History Quiz

What nationality was the highest-scoring non-British Allied ace of the Battle of Britain?

The two bottom vehicles in the photo, the ones turned into a makeshift bridge, are turretless Churchill tanks developed for the famous Hobart’s Funnies. Do you know their designation?

What was the mission of PT-109, the patrol torpedo boat of future President J. F. Kennedy, when it was sunk by the Japanese in the early hours of August 2, 1943?

Why did the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter have an unusually large spinner at the front of the propeller?

Which of these countries or territories did Japan NOT want to include in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a pan-Asian union that would have essentially served as Japan’s empire?

George C. Marshall was the first officer to be promoted to the rank of General of the Army during World War II. How many other generals held the same rank in U.S. history (including those who held a different, earlier rank of the same title)?

What prompted widespread protests in Nazi Germany against Aktion T4, the involuntary euthanasia program, in the summer of 1941?

On August 6, 1941, both British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull issued warnings to Japan not to violate the independence of which country or region?

In August 1942, restaurant owner Max Stephan became the first U.S. citizen to be sentenced to death for treason since the 1790s (though the sentence was later commuted). What did he do?

The end of World War II was also the beginning of the Cold War. On August 4, 1945, “the Thing,” one of the first covert listening devices to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal, was handed to the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union hidden inside a gift. What was the gift? (Note: not actually depicted in the photo.)