Which of these countries was the last to declare war on Germany?
The Germans were actually the ones to declare war on the U.S, which they did on December 11, 1941.
Which of these options was NOT the name of one of the planes which dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The planes that dropped the nuclear bombs were the Enola Gay and Bock’s Car. Fat Man and Little Boy were the names of the bombs themselves.
The longest battle of WW2 was...
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest lasting conflict of the war.
Who was the Prime Minister of Great Britain when World War 2 began?
Although Winston Churchill is more fondly remembered, the leader of Great Britain at the outset of the war was actually Neville Chamberlain.
The Nazis based their official marching song off the “fight song” for which university?
The Sieg Heil march, which was used to pump up the faithful at the infamous party rallies, was stolen. The song was based on the Harvard University "fight song" which had been used for years at the school.
“The Phoney War” refers to...
The Phoney War was a tense prelude to the devastation of the rest of the war.
What was the name of the treaty that ended World War 1, signed in 1919, which is sometimes said to have been a primary cause of World War 2 years later?
After being defeated in World War 1, the Germans were forced to sign the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. It's a somewhat controversial agreement. The terms resulted in Germany losing all overseas territory, ceding land to its neighbors, and suffering restrictions on the size of their army.
The Nazis referred to their regime as...
The Nazis referred to their rule as the Third Reich. The First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted 844 years. The Second Reich was the German Empire, which lasted 47 years. The Third Reich only lasted 12 years. Based on that trend, the Fourth Reich should last a few months at most.
True or False: One man survived the nuclear bombing of both Hiroshima AND Nagasaki
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese man, survived the bombing of Hiroshima... only to move to Nagasaki and experience that bombing as well.
From 1942 onwards, the US Marines in the Pacific used which language for their secret codes?
US Marines in the Pacific used the Navajo language as their secret code. Over 400 Navajo Indians (Code Talkers) were trained to use the code, and the Japanese never figured it out.
About how many Jewish-Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces during the war?
Approximately 600,000 Jewish men served in the United States armed forces during WWII. More than 35,000 of those Jews were killed, wounded, captured, or otherwise went missing. Approximately 8,000 died in combat.
Two Polish doctors saved 8,000 Jews from the Holocaust by faking a…
Two Polish doctors saved 8,000 Jews from the Holocaust by faking a typhus epidemic. German armed forces, afraid of spreading the disease, chose not to enter their town
Which of these Axis powers had a policy of accepting Jewish refugees?
Japan was viewed as a refuge and safe-haven from the Holocaust. In 1938, Japanese leadership made the decision not to expel Jewish people from the country, and for the rest of the war Jewish refugees were welcomed through their borders. They rejected the resulting Nazi German protests.
The “Wolves of the Atlantic” was a term used to refer to...
German U-Boats sunk 2,000 Allied ships... at a cost of just 781 U-Boats.
The United States did not officially join World War 2 until 1941. What event finally prompted them to fight?
The attack at Pearl Harbor sunk or damaged 18 of the 96 ships that were anchored there, including 8 battleships. Japanese fighters also destroyed at least 350 aircraft and killed 2,402 men.
During the war, in order to avoid sounding “too German”, American restaurants began calling hamburgers...
During WWII, hamburgers were renamed “Liberty Steaks” to avoid having a name that sounded too German. This set off a long tradition of renaming American foods to avoid unsavory national associations.
True or False: The swastika was a symbol invented by the Nazis.
False! The swastika is an ancient religious symbol derived from the Sanskrit name for a hooked cross, which was used by ancient civilizations as a symbol of fertility and good fortune. As with many of their symbols and customs, the National Socialists simply co-opted an existing signifier and bent it to their own cruel intentions.
Which of these German commanders is generally considered the “architect” of the Holocaust?
The architect of “The Final Solution” was Heinrich Himmler. He made the decision to follow-through with the horrific plan at the 1942 Wannsee Conference in Berlin.
Hitler allegedly kept a photo of which American industrialist on his desk?
Hitler kept a framed photo of Henry Ford, of the Ford Motor Company, on his desk. Apparently, he regarded Ford as an inspiration and said that he would do his “best to put [Ford's] theories into practice in Germany.”
True or False: the Soviet surgeon Vladimir Demikhov once created a living, breathing two-headed dog.
True! Demikhov was instrumental in the development of organ transplants as a viable surgery. Just goes to show: science can be morally complicated.
Which of these devastating attacks had the highest death toll?
Five months before the atomic bombs hit Japan, more than 300 U.S. B-29 bombers launched one of the most devastating air raids in history. By dawn on March 10, 1945, more than 100,000 people were dead. A million were left homeless, and 40 square kilometers of Tokyo was burned to the ground.
Which nation suffered the most loss of life in World War 2?
About 16,825,000 Russians lost their lives.
Which two countries are still maintaining a long-standing dispute over a set of islands, which began at the end of the war?
AC was Tesla’s solution. DC was created by Edison.
Wernher von Braun was a German rocket scientist who was later made an American citizen. Once in the U.S. he helped to…
After the war was won, Von Braun was secretly repatriated to the United States (along with thousands of other leading German scientists) as part of a government program called Operation Paperclip. He was soon assigned to the rocket task-force at NASA, and served as the chief engineer for the Saturn V rocket. No big deal, though— the Saturn Five was only the engine that propelled Apollo 11 to the moon.
True or False: Queen Elizabeth served as mechanic during World War 2
True! Queen Elizabeth II (then Princess Elizabeth) served as a mechanic and driver in World War 2. In doing so she became the first female member of the British Royal family to serve in the armed forces.
Which of these Axis powers fought on the opposite side during World War 1?
Japan fought on the side of Britain, France, and the US during WWI.
American forces dropped atomic bombs in which two cities?
America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. The bombs killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 in Nagasaki.
Your Results
History Fan
You’ve clearly been studying. Sure, a few of those questions got past you… but that’s because we made this as hard as humanly possible. And you still did pretty dang well. Good on you.
Proven Commander
Are you 150 years old? It’s hard to believe that anyone could know so much World War 2 history… unless you were there at the time? If not, you must have done a TON of studying. Either way, it’s impressive. Well done.
Happy With Your Test Score? This video can help you do better on any quiz... even if you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the topic.
Quiz
World War 2 is fascinating and terrible chapter in human history. But with so much to learn, there's almost no-one who knows everything about this cataclysmic conflict. What about you? Are you an expert on World War 2 history? Time to find out.
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