Snapshots From World War II Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Bockscar, a B29 Superfortress which was sometimes called Bock's Car, was named after its regular commander, Captain Frederick Bock. However, when it dropped the atomic bomb, "Fat Boy", on Nagasaki on the 9th of August, 1945, Captain Bock and his crew were not on it, they were on board an observational B29 called the Great Artiste.

It was the regular crew of the Great Artiste, led by Major Charles Sweeney that was on board Bockscar. The original target of the bomb was not Nagasaki, but the city of Kokura, because of the great arsenal that was located there. Weather conditions were not favourable when the planes approached Kokura so they moved onto Nagasaki, where Mitsubishi had two large armament plants.

The blast from "Fat Boy" would destroy half of that city, kill some 35,000 people and injure a further 60,000.

Answer: Blitzmas Cards

An article in Time magazine dated Monday, December 30, 1940 entitled "Blitzmas" told of greeting cards being issued by the Royal Family that featured the King and Queen standing in front of a bombed out section of Buckingham Palace. Bearing messages such as "Wishing You Anything But a Jerry Christmas!" the cards were christened "Blitzmas Cards" and disappeared from shop shelves as quickly as they went on.

It was one of the many things that the British were doing to keep their spirits up and try to maintain a modicum of normality in troubled times. They made do with whatever they could. Blitzmas pudding was served up using carrots in place of scarce fruit and Empire beef or mutton became the new Christmas turkey.

Answer: Richard Bong

Richard Ira Bong was raised on a small farm in Poplar, Wisconsin and soon developed a love for machinery. While he was in college he enrolled in the Civilian Aeronautics Authority's training programme and it was here that he earned his pilot's license.

Not yet twenty, he applied for the Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet Program in February of 1941 and was enlisted in May that same year. In September of 1942 he was sent to the Pacific theatre of operations as part of the Fifth Air Force. Fearless in combat, he soon amassed a number of kills and developed a strong reputation in the air.

His mode of operation was to get as close to the enemy as possible. Though a risky maneuver, he claimed it reduced the likelihood of him missing. In a little over a year he'd been awarded a Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross.

By the end of 1944 he'd officially claimed 40 enemy aircraft and was presented with the Medal of Honour by General Douglas MacArthur. Bong returned to the States and worked as a test pilot for the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation.

He was killed during an exercise on August 6, 1945, the same day that the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Answer: Axis Sally

Axis Sally was merely a nickname that was given to women radio presenters who would deliver propaganda messages in English, to aid the Axis powers during World War II. Rita Zucca, an Italian/American would broadcast for Italy and Mildred, did so for Germany. In between swing numbers the women would send messages that were aimed at demoralising the troops away and their families at home. These messages would deliver such reports as the men away were being unfaithful and that the Germans (or the Italians) knew exactly where the husbands were.

Born in Portland, Maine, Gillars struggled to establish careers in various pathways from acting to modelling to dressmaking to music. She moved from the United States to France, to Algiers, to Germany, where she earned a job as an announcer for the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG), German State Radio, which eventually led to her "Axis Sally" role. After the war she was taken back to the United States where she was tried for treason (the first woman in US history to be so) and sentenced to thirty years in prison. She was released in 1961, moved to live in convent in Ohio, and completed her Arts degree in 1973. She passed away in 1988.

Answer: "5th Symphony" by Beethoven

There's a great irony in all of this; a piece of classical German music was used to assist with the morale of the Allies, Germany's enemies. The V for Victory was made famous by Great Britain's leader, Sir Winston Churchill, when he raised the first and second fingers of his right hand as an acknowledgement of the effort put in by all during the war. The gesture proved to be such a strong symbol that the United States would adopt it as their national symbol (along with the Bald eagle).

Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 in C minor", written between 1804 and 1808, is one of the composer's most iconic pieces. So why was it used as the code for V for Victory? It's because its sequence of notes (da da da dah) is Morse code for the letter V. It's also fitting that Beethoven's work should be used for this as he was a staunch supporter of liberty and a strong campaigner against dictatorship, as evidenced by him turning his back on Napoleon when he named himself Emperor of France.

Answer: Big Mamie

The USS Massachusetts was a South Dakota class battleship that measured 681 feet in length and weighed 35,000 tons. At the time she was the biggest ship to be launched from Quincy (in Massachusetts), which led to her nickname of "Big Mamie". Launched in 1941, she was commissioned in 1942 and provided support in Operation Torch in French North Africa. From there she was sent to the Pacific operations to combat the Japanese offensive, taking part in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign (1943-44), the Philippines campaign (1944-45) and provided support during the Battle of Okinawa (1945).

She returned to the States and was decommissioned in 1947.

Answer: K- Rations

The K-Ration would provide a soldier with three separately boxed meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner. The initial response to the package was positive with troops praising its variety and light weight. However, it would be shown that the initial testing was hasty, conducted in easy terrains, over a short duration, and, as a result, the meals did not provide adequate calories for troops. What the testers did not take into consideration was that soldiers would be operating in conditions far more extreme. These could involve engaging in combat, digging trenches or humping heavy packs through mud or mountain terrains.

The rations, created for short term use, were introduced during World War II by the United States and were initially provided to paratroopers and elite troops. Because of this many mistakenly believed the K in K-rations was a letter used to denominate "commando". Another mistaken belief was that it was named after Dr Ancel Keys, who'd conducted the initial research into the meal. It was given the letter K as it was phonetically distinct sounding from other rations that carried a single letter title.

Answer: Eight-Ball

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941 Clark Gable advised President Roosevelt that he would be happy to help, though he never envisioned seeing action. He thought he would be traveling the country promoting war bonds. However, that all changed with the death of his wife, Carole Lombard, and, in little time, Gable volunteered for the Army Air Forces. By 1943 he was in England at RAF Polebrook.

The first mission for Gable was conducted May 4, 1943. This was a bombing run over Antwerp, Belgium in the above named B-17F Eight Ball Mk II.

In all, he would fly five combat missions and one as an observer/gunner that flew over Germany. He would earn an Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts.

Answer: True

Robert Kennedy was still only seventeen years old when he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in 1943. He was released from active duty the following year to complete his officer training. During this period, he expressed frustration at being away from the action to the point where he declared that he started to "feel more and more like a Draft Dodger [sic] or something". Later that year his eldest brother Joseph was killed when his plane exploded. Robert was impacted by his father's reaction to the passing but it also brought more focus onto his career.

In December 1945 the US government commissioned the destroyer, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Robert was released from officer training in February of 1946 and apprenticed to the ship as a seaman.

His tenure aboard was brief and he was honorably discharged in May 1946.

Answer: Ernest Pyle

After Pyle's death, during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, President Truman said of him "No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told. He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen." As a measure of his popularity, at the time of his passing, Pyle's columns were being published in over 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers across the United States. Prior to World War II he'd made a name for himself as the author of simple tales about the American everyman.

When war broke out, he was encouraged to identify and author human interest stories from the battlefields of the European theatre, which he did from 1942 to 1944. He then moved onto the Pacific theatre of operations in 1945.