The Bombing War Trivia Quiz

Answer: Guernica

The bombing of Guernica was warfare at a new level. The world took notice and international condemnation of the action was immediate and total. As the Battle of the Coral Sea some years later spelt the end of an era for the battleship, the German air actions in Spain would forever change the way battles were conducted. Commanders in Britain took notice, none more than Sir Hugh Dowding.

The Spanish War had further avionic significance as the long serving biplane had become redundant as a fighting machine.

Answer: Franklin Roosevelt - United States

Both France and Britain signed the agreement immediately. Germany waited until its forces had entered Poland's capital before adding its signature. By doing so, Warsaw became, overnight, 'technically' a military target and therefore exempt from the agreement and was not protected from aerial bombardment. Warsaw received attention from 1,400 Luftwaffe planes (along with artillery) over a two-day period starting on September 24. 80% of the city was levelled and 10,000 people lay dead within the ruins.

Answer: Rotterdam

The timing of the mass air attack on Rotterdam was more than unfortunate. The Dutch had held out bravely and forced a temporary stalemate, but were in a hopeless position against Schmidt's Panzers and General Student's crack infantry. It's been said a Dutch official sent to arrange terms of surrender was a mere 50 meters away from German lines at the time of the attack. Schmidt had ordered the air attack the previous day, but instead of tactical attacks by pinpoint Stuka bombers, Heinkel III's were sent and the results were devastating for Rotterdam.

It isn't clear who ordered the carpet-bombing, but limited postwar evidence points to Student and Goering. Bomber Command had also targeted Rotterdam soon after German occupation to deny them the city's vast reserves of fuel.

Answer: London's East End

London's East End was a ripe target for Hitler. Frustrated that Goering had not delivered air superiority as promised, and in reprisal for a small RAF raid on Berlin he ordered that London become the primary target to force Britain to terms. The other anticipated result would be that it would drag Sir Hugh Dowding's remaining fighter force into the air en masse in defense of the capital.

The East End - London's "Dockland", with its historic significance, population density, industrial output and above all flammability, was chosen as the initial target.

The result was devastating with 430 dead, 1,600 wounded and thousands homeless. The Luftwaffe would return to London on 76 consecutive nights (except only one, when fog forced a brief interruption).

Answer: Conflagration

Conflagration is the joining of many small fires into a single entity (inferno). RAF Bomber Command was also experimenting with methods for maximizing destruction. Various mixes of gasoline and phosphorus were trialed. In the Scottish lowlands, typical German dwellings were constructed and the new incendiary bombs were tested.

The Americans (later in 1943) went as far as constructing whole areas of German style dwellings and apartments for incendiary testing. It was found that by dropping heavy HE bombs to create holes in roofs and ceilings, the firebombs would have the best chance of entering and igniting a building.

Another tactic used by both sides was to identify 'choke' points in road grids, which if closed with rubble or craters would prevent rescue teams entering bombed areas and assisting.

Answer: X-Gerät

On the night of November 14, 1940, 550 German bombers set off toward Coventry. The mission was called 'Operation Moonlight Sonata.' Leading elements from the elite pathfinder group, Kampfgruppe, were following the X-Gerät radio beams which were broadcast from Cherbourg and Calais.

In a new level of destruction, the Luftwaffe dropped 500 tons of HE, 30,000 incendiary bombs, fifty parachute mines and twenty incendiary petroleum mines. Nearly the entire industrial city of Coventry ceased to exist after the attack.

The Germans invented a new word after this raid. Any city that suffered a similar attack was said to have been 'coventriert'- 'Coventrated.'

Answer: Sir Arthur Harris

During Arthur 'Bomber' Harris's command, over 850,000 tons of bombs fell on German cities claiming an estimated 600,000 lives. Harris's tactic of 1,000 plane saturation raids on German cities has been the subject of much (mainly) post-war debate, ensuring his continuing controversial status. Harris defended his tactics to his death and didn't enter into the morality debate, arguing that all his targets were legitimate military targets, including Dresden.

Many British and American publications on Dresden's military value indicate that Harris was in many ways correct, though to many his actions will never be vindicated. Harris was very well respected by all under his command and tried unsuccessfully to have Bomber Command awarded a campaign medal similar to that which Fighter Command received.

He felt Bomber Command never received the recognition they deserved, something that angered him greatly. He died in 1984.

Answer: B-25 Mitchell

The B-25 was a superb aircraft, which was converted and supplied in various versions for specific tasks and theatres. Designated as a medium bomber, the B-25 also performed the tasks of a glide torpedo bomber, a transport, a strafer (eight forward 0.50" calibre guns mainly used in the Pacific) and also as a reconnaissance ship (designated F-10).

The B-25B was selected for the Dolittle raid over the B-26 Marauder for its superior take off performance. The 16 planes were greatly modified to carry enough fuel for their 2,400-mile one-way trip, and also to get off an aircraft carrier, something that had never been achieved (or attempted) before.

Answer: Junkers Ju 87

The Stuka was very accurate and sturdy but also very vulnerable with its lack of speed. After initial success on coastal radar installations and airfields, the Stuka was shot down in numbers large enough to see it withdrawn to minor supporting roles. The rear gunner was situated behind the pilot and could not protect the plane from an attack from the lower rear, a feature Spitfire and Hurricane pilots soon exploited.

The sirens were wind-powered and attached to the wheel housing. They would activate when the Stuka went into a dive with the intention of terrorising those unfortunate enough to be below.

Another innovative feature of the Ju 87 was a system that would automatically pull the plane up from a dive, even if the pilot had blacked out from g-forces.

After the Battle of Britain, the Stuka again had many successes on the Eastern front until the Russians developed faster fighters (and received British Hurricanes), which again mauled the two-seater. 5,700 Ju 87's had been built by the end of the war.

Answer: Avro Manchester

The Manchester first flew in 1939 but was constantly plagued by troubles to its two Rolls Royce Vulture engines. Only 200 were built. In a major overhaul, and to fulfil requirements of the changed war situation, the Manchester's wings were extended and another two engines were added, this time the battle proven Merlin V-12s. 7,377 Lancasters were constructed, and although 3,932 were lost in action, Sir Arthur Harris had this to say about its war performance:

"The Lancaster took the major part in winning the war with its attacks on Germany. On land it forced the Germans to retrieve from their armies half their sorely needed anti-tank guns for use by over a million soldiers who would otherwise have been serving in the field. The Lancaster won the naval war by destroying over one-third of the German submarines in their ports, together with hundreds of small naval craft and six of their largest warships. Above all, the Lancaster won the air war by taking the major part in forcing Germany to concentrate on building and using fighters to defend the Fatherland, thereby depriving their armies of essential air and particularly bomber support."

Answer: Battle of the Ruhr

Since 1940 the allies had been attacking the towns, cities and other strategic targets along the Ruhr in small, largely ineffective raids. By 1943, the tide began to shift. The 8th Airforce was in Britain, bringing with them the B-17, and Lancasters were now being produced in great numbers. Two other significant additions to the bombing war was that the long-range P-51 Mustang came into the theatre and was a godsend in its escort role to bomber crews as it greatly reduced losses. Also, radio target finding technology had been greatly improved.

The Ruhr area contained the numerous plants of Krupp, Rheinmetall, Hoesch and Ruhrstahl, as well as Germany's main coalfields and was vital to armament production. Pinpoint bombing attacks on these targets proved very disruptive, forcing many industries either east or underground.

It was also in these attacks that the allies began perfecting the firestorm effect. The Battle of the Ruhr claimed over 5,000 allied crew their lives.

Answer: Hamburg

The port of Hamburg (Hamma-Burg - 'fortified town') was sacked by viking raiders in the year 845. In 1030 King Mieszko II of Poland burnt it down. Soon after the Slavs sacked it, and fires destroyed the town 1284 and 1842. 1943 it was again levelled by conflagration effect from allied incendiaries. The RAF had been over Hamburg many times before, concentrating on refineries and U-boat targets as early as 1940 (in response to the attack on Coventry), but this time with American support over several sorties, the air armada totalled over 4000 bombers and the destruction was total. The combined aerial bombardment of Hamburg during the war claimed an estimated 40-50,000 civilian lives, almost the total of all those that died in Britain from German attacks during the duration of the war. Large areas of Berlin were evacuated shortly after to avoid losses of this scale.

The quote was from Sir Arthur Harris.

Answer: No

At this stage of the war, with the front so close, Dresden and neighbouring Chemnitz were major marshalling areas for German troops moving to the eastern front. All industry in Germany and the occupied territories, no matter what the product was pre-war, were converted for the war effort. Dresden was no exception. Furniture factories produced tail assemblies for the Luftwaffe and V1 bombs, the famous Zeiss-Ikon camera factories were converted to make precision items such as bomb aimers. Radio-Mende produced field telephones and radios, cigarette factories produced bullets, and so on. However, the main goal for the attack on Dresden was not armaments, it was to cause as much destruction and disruption as possible in support of the advancing Russians. Why Dresden is singled out so venomously as an alleged war crime, significantly more than similar attacks on large cities, is in part due to the timing. The war had run its course, victory was imminent and the military value against expected civilian casualties was complete disproportionate. Another major factor was the suffering below the bombs. The bombing of Dresden was so precise that the aim to create a firestorm had been completed by the initial 240 Lancasters. With no air defences the bomb controller flew very low and guided the bombers in with previously unseen precision. Percussion from 4000-pound air mines blew out every window in the target area creating drafts for the fires to feed and the thermite incendiaries soon ignited the city. Thousands that left the oxygen-starved shelters to seek the cool air of the Elbe were sucked back into the inferno by powerful winds caused by the feeding firestorm. The second wave of bombers were to bomb a very close point to the first attack, but when the master bomber saw the total destruction of the firestorm he ordered the sorties to bomb further out, catching many more thousands out in the open. The total death toll was massive. 20,000 had been officially identified, but disease and the Russian advance prevented further official collection of bodies. The death total of the attack has been bitterly disputed for 60 years. David Irving sensationally published that the toll was as high as 250,000, but it is now widely accepted from many experts, including German historians, to be about 30,000 - and with further research, the figure has tended to fall even slightly lower.

In 1956 the cities of Dresden and Coventry formed a partnership of peace and reconciliation.

Answer: True

Statistics on war fatalities vary massively depending on the agenda of who is displaying them, but there can be little doubt that the firebombing of major Japanese cities was truly devastating due to the density and the ferocity of the attacks. Using conservative figures, more than twice the number of civilians died from carpet-bombing attacks than died from the two atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Answer: Albert Speer

Early in the war when Great Britain was isolated, Bomber Command was the only way Britain could strike at the enemy in occupied Europe and the enemy's homeland. This partly explains why such emphasis was placed on creating a fleet of aircraft which could traverse the Channel and hit targets as far away as Berlin. Morale depended on the ability to strike back at the enemy. By late 1944 the RAF bomber armada stood at 1,500 while the Americans had close to 2,000 at their disposal. It was such an enormous investment that the air armada "had to" be used in one way or another. Apart from the massive cost of a single Lancaster, the cost of training one crew was equivalent to sending three men to Oxford University for four years. Both the deliberate firebombing of major urban cities (as well as the use of the a-bomb) have been labeled democide, mass murder and a complete erosion of morality. 'How could they drop bombs on woman and children?' Firebombing was used as a means to destroy morale, cause massive disruption, and ultimately bring about the end of the war in a shorter timeframe thus saving allied lives.

Some conservative fatality statistics from the bombing war are as follows: Dresden 35,000, Hamburg 45,000, London 20,000 (Great Britain 60,000), Stalingrad 40,000, Belgrade 17,000, Tokyo 84,000, Romania and Hungary 50,000, Warsaw 10,000, Hiroshima and Nagasaki 135,000. There were many, many more. 200,000 allied bomber crewman also lost their lives.

Quiz references include books- Frederick Taylor's 'Dresden,' Richard Houg's 'The Battle of Britain,' Anthony Beevor's 'Stalingrad' and 'Berlin,' and also web references Wikpedia, WW2 BBC online and the History Place online.