D Is For Daladier Trivia Quiz

Answer: Duce

"Duce" was an Italian word for leader, directly stemming from the Latin word dux (military leader). Related words are Doge (the leader of Italian city republics such as Genoa or Venice) and duke (a rank in the nobility).
Mussolini (1883-1945) originally adhered to socialism and rose to a prominent position in the Italian Socialist Party. In 1914, this party was utterly divided by those who wanted to stay out of the war and those (including Mussolini) who were eager to enter the war at the side of the Allied Powers, hoping to claim some territory from Austria-Hungary. The pacifists took control of the Socialist Party, and Mussolini was expelled from the party.
In 1919, Mussolini was one of the first members of the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, a movement that would soon be transformed in the Fascist Party with Mussolini as undisputed leader. At that moment he was also titled "Il Duce". When Mussolini also was appointed Prime Minister in 1925, his full title became "Sua Eccelenza Benito Mussolini, Capo del Governo, Duce del Fascismo e Fondatore dell'Impero" ("His Excellency Benito Mussolini, Head of Government, Leader of Fascism and Founder of the Empire").
Mussolini was not the first Italian to be titled Duce, but soon the title Il Duce was reserved for Mussolini alone.

Answer: Anton Drexler

Anton Drexler (1884-1942) was a mechanic and locksmith in his early years. In 1919, Drexler and some others founded a nationalist party, but they named it "Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" ("German Labour Party") hoping to attract more and more diverse people.

The DAP, as it was abbreviated, also developed anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist ideas. Drexler was the first chairman of the DAP, and in the first years he acted as a mentor to Adolf Hitler - who would soon take over the party and rename it Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP). Adolf Dassler (1900-1978) was the founder of the sport shoe brand Adidas. Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900) was an engineer and one of the pioneers in automobile manufacture. Otto Dix (1891-1969) was a painter and printmaker.

Answer: Engelbert Dollfuss

Dollfuss (1892-1934) was appointed a minister in 1931 and rose to the office of chancellor in 1932. When the president and vice-presidents of the Austrian parliament resigned, Dollfuss shut down the parliament entirely and went on as a dictator. His policies were largely inspired by the Italian fascist example, but Dollfuss outlawed also the Austrian equivalent of the Nazi party - fearing that this party would soon take over. Some Austrian Nazis then staged a coup and killed Dollfuss, but his successor Schuschnigg would continue Dollfuss' policy until Germany took over control of Austria in 1938.
Doppler (1803-1853) was a scientist, best known for the effect named after him: a wavelength is altered by the relative speed of observer and emittent.
Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799) was an Austrian prolific classical composer.
Dusl (born 1961) is a movie director of Austrian and Swedish descent.

Answer: Edouard Daladier

The Munich Conference in 1938 was an ultimate effort to avoid war in Europe. The UK and France were represented by their respective Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) and Edouard Daladier (1884-1970). Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) spoke for Germany, and Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) represented Italy. The direct cause for this conference was the German interference in the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia with a German-speaking majority.
According to Chamberlain, the result was "Peace in our time" - but alas, things did not turn out as well as Chamberlain hoped.
Daladier, a radical-socialist, was appointed as Minister of Defence in 1932. In January 1933 Daladier rose to the office of Prime Minister, but resigned in October 1933. In 1934 he had a second term as Prime Minister, but this one lasted only ten days. In 1938 he became Prime Minister for the third time, and remained in office until March 1940.

Answer: Danzig

Germany had already incorporated Austria, the Sudetenland and Bohemia (mostly German speaking parts of Czechoslovakia), Moravia and Silesia (other parts of Czechoslovakia) and Memel (part of Lithuania with a German-speaking majority). The UK and France feared that if Germany were to take control of Danzig, the next step in the German territorial expansion would be the full subjection of Poland. So the British and French government issued an unconditional guarantee of the integrity of Polish territory. When the German army invaded Poland on the first September 1939, France and the UK soon acted according to this guarantee and declared war on Germany.
Danzig is nowadays again part of Poland, and this harbour city is named Gdansk in Polish.
Dresden is a German city, Dubrovnik is a city in the region Dalmatia (at that time part of Yugoslavia, since 1990 part of Croatia), and Daugavpils is a city in Latvia.

Answer: Operation Dynamo

When Germany invaded France, the UK sent a substantial force to the continent in order to halt the German advance. But the Germans advanced so swiftly that about 400 000 troops were doomed - until the British vice admiral Bertram Ramsay organised a spectacular rescue plan. Over 800 ships sailing under British or allied flags (including merchant ships and tugboats) were sent to Dunkirk in order to pick up as many troops they could - abandoning all heavy equipment as well as many hand guns and ammunition. Operation Dynamo took about nine days, and during these nine days almost 340 000 soldiers were evacuated. Operation Dragoon was the allied landing in southern France in 1944. Operation Dover (1941) was a combined effort of the British and British-Indian forces to occupy the island Abadan off the Iranian coast. Operation Dukedom (1945) was a British hunt for the Japanese cruiser Haguro.

Answer: Karel Doorman

Karel Doorman (1889-1942) chose a career in the Dutch navy and also pioneered as naval pilot. In 1940 he was promoted to rear admiral. When the Japanese started the invasion of Indonesia, Doorman commanded a fleet of Australian, British, Dutch and American ships.

In the Battle of the Java Sea (28 February 1942) Doorman would have issued the command "I am attacking , follow me". Alas, his ships were no match for the Japanese fleet, and almost all allied ships were disabled or sunk. Doorman went down with his ship. Gerard Dou (1613-1675) was a Dutch painter. Willem Dudok (1884-1974) was an architect. Edgar Davids (born 1973) was a Dutch soccer player, who retired in 2014.

Answer: Day

The military term D-Day was coined in 1918, to indicate the start of a certain operation. D indicates the planned date, and D+1 (for instance) is the day after. Likewise the starting time for an operation is indicated as H-Hour. Thus if H-hour equals 4 AM, H+45 would be 4.45 AM. The use of the term D-Day has two major advantages: if the operation is postponed (as was the case for Operation Overlord), the time schedule could however be maintained. And of course speaking of June 6th instead of D-Day, would certainly warn the opponent when to be ready if the secrecy measures would fail.

To avoid confusion, the starting date for some other major invasions in 1944 were renamed using another letter. For instance A-Day was used for the American invasion of the Philippines. A popular misgiving is that D stands for Decision. Operation Overlord was indeed a decisive day, but that is history seen by hindsight. The improbable solutions of "diversion Day" or even worse "diving day" are mere figments of my imagination.

Answer: Fedir Dyachenko

The top Russian snipers during World War II were (ranked according to the number of confirmed kills) Ivan Sidorenko, Nikolay Ilyin, Ivan Kulbertinov, Vladimir Pchelintsev, Fedir Dyachenko, Fyodor Okhlopov, Stepan Petrenko, Semyon Nomokonov, Abukhadzi Idrisov, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and (the one best known in the western world) Vasily Zaitsev.
Fedir Dyachenko (1917-1995) was born in Ukraine. During World War II he had 425 confirmed kills and he rose to the rank of Major. When he retired from the Red Army in 1962, he took a job as engineer in Leningrad (nowadays Saint-Petersburg). There is an extended biography of him on the internet, but only in Russian.
Diaghilev (1872-1929) was a ballet choreographer. Donskoy (1948-2009) was a computer scientist who developed one of the first successful computer chess programs. Dzherzhinsky (1877-1926) headed the secret service of the Soviet Union from 1917 until his death.

Answer: Karl Donitz

Karl Dönitz (1891-1980) enlisted in the German navy in 1910. He rose to the rank of grand admiral and supreme commander of the German fleet. When Hitler committed suicide, he appointed Dönitz as his successor - and not Hermann Göring, as everyone expected. Dönitz concentrated the last German war efforts on getting as many soldiers out of reach of the advancing Red Army, for he hoped the western armies would be more clement for prisoners of war. In 1946 Dönitz was convicted of planning wars of aggression and crimes against the laws of war. He was sentenced to imprisonment for ten years.

Dürer (1471-1528) was a painter and printmaker. Dassler (1898-1974) founded the sport shoe company Puma, while his brother Adolf (1900-1978) founded the competing brand Adidas. Delbrück (1822-1890) was one of the founders of Deutsche Bank.