
V-E day
Victory
British Prime Minister
(for most of the war)
Winston Churchill
British King
George VI
President of the U.S.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry Truman
Supreme Allied
commander in Europe
Dwight Eisenhower
Russian dictator
Joseph Stalin
German führer
Adolf Hitler
Italian duce
Benito Mussolini
Japanese emperor
Hirohito
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100 Recent Comments
Lucasaar
+8
Level 66
May 1, 2014
Please accept the French name of "Dunkirk": Dunkerque... too hard too find for a French like me! And U-Boot should be accepted too. Good quiz though!
Frankthetriviaman
+3
Level 37
May 22, 2014
Just want to point out, "D-Day" was a generic term for any day when a major landing was to take place. June 6, 1944 should be referred to, more appropriately as operation overlord
WW2Fan
+12
Level 28
Nov 4, 2015
It's always referred to as d day and that's how everyone knows it's so it doesn't matter too much
Kalleanon
+12
Level 66
Feb 3, 2021
If you're going to be picky then at least be right. Operation Overlord lasted for nearly 3 months, not just one day - the codename for the landings on D-Day was Operation Neptune.
selah13
+1
Level 44
Jan 31, 2015
was presently surprised I guessed Truman correctly, I only recently found out he had become president during the war. I had also thought Roosevelt had been president during the whole thing.

Only missed the Manhattan Project, I didn't have a clue so I just typed in things like 'boom' and 'bang'

ander217
+4
Level 75
Jun 6, 2018
Surprised that everyone doesn't know Truman since he's the one who approved the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and he approved the creation of Israel and went against his own State Department and immediately recognized their new government. He was also famous for his salty language. There's a story that once a friend asked his wife Bess if she couldn't get Harry to say fertilizer instead of "manure". Bess replied, "Good Lord, Helen, you don't know how many years it has taken me to get him to say manure."
BrosephStalin
+10
Level 68
Feb 4, 2015
This is far too focused on the Anglo-American side of the war. More like "Western Front and Pacific Theater Trivia". It's actually repulsive to me that Eisenhower is on this quiz and Zhukov isn't.
OfficerDibble
+18
Level 84
May 1, 2018
Really, repulsive?
ander217
+10
Level 75
Jun 6, 2018
Why don't you make a quiz from the Russian perspective? I think it would be an interesting and educational quiz. Probably most people, unless they were interested in history or the military, wouldn't remember Eisenhower's name had he not later become a US president.
tshalla
+2
Level 77
Dec 30, 2022
While I don't want to agree with someone with a "BrosephStalin" username, he makes a point. The Soviets played the overwhelming role in winning that war - and this quiz plays along with an Anglo-American myth that suggests otherwise. As an aside, I wonder how many Hawaiians figured that the colonization of their country, less than half-a-century earlier, was far more infamous.
kalbahamut
+6
Level 81
Apr 29, 2015
If you did well on the leaders portion of this quiz you might enjoy this expanded version, though prepare to be repulsed if you go in looking for Zhukov. It's modeled after the World Leaders quizzes and only includes kings, prime ministers and so on, not generals.
rgkieleo
+1
Level 40
Jul 22, 2015
Ugh, I could NOT think of Dunkirk. I could tell the almost the whole story of what happened there, but couldn't remember the name of the place.
Greenland
+2
Level 47
Nov 2, 2015
Great quiz but could you be a bit more forgiving on spelling? I spent half the quiz trying in vain to spell Chamberlain
ander217
+6
Level 75
Jun 6, 2018
So, are you asking QM to accept Chamberlain as an alternative spelling for Churchill? If he goes for it there are several alternative spellings I'd like him to consider, especially in the world capitals quiz. :)
Ptcairn
+1
Level 62
May 1, 2024
"please accept rio for brazil capital"

imagine saying this...

Diggerdog77
+1
Level 76
Nov 2, 2015
I should probably learn more about WW2 after taking this quiz...
Gripgirl17
+2
Level 42
Nov 7, 2015
Historians are by no means in consensus that Midway was the turning point of the Pacific theatre. It was A turning point, for sure, but arguable that it was THE turning point.
PacoGee
+6
Level 44
Feb 25, 2018
well , the Japanese lost most of their ships and we took over a vital airbase how is that NOT the turning point in the US war against the Japanese? please defend your position
blizzrd33
+1
Level 80
Jun 6, 2018
The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first strategic setback for the Japanese and in my view was the turning point in the Pacific theatre during WWII.

Midway was a more decisive setback, but in terms of turning the tide of the war, that had already started with the Coral Sea battle.

ander217
+1
Level 75
Jun 6, 2018
I've only recently gotten interested in WW II history and am no expert, but it seems to me that although Japanese losses at the Coral Sea battle helped ensure success at Midway, it was the Japanese losses at Midway which gave parity to the two sides. That is why it is often credited as the turning point because it ended the threat of Japanese invasion. I'd say if any other battle could be said to be as important it would be Guadalcanal rather than Coral Sea.
grantdon
+1
Level 75
Dec 31, 2022
Coral Sea was a draw at best but did set in motion a chain of more decisive losses by the Japanese: Guadalcanal and Rabaul were left vulnerable to allied attacks, and the land invasion of New Guinea was repulsed at Kokoda, then Midway saw the Japanese lose their naval superiority which made the final result hard fought but inevitable
sjj93gg
+1
Level 56
Feb 15, 2025
I suppose it is arguable whether it was THE turning point, but up until a particular point in the battle, the Japanese were winning: all American plans who had attempted to attack the -Japanese carriers had failed. Then there was about a 7-10 minute period when American divebombers were free to attack (the defening Japanese zeros were down low dealing with torpedo bombers) and they hit three of the Japanese carriers in that short timeframe. Up to that point, Japan was effectively winning the war.
vidhribar
+4
Level 51
Nov 12, 2015
Aushwitz was one of the smallest concentration camps. The biggest was Treblinka, which is right next to Auschwitz...
brandybuck96
+2
Level 83
Jul 23, 2016
Treblinka was an extermination camp, not a concentration camp.
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Jan 27, 2018
I just double-checked. The quiz is correct.
JakobOD
+1
Level 55
Feb 14, 2025
Hi Quizmaster,

I would like to point out that the answer "Auschwitz" is not entirely correct. The correct answer should be "Auschwitz II – Birkenau," which was the largest of the concentration camps. Therefore, participants should be awarded for both "Auschwitz" and "Birkenau," not just "Auchwitz".

Auschwitz II – Birkenau was part of the larger camp complex known as Konzentrationslager Auschwitz, which can be translated into English simply as "Auschwitz." However, if the question is asking for a specific concentration camp, the accurate answer is "Auschwitz II – Birkenau," not just "Auschwitz."

Thank you for considering this correction.

tshalla
+1
Level 77
Jun 6, 2018
I put Birkenau (is that the one you mean? - it's about 3 kms from Auschwitz) More people were killed there, perhaps less people held there? I guess it depends what one means here by "large." Or maybe Auschwitz stands in here for Auschwitz-Birkenau. Anyway, it's all gruesome.
divantilya
+1
Level 36
Oct 20, 2016
I thought the Japanese surrendered in August. Where does September come from?
PacoGee
+2
Level 44
Feb 25, 2018
they surrendered on the USS Missouri on Sept 2nd 1945. they were given some time to think about the destruction we could do to all their cities with nukes and they choose to surrender.
Heinreich
+4
Level 32
Jan 23, 2017
Panzer literally stands for "Armor", not "Tank".

A "Tank" in German is "Panzerkampfwagen", which then literally means "Armored Combat Wagon".

divantilya
+5
Level 36
Feb 27, 2017
And, how, in the real world, would you shorten that, perhaps to PANZER? - Some people become supercilious, not to edify but

to either create discord or demonstrate their "superior" knowledge.

Get a Life, people!

IsleAuHaulte
+4
Level 91
Apr 14, 2019
No, actually it does ask for the English translation of a German word. It isn't a word that has disappeared from German nor been superseded with an English retrofit definition.

If you ask for the English translation of the French word entrée and insist that it means jalapeño poppers sitting on a napkin in a paper dish, you are wrong. To answer the question correctly it means entrance in French.

ruftytufty
+4
Level 79
Apr 4, 2017
Eisenhower was not the only Supreme Allied Commander. Alexander was Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean.
divantilya
+2
Level 36
Apr 18, 2017
There was only one SUPREME commander and that was Eisenhower. The only way he would accept the appointment was to be the SUPREME commander (too many cooks in the kitchen, etc...)
ruftytufty
+8
Level 79
May 23, 2017
No - they were both Supreme Commander, but in different areas. Putting SUPREME in capitals doesn't change that.
divantilya
+1
Level 36
Aug 4, 2017
Someone should, someday, look up the definition of "Supreme" - I believe that Webster terms it: Highest in power, authority or rank.
ruftytufty
+4
Level 79
Feb 24, 2018
Oh do please try to understand the point. I can't believe it's that difficult. Supreme Commands were not allocated by reference to semantic niceties but by operational necessity. There were TWO Allied Supreme Commands in Europe - responsible for DIFFERENT COMMANDS. Eisenhower was Supreme Commander in NW Europe. Alexander was Supreme Commander in Italy. There were also two Allied Supreme Commanders in Asia. If you think commands should have been determined by reference to a dictionary then it's probably a good job for the world in general that you had no say in the decision.
ruftytufty
+2
Level 79
Jul 8, 2018
So could we all. You could start with the word "cogent".
gjcsarris
+5
Level 69
Jan 29, 2018
Isn't there a honorary title for Stalin, like "fuhrer" or "duce"? Were the latter less authoritarian than the Soviet leader?
IrredeemableHickspanic
+4
Level 29
Feb 23, 2018
USSR Secretary General? lol
AlexFisher
+1
Level 29
Jun 6, 2018
He was sometimes referred to as "boss"/"the boss", but he didn't have a catchy title like the fascists, at least to my knowledge
dunkinggandalf2
+1
Level 71
Feb 14, 2025
Probably a Bruce Springsteen fan!
IrredeemableHickspanic
+3
Level 29
Feb 23, 2018
More WWII trivia! This is too easy for me.
dave123
+12
Level 65
Mar 16, 2018
I think it is more appropriate to say 'Soviet dictator' rather than 'Russian dictator'.
fitheach
+5
Level 58
Jan 12, 2023
Especially as the man himself was Georgian.
payel123
+1
Level 37
Mar 22, 2018
1 / 10. Just Got __ Adolf Hitler; Can You Accept Adal Fitler? :). 'A German Submarine'. Never Ever Heard of It. How Can You Make An Answer Appear Like The Hints ; E.G | How Can You Make Project. Japan Has 41 Destroyers. Just Could Win Against North Korea. Why Do The French Call It: 'Dunquerque'. Calais Is Quit Close To Dunkirk. Why Do You Almost Everything. You Even Know Braces ( { } ) and My Favourite Video-Game [Minecraft]. Is Jetpunk Your Favourite Website. So Many Vocabulary Quizzes. Best Thing About Quizmaster Is:... Rank #1. Why Are There Quotation Marks Before and after 'Lightning war'. Cool Quiz tho :)
HectorVortac
+4
Level 47
Jun 6, 2018
I don't understand at least half of this post but I do love it.
Sagaris
+1
Level 65
Nov 20, 2020
what
Ptcairn
+1
Level 62
May 1, 2024
1. Everyone should know the correct spelling of Hitler by now.

2. German Submarines were nicknamed as, "U-Boats".

3. North Korea was a part of Japan at the time. Plus, why would North Korea even be mentioned in this quiz?

4. That's the French spelling of Dunkirk.

5. It's "quite", not "Quit."

6. QM is the Quizmaster.

7. Why are you mentioning Minecraft?

8. Quotation Marks can also resemble a phrase needed to be translated.

payel123
+1
Level 37
Mar 22, 2018
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________...
OfficerDibble
+3
Level 84
May 1, 2018
I'd call this a general knowledge quiz rather than 'trivia'. These are not trivial matters.
AlexFisher
+1
Level 29
Jun 6, 2018
Was this updated/changed?
PolskaStronk
+1
Level 66
Jun 6, 2018
Could you accept Oświęcim for Auschwitz seeing as it is the Polish name of the town/camp?
IXON009
+4
Level 38
Jun 6, 2018
Stalin was Georgian.
camus
+5
Level 79
Jun 6, 2018
"Soviet dictator" would be a better description anyway.
teke
+4
Level 65
Jun 6, 2018
Stalin was Georgian, not Russian. He was "Chairman of the Council of Ministers" of the USSR, a nation of 15 republics.

Quizmaster knows this but it needs to be said.

kalbahamut
+3
Level 81
Jun 6, 2018
Stalin rose to power along with his gangster friends Lenin, etc in Russia, where they eventually assumed total control over the Soviet Union, which was on paper a union of equal republics but in reality was de-facto a new Russian empire.

"Soviet dictator" would be slightly more accurate, but "Russian dictator" is not inaccurate as "Russian" and "Soviet" at the time of WW2 were used synonymously.

eiamrn
+2
Level 73
Jun 6, 2018
I agree that the use of “Russian” is okay, also considering that different nationalities of the Soviet Union had their own communist parties and leaders, and the Russian one was the most important and influential one. But as for the term “dictator”, I feel like “General Secretary”, “Premier” or even the Russian word for leader, “Vozhd” could be more suitable options. And yes, I am aware that Stalin only became Premier in 1941, but Soviet Union was hardly even in the war before that year. The use of Vozhd also has some problems as few people know the word, but if Hitler and Mussolini can have their titles in their native languages, I can’t see why it shouldn’t be the same for Stalin :)
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Jun 6, 2018
General Secretary of the Communist Party is a little wordy. And most English speakers have never heard the title "Vozhd" before. Not that they shouldn't, necessarily, but it's just the common convention.
KoljiVriVoda
+1
Level 79
Jan 18, 2023
kalbahamut again does not know what he is talikng about. He just hates.
projectionist
+2
Level 56
Dec 27, 2020
Exactly, Stalin was Georgian, nor can we say he ruled Russia as there was no such thing at the time. He neither ruled Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic which was just one of 15 other SSRs that formed the whole Soviet Union. Please rename him simply to "Soviet dictator" and it should be fine.
cpgatbyu
+3
Level 87
Jun 6, 2018
"Trivia"? That Hitler was the German leader? Then what would qualify as a WWII question that is not trivia?
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 15, 2019
Seeing as how the war was over 70 years ago I think it's safe to call everything about WW2 trivia. It's not trivial relative to other information about WW2... but it is trivia that also happens to be related to WW2.
blackholexsun
+4
Level 64
Jun 6, 2018
I feel like this could have used more Pacific War questions.
TomDaBoom
+4
Level 13
Aug 11, 2018
Why is there nothing regarding the Eastern Front other than Stalin? Or anything regarding the Chinese front?
kalbahamut
+1
Level 81
Mar 15, 2019
certain people would complain if we included too many questions about things that didn't directly involve their countries.
Scotti5h
+1
Level 46
Apr 22, 2019
Russian dictator? Stalin was in charge of the Soviet Union, which was 14 republics. And he was from Georgia, so can't say he was russian as an excuse.

Also Hirohito should be replaced with Tojo, as he really didnt do anything

Nerd0921
+1
Level 75
Dec 31, 2022
Russia bit I agree with.

But Hirohito? Well sure he wouldn't have been the one going out killing people but as the nominal supreme commander, he was informed with every single operation of the Japanese armed forces and their warcrimes. He wasn't the completely powerless figure as he would've liked to have portrayed himself as. He was an irresponsible figure in power that bystood every crimes that occured while in the position to stop them.

cheesepotato
+1
Level 32
Apr 30, 2019
no the correct answer is VERY EPIC day not victory in europe day
cheesepotato
+1
Level 32
Apr 30, 2019
also i got 20 out of 20 points
romeyjondorf
+1
Level 27
May 24, 2019
It shouldn't talk about Auschwitz so casually,
parkave
+1
Level 57
Dec 7, 2020
WW2 killed upwards of 90 million people. It talks about that casually as well
DonTheLamplighter
+3
Level 86
Nov 8, 2019
I personally knew 2 people who narrowly survived WWII.

One was a man I grew up calling "Uncle" who was a little boy in Germany just before the War broke out. His mother had taken him to the doctor when he was about 4 for a deformity in his foot when she overheard the doctor talking with someone about the proposed "treatment". Horrified, she scooped him up and left the office and within hours was packing up their possessions to leave the country, saving his life. She made her way to the U.S. where he grew up, married and raised 3 boys, bad foot and all. My brothers and I hung out with his sons all the time, being as we were all around the same age.

The other was my dad, who was on the Liberty ship "Francis B. Ogden" coming up the coast of N.Carolina when their sister ship was sunk by a U-boat. (torpedo struck the magazine, completely destroying the ship) They were racing a hurricane, which ultimately allowed them to get away from the U-boat and reach port safely.

Kalleanon
+1
Level 66
Feb 3, 2021
I guy I knew grabbed a rifle and headed into the woods to do his duty for the Fatherland and defend his village from the invading US tanks. He probably would have started shooting too, except his mum shouted at him - he was 7.
Mjlr3802
+1
Level 77
Feb 5, 2020
Nice quiz, by far the easiest one on WWII that I have done on this site. Got 100% first time for once
projectionist
+2
Level 56
Dec 27, 2020
Please accept Oświęcim or Oswiecim for Auschwitz. Not many people really call it by its German name here in Eastern Europe - for the obvious reasons. Neither it is respectful to Poles I guess :)
parkave
+3
Level 57
Jan 3, 2021
I wonder why Midway's percent answered is so low. I assume the pacific theater does not hold much precedent in European schools?
Bergen5864
+2
Level 58
Aug 10, 2021
No, as much is in the USA - ours. I remember some guy from the USA was really surprised when I told him that it was my great-granddad from a small village in Russia that entered Berlin first - not an American soldier

Americans care only about their part, we really only know:

Pearl Harbor - a lot of food/guns/cars from Land Lease - D-Day - Two "suns" being dropped on Japan

Bergen5864
+3
Level 58
Aug 10, 2021
Really sad that there is nothing on Eastern Front. A lot of Western/Pacific - but only one question about Stalin basically. Could at least have a question about Stalingrad - the true turning point in the war, after which everybody knew Hitler was done
prederone
+1
Level 55
Nov 1, 2021
i've tried to write auschwitz hundreds of times
11level360
+1
Level 51
Feb 7, 2022
All those WWII movies really helped
Mees11
+1
Level 37
Oct 17, 2022
Made a mistake and typed fdr, then seeing it was a real answer
Mees11
+1
Level 37
Oct 17, 2022
Also, please accept Duinkerke. It’s the Dutch dialect there
absurdle
+5
Level 34
Oct 19, 2022
like many other quizzes, the eastern front is largely ignored, but it is severely underrated and the soviet union's contribution to germany's demise should be represented more, having destroyed most of the german army.
cmr0
+1
Level 73
Dec 30, 2022
You're in mostly American website, to that makes sense. But honestly, author should really add 1 question for Eastern front
Uzbekiman
+1
Level 41
Nov 8, 2022
nice quiz!
GRstranter
+1
Level 38
Dec 30, 2022
I think that this quiz should be yellow box
casiopea
+1
Level 55
Jan 26, 2023
Panzer doesn't directly mean tank, it means panther, and the germans called their tanks panthers. To me that's not the same as saying that "panzer" translates to "tank" in english
CaptainUnderpant
+3
Level 81
Aug 10, 2023
'Panzer' does not mean panther, it translates from German to 'armor' as already discussed in comments. The Panzer V was nicknamed 'Panther,' but there were tons of other types of German panzer, none of which were called Panther.
kimanguri
+1
Level 61
Feb 16, 2024
ALAN TURING BROKE ENIGMA AND DESERVED AN ENTIRELY BETTER LIFE FOR CRACKING THE UNBREAKABLE CODE. DO NOT FORGET HIM OR IGNORE HIM, YALL. HE IS A HERO AND DESERVED MUCH MUCH BETTER
GuerillaGorilla
+2
Level 61
Apr 4, 2024
Average 14-year-old white Twitter girl who just watched the Imitation game.
GuerillaGorilla
+1
Level 61
Apr 4, 2024
The translation of "panzer" would actually just be armour. "Panzerkampfwagen" would be tank.
dunkinggandalf2
+1
Level 71
Feb 14, 2025
Sure, but in German, we call them "Panzer". Nobody would ever call them a "Panzerkampfwagen", and if you used that word in public, people would laugh at you.
Brucehunter25
+1
Level 21
Feb 12, 2025
This is WW2 not WW1... the title says WW1
Ainmclarach
+1
Level 66
Feb 14, 2025
No?
IvoRobotnik
+3
Level 50
Feb 14, 2025
add Showa as an alternative for Hirohito?

Hirohito was his personal name and what he's better known by outside of Japan, but Showa is technically his proper name as emperor.

looh0
+1
Level 46
Feb 14, 2025
Came to say something similar. He was known as Hirohito during his lifetime but now, Japanese only call him Showa, just like we all say Meiji and Taisho instead of Mutsuhito and Yoshihito.

It's understandable that Westerners only remember him as Hirohito because of his involvement in WWII. Showa should be allowed as an alternative though.

OHIOSTATE4LIFE
+1
Level 44
Feb 14, 2025
I COULDNT SPELL BLITZKRIEG
CornishEuropean
+1
Level 56
Feb 16, 2025
A decent quiz, though it is very much the basics (not a complaint per se). Slightly western-centric, though I'm not too fussed about that because it meant I got 100% XD
ILovePrinceEric
+2
Level 52
Feb 17, 2025
Why did I type Lufthansa for german air force :')
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