Quotes About War Trivia Quiz

Answer: William T. Sherman

Sherman believed the Civil War would be shortened if the Union engaged in total warfare. He proposed mass destruction of the Confederacy's means of supplying the rebel army. General Grant concurred with Sherman's plan for a massive march through the Georgia heartland to wreak havoc on the infrastructure and economy in order to weaken the Confederate war effort. Sherman cut ties with his own supply base, and his troops lived off the land they marched through, burning and destroying crops, livestock, and railroads in their path.

From 15 November to 21 December 1864, Sherman's troops marched from Atlanta to Savannah. He followed up the success of that campaign with a march through the Carolinas. Sheridan led a similar campaign to destroy the bread basket of the Shenandoah Valley in 1864.

Answer: Smedley Butler

Smedley Butler spent 34 years in the US Marine Corps, serving in the Philippine-American War in 1899, the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, at Vera Cruz during the Mexican Revolution in 1914, and World War I. He was awarded two Medals of Honor; one for service in Mexico, and one for operations in Haiti. Much of his service was spent protecting American business interests in the Caribbean and Central America. He became disillusioned that Marines were used as a police force to promote capitalist ventures abroad. After he retired, he became quite vocal in protesting such profiteering and wrote the book, "War is a Racket" (1935).

Lewis "Chesty" Puller gave 37 years of service to the Corps, retiring a Lt General. Like Butler, he also served in the so-called Banana Wars.

John Lejeune was also a Lt General who became the 13th Commandant of the US Marine Corps. He served 40 years. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina was named for him in 1940.

Alexander Vandegrift was a 4-star general who commanded the First Marine Division at Guadalcanal, August 1942 - February 1943. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Solomon Islands campaign in 1942.

Answer: Fredericksburg

Lee purportedly made this comment to General James Longstreet while observing repeated assaults on his fortified position at Marye's Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg on 13 December 1862. Union commander, Ambrose Burnside, ordered 14 individual assaults on the Heights, using seven divisions of his army, but futilely sending them to be slaughtered one division at a time.

Ironically, Lee seemed to have forgotten the futility of launching assaults against heavily fortified positions when he ordered General George Pickett's troops to attack the Union center on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Picket's division was destroyed.

Answer: Isoroku Yamamoto

Admiral Yamamoto of the Japanese Imperial Navy was Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II. He oversaw operations in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway. Fluent in English and well traveled across the US, he studied at Harvard and served as Naval Attache in Washington DC before the war. He opposed the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan's invasion of China, and joining the pact with Hitler and Mussolini, deeming such an alliance not in Japan's best interests.

Admiral Nimitz, the US Navy's leading authority on submarines, served as Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet.

Admiral Nagumo led the Japanese Imperial Navy's Main Carrier Battle Group at Pearl Harbor and Midway.

Admiral Doenitz was the World War II naval officer who created Germany's U-boat fleet.

Answer: Erich Maria Remarque

Remarque used his own combat experience to pen the classic war novel, "All Quiet on the Western Front," published in 1929. It became an international best seller. During his build-up of the German military in the 1930s, Hitler banned the book because of its anti-war sentiment. Remarque went on to write a sequel, "The Way Back," to illustrate the difficulties former soldiers experience in reintegrating into civilian life. He authored more novels after the war, but "All Quiet on the Western Front" remains the most popular. It has been made into a movie four times, the first in black and white in 1930, and the latest in 2022.

Jodl was Chief of the Operations Staff of German Armed Forces High Command. He was convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg and executed in 1946.

Claus von Stauffenberg served in the invasion of Poland in 1939; in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941; and the Tunisian Campaign in Africa. He is most famous for his part in the failed assassination attempt of Hitler at the Wolf's Lair on 20 July 1944.

Hitler served in the army in World War I. His bitterness over Germany's defeat and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles resulted in his determination to rebuild the country and the military. Under his control, anti-war sentiment was not tolerated.

Answer: General Anthony McAuliffe

As a Brigadier General, McAuliffe parachuted into Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944) and landed by glider in the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden in September 1944. He was in charge of the 101st Airborne at Bastogne when his superior, Major General Maxwell Taylor, was away from the field attending a staff conference in December 1944. German General Heinrich Luttwitz launched a surprise attack in the Battle of the Bulge. Thinking he had the American forces surrounded, he demanded their surrender. McAuliffe's response puzzled the Germans. Interpreters explained that "Nuts!" constituted his refusal to surrender. For his defense of Bastogne, McAuliffe was promoted to major general and put in command of the 103rd Infantry Division.

Patton commanded the Seventh US Army during operations in the Mediterranean Theater and the Third US Army's actions in France and Germany after the Normandy landings. In the Battle of the Bulge, Patton's Third Army advanced to provide relief to the beleaguered forces in Bastogne.

British General Montgomery, Commander of the British Eighth Army, was put in charge of the northern sector in the Battle of the Bulge, which gave him temporary command of the US First and Ninth Armies in that operation. His forces stalled the German advance, which enabled Patton's troops to relieve the pressure on Bastogne in the southern sector.

Eisenhower was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe who oversaw Operation Overlord, the landings in Normandy, in June 1944.

Answer: Carl von Clausewitz

Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian general who served in the Rhine Campaign, an operation into France during the French Revolution, 1793-4, and in the Napoleonic Wars, 1806-1815. He wrote "On War" (1832), a famous military treatise that focused on the political aspects of warfare.

Obviously, Napoleon Bonaparte was his opponent. Caesar and Alexander the Great predate both Bonaparte and von Clausewitz.

Answer: Marshal Ferdinand Foch

At age 17, Foch enlisted in the army in 1870, hoping to serve in the Franco-Prussian War. His home town of Metz was lost to the Germans in that war, and the embittered Foch vowed to become a career soldier to redeem France's lost territory. He rose through the ranks as an artillery officer and instructor at the War College. He served in World War I, achieving successes at the First Battle of the Marne, Yser, and Ypres. In May 1918 he was made Chief of all Allied Armies. He consolidated the French, British, and Belgian forces into an effective combat offensive that defeated the Germans and restored the Alsace-Lorraine region to France. He opposed what he viewed as the too lenient terms of the Treaty of Versailles, predicting future problems with Germany.

Bismarck served as Chancellor of Germany from 1871-1890. He is famously credited with German unification following the Prussian Revolution of 1848.

Petain was hailed as a national hero for orchestrating victory over the Germans at Verdun in the First World War. In World War II, he was denounced for cooperating with the Germans, who had captured Paris, and forming a new ministry of Vichy France.

Hitler was a corporal in the German army in World War I who blamed Germany's loss of the war on politicians. His successful rise to power to redeem Germany eerily echoes Foch's prediction.

Answer: Erwin Rommel

Rommel saw combat in both World Wars during his stellar military career. In the first war, he served in the Ardennes campaign. Assigned to Libya in 1941, he earned the nickname "Desert Fox" for his success in North Africa at the battles of Tobruk in Tunisia and El Alamein in Egypt. He made the quoted comment out of admiration for the Australian and New Zealand troops' fierce defense at El Alamein.

Joachim von Ribbentrop served on the eastern front in World War I. From 1938-1945, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany. He was convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg and executed in 1945.

Gerd von Runstedt, also a World War I veteran, was a field marshal who was instrumental in Germany's defeat of France in 1940. American General Eisenhower deemed von Runstedt the ablest of the German generals.

Erich von Falkenhayn became German Chief of General Staff, succeeding von Moltke, who was blamed for the German retreat from the Marne in World War I. He opposed war on the Eastern Front, convinced there was nothing to be gained there. Hitler learned that bitter lesson from his assault on the Soviet Union in World War II.

Answer: John Kerry

John Kerry voluntarily joined the US Navy, serving on active duty from August 1966 to March 1970. As a lieutenant, he volunteered for swift boat service in Vietnam. Those first-hand experiences as a swift boat commander led him to believe the war was a futile endeavor that wasted human lives. He voiced disapproval of the U S military policy of "free fire zones," which authorized using deadly force against anyone out after curfew. It basically amounted to "shoot first, ask questions later," which Kerry asserted resulted in civilian casualties that alienated the South Vietnamese people we were supposed to be aiding. In testimony at Congressional hearings in 1971 about the conduct of the war, Kerry pointedly asked, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam?"

Mark Clark was the youngest four-star general of World War II. He led the Fifth Army in campaigns in Italy.

"Stormin' Norman" Schwartzkopf also experienced combat in Vietnam. He became Commander of Central Command and led Coalition Forces in the Gulf War in 1990.

George Bush was assigned to the National Guard during the Vietnam War.