World War 2 quiz: 25 questions with answers

Questions and answers

By CanQuiz

An AI wrote the questions in this quiz from its creator’s material. It may contain mistakes.

1. 1.What did the Munich Agreement of September 1938 allow Germany to take over?

   • The Rhineland
   • Danzig
   • The Sudetenland
   • Alsace-Lorraine
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   Answer: The Sudetenland

   Explanation: Britain, France and Italy agreed at Munich that Germany could annex the Sudetenland, the German-speaking border region of Czechoslovakia. It became the best-known example of the policy of appeasement.

2. 2.In August 1939, days before the war began, Germany signed a non-aggression pact with which country?

   • The Soviet Union
   • Italy
   • Japan
   • The United Kingdom
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   Answer: The Soviet Union

   Explanation: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact promised that Germany and the Soviet Union would not attack each other. A secret part of it split Poland and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres.

3. 3.Germany's invasion of which country in September 1939 led Britain and France to declare war?

   • Czechoslovakia
   • Poland
   • Austria
   • Belgium
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   Answer: Poland

   Explanation: German forces crossed into Poland on 1 September 1939. Britain and France, which had guaranteed Poland's independence, declared war on Germany two days later.

4. 4.What does the term "Blitzkrieg" describe?

   • A naval blockade meant to starve an enemy into surrender
   • Fast, concentrated attacks by tanks, motorised troops and aircraft
   • Long periods of fighting from fixed lines of trenches
   • Night-time bombing raids on enemy cities
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   Answer: Fast, concentrated attacks by tanks, motorised troops and aircraft

   Explanation: Blitzkrieg, German for "lightning war", relied on speed: armour and aircraft broke through at a narrow point and pushed deep before the defender could react. Germany used it against Poland in 1939 and France in 1940.

5. 5.In May and June 1940, more than 300,000 Allied soldiers trapped on the French coast were evacuated to Britain from which port?

   • Calais
   • Le Havre
   • Brest
   • Dunkirk
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   Answer: Dunkirk

   Explanation: Operation Dynamo used warships and hundreds of small civilian boats to lift troops off the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk. The army lost most of its equipment, but the soldiers lived to fight again.

6. 6.After France's defeat in 1940, which French leader headed the regime based in Vichy that collaborated with Germany?

   • Charles de Gaulle
   • Philippe Pétain
   • Paul Reynaud
   • Léon Blum
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   Answer: Philippe Pétain

   Explanation: Marshal Pétain, a hero of the First World War, signed the 1940 armistice and led the Vichy regime. Charles de Gaulle, by contrast, called from London for the French to keep fighting.

7. 7.The Battle of Britain in 1940 was fought mainly in the air, between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe.

   • True
   • False
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   Answer: True

   Explanation: From July to October 1940 the Luftwaffe tried to win control of the skies over southern England, a condition for any German invasion. The RAF's resistance forced Hitler to postpone the invasion indefinitely.

8. 8.What was Lend-Lease?

   • A German plan to invade Britain by sea
   • A treaty that divided Poland between two powers
   • A US programme that supplied weapons and goods to Allied countries
   • A Soviet plan to move its factories east of the Ural Mountains
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   Answer: A US programme that supplied weapons and goods to Allied countries

   Explanation: Passed by Congress in March 1941, Lend-Lease let the United States send arms, food and fuel to Britain and later to the Soviet Union and others. It began months before the US itself entered the war.

9. 9.What was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941?

   • Operation Sea Lion
   • Operation Overlord
   • Operation Barbarossa
   • Operation Torch
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   Answer: Operation Barbarossa

   Explanation: Operation Barbarossa opened on 22 June 1941 with millions of Axis troops attacking along a front from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Sea Lion was the cancelled plan to invade Britain, Torch the Allied landings in North Africa and Overlord the Normandy invasion.

10. 10.Which event brought the United States into the war in December 1941?

    • The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
    • The sinking of the Lusitania
    • The fall of France
    • The German invasion of Poland
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    Answer: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

    Explanation: On 7 December 1941 Japanese carrier aircraft struck the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The United States declared war on Japan the next day, and Germany declared war on the United States a few days later. The Lusitania was sunk in 1915, during the First World War.

11. 11.Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor took place before Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

    • True
    • False
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    Answer: False

    Explanation: Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Pearl Harbor came almost six months later, in December 1941.

12. 12.Which three countries formed the core of the Axis powers?

    • Germany, Spain and Italy
    • Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union
    • Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire
    • Germany, Italy and Japan
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    Answer: Germany, Italy and Japan

    Explanation: Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact in September 1940. Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were Germany's allies in the First World War, and Spain stayed officially out of the war.

13. 13.Who became British prime minister in May 1940 and led the country for the rest of the war in Europe?

    • Neville Chamberlain
    • Winston Churchill
    • Clement Attlee
    • Anthony Eden
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    Answer: Winston Churchill

    Explanation: Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, the day Germany attacked in the West. He led a coalition government until after Germany's surrender, when Clement Attlee won the July 1945 election.

14. 14.In June 1942 the US Navy sank four Japanese aircraft carriers in a battle that turned the tide in the Pacific. Which battle was it?

    • Coral Sea
    • Guadalcanal
    • Leyte Gulf
    • Midway
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    Answer: Midway

    Explanation: At Midway, US codebreakers learned of the Japanese plan in advance, and American dive bombers sank four of Japan's large carriers. Japan could not replace them, and from then on it was mostly on the defensive at sea.

15. 15.Where in Egypt did British-led forces under General Montgomery defeat Rommel's Axis army in late 1942?

    • El Alamein
    • Tobruk
    • Kasserine Pass
    • Tunis
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    Answer: El Alamein

    Explanation: The Second Battle of El Alamein, in October and November 1942, ended the Axis threat to Egypt and the Suez Canal. Tobruk lies in Libya, and the Kasserine Pass and Tunis are in Tunisia.

16. 16.Which battle, ending with the surrender of the German Sixth Army in early 1943, is widely seen as the turning point on the Eastern Front?

    • Kursk
    • Moscow
    • Stalingrad
    • Leningrad
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    Answer: Stalingrad

    Explanation: Soviet forces encircled the German Sixth Army inside Stalingrad in November 1942, and its last units surrendered in February 1943. After this defeat Germany lost the initiative in the East.

17. 17.Roughly how many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust?

    • About 600,000
    • About 1 million
    • About 6 million
    • About 20 million
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    Answer: About 6 million

    Explanation: Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed around six million Jews, about two thirds of Europe's Jewish population, through mass shootings, ghettos and death camps. Millions of other people, including Roma, disabled people and Soviet prisoners of war, were also murdered.

18. 18.After its 1943 armistice with the Allies, the Kingdom of Italy declared war on Germany.

    • True
    • False
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    Answer: True

    Explanation: Mussolini was removed in July 1943, after the Allied landing in Sicily, and the new government signed an armistice that September. In October the royal government declared war on Germany and fought as a co-belligerent of the Allies. In the German-occupied north, Mussolini's Italian Social Republic stayed on the Axis side until 1945.

19. 19.On what date did the Allied landings in Normandy, known as D-Day, take place?

    • 10 July 1943
    • 6 June 1943
    • 15 August 1944
    • 6 June 1944
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    Answer: 6 June 1944

    Explanation: On 6 June 1944 American, British, Canadian and other Allied troops came ashore on five beaches in Normandy. The landings opened the Western Front that Stalin had long asked for.

20. 20.The D-Day landings took place in Normandy, while many German commanders expected the main invasion near Calais.

    • True
    • False
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    Answer: True

    Explanation: The Pas-de-Calais is the shortest crossing from England, and an Allied deception plan, Operation Fortitude, used a fake army to reinforce that belief. As a result, Germany held back strong forces there even after the Normandy landings.

21. 21.Which conference of February 1945 brought Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin together to plan for the end of the war and after?

    • Potsdam
    • Yalta
    • Versailles
    • Munich
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    Answer: Yalta

    Explanation: At Yalta, in Crimea, the three leaders discussed the occupation of Germany, the future of Poland and the Soviet entry into the war against Japan. Potsdam, in July 1945, was attended by Truman instead of Roosevelt, who had died in April.

22. 22.Germany's unconditional surrender took effect on which date, celebrated in Western Europe as VE Day?

    • 30 April 1945
    • 8 May 1945
    • 6 August 1945
    • 2 September 1945
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    Answer: 8 May 1945

    Explanation: The surrender came into force on 8 May 1945, a week after Hitler's suicide on 30 April. In Moscow, because of the time difference, it was already 9 May, which is why Russia marks Victory Day on that date.

23. 23.Which US president made the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan?

    • Franklin D. Roosevelt
    • Dwight D. Eisenhower
    • Harry S. Truman
    • Herbert Hoover
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    Answer: Harry S. Truman

    Explanation: Truman became president when Roosevelt died in April 1945 and only then learned the details of the bomb project. He approved its use in the summer of 1945.

24. 24.Which two Japanese cities were struck by atomic bombs in August 1945?

    • Tokyo and Osaka
    • Kyoto and Hiroshima
    • Nagasaki and Kobe
    • Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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    Answer: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    Explanation: Hiroshima was bombed on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki on 9 August. Japan announced its surrender on 15 August.

25. 25.The war ended in Europe and in Asia on the same day.

    • True
    • False
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    Answer: False

    Explanation: Germany surrendered in May 1945, but the war against Japan went on for several more months. Japan signed its formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.