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Causes of World War II quiz

European Theatre of World War II quiz

World War II quiz

Did you know ...

• during the Second World War, SS Hispania was detained by the French, seized by the Vichy French, declared a war prize, passed to the Kriegsmarine and eventually sold back to her original owners?
• during Operation Doomsday, the British 1st Airborne Division suffered 34 casualties, despite the Second World War having ended several days previously?
• despite a wartime career lasting less than a year, HMS Codrington transported a number of dignitaries, including King George VI (visit pictured), Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill?
• during the Second World War, the Japanese-American family of Tsuyako "Sox" Kitashima were interned in a horse stall?
• one of the first acts of the Second World War on the continent of North America was the seizure of the German cargo ship Christoph Van Doornum by the Sheriff of Botwood?
• the Polish writer Gustaw Morcinek survived three Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War?
• the merchant ship Empire Celia was still armed with a 4-inch gun over three years after the end of the Second World War?
• both the Irish Pine and Irish Oak, which were chartered from the United States by Irish Shipping Ltd during the Second World War, were sunk by German U-boats despite their neutral status?
• before the Second World War, the Synagogue in Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva apart from religious functions, was also used as a lecture hall for Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva?
• British Air Marshal Joubert de la Ferté served as commander-in-chief of RAF Coastal Command on two separate occasions, before and during the Second World War?
• Empire Athelstan was the first merchant ship built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow in Furness after the Second World War?
• Unsinkable Sam was a ship's cat of both the Kriegsmarine and Royal Navy during the Second World War who survived the sinking of all three ships on which he served?
• according to Second World War general "Jumbo" Wilson, Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly "outmanoeuvred every general in the Middle East" in her efforts to remain in the theatre of war?
• aircraft from 825 Naval Air Squadron (aircraft pictured) carried out attacks against several German battleships during the Second World War?
• an aerosan is a type of air-powered, armoured snowmobile, which was used for transport, reconnaissance, and raiding by the Red Army in the Winter War and the Second World War?
• although the Polish-Romanian Alliance, an important alliance of the 1920s, was still in force when the Second World War began, it had little impact on the German invasion of Poland in 1939?
• the Royal Navy accepted Gay Viking and Gay Corsair into their service during the Second World War, with another 12 Gay class fast patrol boats joining in the 1950s?
• the tanker ship CHANT 26 ended up discharging her cargo in a French field during the Second World War?
• the SS Empire Advocate was seized twice by Britain—from Germany after the First World War, and then from Italy during the Second World War?
• the SS Assyrian started life as a German merchant ship in the First World War and ended it as British merchant in the Second World War?
• the Polish Second Army was the second major formation of the Peoples' Army of Poland fighting alongside the Soviet Union in the Second World War?
• the Soviet 76th "K. Y. Voroshilov" Division passed through 7,000 kilometres of former Soviet territory during the Second World War, liberating over 600 towns and cities from Axis occupying forces?
• the Belgian-born Dutch politician Robert van Genechten collaborated with the German occupiers in Belgium during World War I and in the Netherlands during the Second World War?
• throughout the Second World War, there were four formations that carried the name of Polish 8th Infantry Division and two of them existed simultaneously?
• the German merchant ship SS Uhenfels was captured at sea during the Second World War, and subsequently became a British merchant?
• the Pepper Pot tower in Brighton, England, has been used as a public toilet, printworks, Scout headquarters, wartime observation tower and artist's studio, but its original function is unknown?
• the Liverpool Blitz was a sustained bombing campaign on the city of Liverpool, United Kingdom, by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War?
• the 2/48th Australian Infantry Battalion was Australia's highest decorated unit of the Second World War?
• the British shipping company Ellerman Lines lost 60 out of its 105-strong fleet of merchant vessels during the Second World War?
• the 335th and 336th squadrons are the oldest in Greece's Hellenic Air Force, having been formed as units of the British RAF in the Second World War?
• the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University began as a specialized U.S. Army training program during the Second World War?
• the Jablonkow Incident has been named the first commando operation of the Second World War?
• the Fairey Seafox was a Second World War reconnaissance floatplane of the Fleet Air Arm?
• Cameronia was the first British ship to arrive at New York after the start of the Second World War?
• Avondale Park, a Park Ship sunk on 7 May 1945, was one of two Allied ships destroyed by enemy action in the last hour of the Second World War in Europe?
• German seamen forced a lesbian to go down during the First World War, and the French did the same during the Second World War?
• German physical chemist Max Volmer became head of a design bureau for the production of heavy water in the Soviet Union after the Second World War?
• Czech fighter pilot Otto Spacek survived three air crashes and won five Czechoslovak War Crosses during the Second World War, but then spent 40 years in exile in Canada after the Communists came to power?
• Major General George F. Hopkinson was the only British airborne general to be killed during the Second World War?
• German Luftwaffe fighter ace Walther Dahl shot down 128 enemy aircraft in the Second World War, including a USAAF B-17 that he rammed in 1944?
• sports car racer, yachtsman and rower Robert Hichens was also the most highly decorated officer of the RNVR during the Second World War?
• Second World War bomber pilot "Micky" Martin broke the speed record flying from England to Cape Town?
• Czech Second World War fighter pilot František Fajtl briefly flew for the French Air Force before commanding units in the Royal Air Force and then a Czechoslovak regiment formed by the Soviet Union?
• cricketer Roger Kimpton also won an Oxford University tennis tournament and a golf blue, and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross as a Second World War fighter pilot?
• Australian flying ace Charles Scherf (pictured) was credited with 14½ aerial victories from 38 operational sorties during the Second World War, with an additional nine aircraft destroyed on the ground?
• football champion Romualdas Marcinkus (pictured) was the only Lithuanian pilot to serve in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War?
• Air Marshal Sir Richard Gordon Wakeford flew Catalina flying boats in the Second World War, and was involved in the last sinking of a German U-boat on 8 May 1945?
• Australian Second World War flying ace Adrian Goldsmith was credited with shooting down 12¼ Axis aircraft over Malta between the months of February and July 1942?
• Australian Second World War flying ace Virgil Brennan shot down 10 Axis aircraft over Malta in a five month period during 1942?
• Corporal Bryan Budd is being posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, only the 13th such award since the Second World War?
• Australian flying ace Russell Foskett was credited with 6½ aerial victories during the Second World War, before he was killed over the Aegean Sea in October 1944?
• British Labour politician Piara Singh Khabra was the fifth Asian MP, and was the oldest MP sitting in the House of Commons and the only sitting MP to have served in the armed forces during the Second World War at the time of his death?
• 820 Naval Air Squadron (aircraft pictured) was involved in attacks on the German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz during the Second World War?
• Kenneth Cummins was one of the last five confirmed British surviving veterans of World War I, having served in the Royal and Merchant Navies in the First and Second World War respectively?
• Janowa Dolina, a model settlement built by the Polish state in interwar Poland, was razed barely ten years after its creation by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the Second World War?
• HMS Lively won five battle honours during the Second World War, despite a career lasting less than a year from commissioning to being sunk?
• Mandy Mitchell-Innes was the last surviving English cricketer to have played Test cricket before the Second World War?
• No. 3 Commando was the first British commando unit raised during the Second World War?
• Roberts Dunstan was awarded the DSO for his efforts as a rear gunner in the Second World War despite having only one leg?
• Norman Williams shot down eight German aircraft while serving as an air gunner in Halifax bombers in the Second World War, becoming the most highly decorated non-commissioned officer in the RAAF and its only "ace" who was not a fighter pilot?
• HMS Bonaventure became the first ship to re-enter service with the Clan Line after the end of the Second World War, having spent five years as a submarine depot ship?
• Sir David Robertson initially agreed to mind the constituency of another British parliamentarian who was interned during the Second World War?
• Ashley Mallett, Australia's most successful post-war off spinner, had his career curtailed by arthritis?
• Alén Diviš painted illustrations for nineteenth-century Czech ballads after spending the Second World War in La Santé Prison and several internment camps?
• Bamse was a St. Bernard dog that became the heroic mascot of the Free Norwegian Forces during the Second World War?
• Birger Dahlerus was a Swedish businessman and friend of Hermann Göring, who made numerous trips between Germany and England in 1939 in a attempt to avert the Second World War?
• Chester Wilmot, the Australian War correspondent and military historian of the Second World War, was killed in an air crash in 1954?
• Charlie Williams, one of the first black football players in Britain after the Second World War and later Britain's first well-known black comedian, responded to heckling by saying: "If you don't shut up, I'll come and move in next door to you"?
• Air Chief Marshal Sir Lewis Hodges was awarded two DSOs and a Bar to his DFC for flying secret missions for SOE in Europe and the Far East in the Second World War?