FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about The Royal Navys Early War 193941
Quiz about The Royal Navys Early War 193941

The Royal Navy's Early War (1939-41) Quiz


The Royal Navy played a major role in ensuring that Britain withstood the onslaughts of Nazi Germany and her allies. This quiz is about the ups and downs of those key naval actions in the early years, when Britain stood alone. I hope you enjoy!

A multiple-choice quiz by JJMcGiver. Estimated time: 6 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. History Trivia
  6. »
  7. World War II
  8. »
  9. WW2 Maritime

Author
JJMcGiver
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
397,166
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
235
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 173 (10/10), Guest 210 (7/10), Topbun (7/10).
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. On the night of 14th October, a German U-Boat managed to penetrate the much vaunted defenses of the Royal Navy Home Fleet based at Scapa Flow and put three torpedo salvos into the WW1 veteran battleship which sank HMS Royal Oak. The attack was performed by U-47 but what was the name of the U-Boat commander responsible for this audacious attack? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. The first major naval action took place in the South Atlantic at the Battle of the River Plate. This was an action between three Royal Navy Cruisers and the Admiral Graf Spee, a pocket battleship. Which of these ships did NOT take part in this battle? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. On the 16th February 1940, HMS Cossack finally managed to intercepted and after a brief struggle, boarded the German tanker Altmark which was travelling in the neutral waters off of the Norwegian Coast. How many British Merchant seamen prisoners did they discover were being held in Altmark's hold?

Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. The German invaded Norway on the 10th April to secure, amongst others things, their supply of iron ore. The Royal Navy was heavily involved in trying to repulse the Germans and they gained a decisive victory at Narvik which confirmed the daring and skill of the Royal Navy.

How many German Destroyers and other vessels were sunk during these battles in the Norwegian Fjord?
Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. The next major navy operation was off the beaches of Dunkirk with the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). What was the code word given to this operation? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. With the fall of France in June 1940, there was a genuine fear that the Germans would gain access to the French fleet under the armistice. With this in mind, Churchill order Operation Catapult. This was an attack by the Royal Navy Force H against the Vichy French Fleet. Which naval base did Force H attack?

Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. When Mussolini's Italy declared war on Britain in June 1940, the Italian 'Regia Marina' posed a considerable threat to RN operations in the Mediterranean. The night attack at Taranto by the Fleet Air Arm resulted in a resounding victory for the British. Which carrier did the Swordfish take off from on 11th November 1940? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. The British finally managed to perform another, decisive action against the 'Regia Marina' on the 28th March 1941. The clash between the Italian Fleet which included 1 Battleship and 8 Cruisers came up against the British Eastern Mediterranean Fleet with a carrier, 3 Battleships and 7 cruisers. The battle took place over a number of days and nights. What did this decisive encounter action become known as? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. In mid-May 1941, two German warships broke into the Atlantic in search of convoys and sunk the pride of the Navy - HMS Hood. The hunt for the infamous battleship Bismarck involved the entire Home Fleet, Force H and numerous other warships culminating in its sinking on the 27th May. What was the name of the ship that accompanied the Bismark? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. The availability of Norwegian and especially French ports dramatically extended the U-Boat threat deep into the Atlantic. The biggest threat by far for the British was the one to the merchant fleet/convoys with a total shipping tonnage of 4.78 million tons sunk by U-boats by the end of 1941.

However, warships were not immune to being attacked by them either! Which of these warships was NOT sunk by U-Boats between 1939 and 1941.
Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Most Recent Scores
Dec 25 2024 : Guest 173: 10/10
Dec 16 2024 : Guest 210: 7/10
Nov 25 2024 : Topbun: 7/10
Nov 21 2024 : Guest 194: 6/10
Nov 13 2024 : Shipmate0207: 5/10
Nov 08 2024 : hellobion: 9/10
Oct 29 2024 : Guest 111: 9/10

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. On the night of 14th October, a German U-Boat managed to penetrate the much vaunted defenses of the Royal Navy Home Fleet based at Scapa Flow and put three torpedo salvos into the WW1 veteran battleship which sank HMS Royal Oak. The attack was performed by U-47 but what was the name of the U-Boat commander responsible for this audacious attack?

Answer: Gunther Prien

Gunther Prien was one of the new breed of German U-Boat commanders. This was undoubtedly a propaganda coup for the Nazi regime as the loss of HMS Royal Oak was a disaster and the loss of the ship with 834 men was a genuine shock for the whole nation!

Prien was awarded the prestigious Knights Cross for this achievement and was the first U-Boat commander to win this medal.

Kretschmer and Schepke were both very successful U-boat commanders. Note that Otto Kretschmer on 17th March 1941 he became a POW when his beloved U-99 was bought to the surface by depth charges and he and his crew captured.

Joachim Schempke was killed on the same day when HMS Vanoc depth charged and rammed U-100 sinking the submarine with all hands lost.

Prien and U-47 went missing earlier in the month when he was attacking Convoy OB293. It is assumed the submarine was sunk by HMS Wolverine but this was never proven one way or the other.
Between the three of them (Prien, Kretschmer and Schepke) they had sunk 113 allied merchantmen with a total tonnage of more than 620,000 GRT. Such was the threat from these 'aces' of the German U-boat force.

Finally, Karl Donitz is better known as the overall commander of German submarine forces who took over control of Nazi Germany after the death of Hitler and who surrendered to the Allies.
2. The first major naval action took place in the South Atlantic at the Battle of the River Plate. This was an action between three Royal Navy Cruisers and the Admiral Graf Spee, a pocket battleship. Which of these ships did NOT take part in this battle?

Answer: HMS Cumberland

The Graf Spee was perfectly designed to be a commerce raider and was performing this anti shipping mission during the early months of the war. By the time the Royal Navy finally caught up with her, Graf Spee had already sunk 9 Allied Merchantman and Tankers with a tonnage of over 50,000 gross register tons (GRT).

The initial battle on the 13th December ended up with minor damage to Graf Spee which bolted to the neutral port of Montevideo and some damage to all three of the RN Cruisers with HMS Exeter coming off the worst. Admiral Harwood deceived the German Captain and convinced him that heavier reinforcements were available so he decided to scuttled the pocket battleship outside of the harbour. This was the first major victory that the RN achieved during the war and went a long way to restoring the Countries faith in the Royal Navy post Royal Oak.

HMS Cumberland was a 'County-class' Heavy Cruiser allocated to Force G, which was involved in the hunt for the Graf Spee but was not involved in the battle itself.
3. On the 16th February 1940, HMS Cossack finally managed to intercepted and after a brief struggle, boarded the German tanker Altmark which was travelling in the neutral waters off of the Norwegian Coast. How many British Merchant seamen prisoners did they discover were being held in Altmark's hold?

Answer: 299

The Altmark was the supply tanker for German Raiders such as the Admiral Graf Spee where she replenished them with fuel, ammunition and spares. The Altmark had been given the captured merchant crews from the 9 freighters, steamers and merchant vessels sunk by the Graf Spee before her scuttling at Montevideo.

The action by the Captain and Crew of HMS Cossack was not without criticism, as the Norwegian Navy were partially protecting the Altmark as it took passage through Norwegian waters.

However it did coin the very popular phrase, "The Navy's here!"
4. The German invaded Norway on the 10th April to secure, amongst others things, their supply of iron ore. The Royal Navy was heavily involved in trying to repulse the Germans and they gained a decisive victory at Narvik which confirmed the daring and skill of the Royal Navy. How many German Destroyers and other vessels were sunk during these battles in the Norwegian Fjord?

Answer: 10 Destroyers, a U-Boat and 7 supply ships/freighters

The German invasion of Norway was ultimately successful although at a considerable loss to their surface fleet. The Germans lost 10 of their 17 Destroyers at Narvik, and also lost the Heavy Cruiser Blucher to Naval Guns based on the approaches to Oslo as well as two other light cruisers. Whilst the Royal Navy lost one of their carriers (HMS Glorious) as well as 2 light cruisers and 7 destroyers, but they were much more able to accept these losses than the Germans.

These losses almost guaranteed that the Germans would be unable to support an invasion of Britain under 'Operation Sealion' regardless of the efforts of the Luftwaffe.
5. The next major navy operation was off the beaches of Dunkirk with the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). What was the code word given to this operation?

Answer: Operation Dynamo

Operation Dynamo was under the command of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay who was responsible for marshalling and managing nearly 900 ships from the Royal Navy as well as Belgium, France, Netherlands and Poland. The ships involved included cruisers to tiny pleasure boats as part of the flotilla of 'little ships'. The evacuation was ultimately successful with over 198,000 BEF personnel as well as 140,000 French Army Troops.

The Naval losses were remarkably light at only 8 RN Ships as well as the loss of 145 RAF aircraft.

Operation Mercury was associated with the German invasion of Crete in May 1941
Operation Cycle was the codeword for the evacutation from Le Havre in June 1940.
Operation Dynamite was a codeword used for operations in Norway in 1941.
6. With the fall of France in June 1940, there was a genuine fear that the Germans would gain access to the French fleet under the armistice. With this in mind, Churchill order Operation Catapult. This was an attack by the Royal Navy Force H against the Vichy French Fleet. Which naval base did Force H attack?

Answer: Mers-el-Kebir

Force H was a powerful naval unit and comprised of the the battle cruiser HMS Hood, and the battleships HMS Valiant and Resolution as well as the carrier HMS Ark Royal. The RN issued an ultimatum to the French Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul about surrendering the Vichy French Fleet to the British. As these negotiations dragged on it became apparent that there would be no peaceful resolution to the situation so on 9th July, Force H attacked the Fleet at anchor at Mers-el-Kebir. The resulting action saw the Battleships Bretagne sunk and Dunkerque and Provence damaged with additional 5 smaller vessels sunk or damaged.

The modern battleship Strasbourg managed to escape through the minefield and make its way to the Vichy Port of Toulon. There were only 2 British casualties who were aircrew from Ark Royal.

The decisive action by the RN meant that other Vichy France Naval Units such as the Battleship Richelieu at Dakar, after negotiation, surrendered or remained in port for the duration of the war.
7. When Mussolini's Italy declared war on Britain in June 1940, the Italian 'Regia Marina' posed a considerable threat to RN operations in the Mediterranean. The night attack at Taranto by the Fleet Air Arm resulted in a resounding victory for the British. Which carrier did the Swordfish take off from on 11th November 1940?

Answer: HMS Illustrious

The attack involved a total of 20 Fairey Swordfish aircraft in two waves. With only half the aircraft armed with Torpedoes and the rest armed with flares and bombs, the aircraft managed to weave through the heavy flak and balloon defences to strike at the Italian fleet in Taranto harbour.

With the loss of only two aircraft and two aircrew killed, the Fleet Air Arm had sunk one battleship (Conte di Cavour) and damaged two others (Caio Duilio and Littorio. Four other warships were sunk or damaged.

All this achieved with what were seen as slow, obsolete biplanes such as the Swordfish.
8. The British finally managed to perform another, decisive action against the 'Regia Marina' on the 28th March 1941. The clash between the Italian Fleet which included 1 Battleship and 8 Cruisers came up against the British Eastern Mediterranean Fleet with a carrier, 3 Battleships and 7 cruisers. The battle took place over a number of days and nights. What did this decisive encounter action become known as?

Answer: Battle of Matapan

The Battle of Matapan was a genuinely decisive action. The Italians never really recovered from the loss of 3 cruisers sunk and a battleship and various other warships damaged for a loss of over 2,500 sailors killed in action. The RN had only slight damage to 4 of their own cruisers and only incurred 3 casualties.

The balance of power in the Mediterranean would be with the Royal Navy after this battle.
9. In mid-May 1941, two German warships broke into the Atlantic in search of convoys and sunk the pride of the Navy - HMS Hood. The hunt for the infamous battleship Bismarck involved the entire Home Fleet, Force H and numerous other warships culminating in its sinking on the 27th May. What was the name of the ship that accompanied the Bismark?

Answer: Prinz Eugen

The Prinz Eugen was a 16,700 ton heavy cruiser armed with a primary batteries of 8 x 8" guns and secondary batteries of 12 x 4.1" guns. Prinz Eugen escorted Bismark out of the Baltic into the Atlantic and took part in what was to become the Battle of the Denmark Straits where HMS Hood was destroyed. Following the battle, it separated from the Bismark to managed to make it to the safety of the French Port of Brest on the 1st June 1941.

Scharnhorst and Gneisau were battlecruisers and were both having repairs in the French port of Brest and the battleship Tirpitz had just finished acceptance trials and was located in the Baltic.
10. The availability of Norwegian and especially French ports dramatically extended the U-Boat threat deep into the Atlantic. The biggest threat by far for the British was the one to the merchant fleet/convoys with a total shipping tonnage of 4.78 million tons sunk by U-boats by the end of 1941. However, warships were not immune to being attacked by them either! Which of these warships was NOT sunk by U-Boats between 1939 and 1941.

Answer: HMS Glorious (June 1940)

Apologies for the slight 'trickery' involved in this question but HMS Glorious was not sunk by a U-boat, but by the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 8 June 1940 in the North Sea. This was part of the British final retreat from Norway.

HMS Courageous was an aircraft carrier and has the dubious distinction of becoming the first Royal Navy Warship sunk during World War 2. She was sunk by U-29 on 17th September 1939 in the Western Approaches - the irony being she was on an Anti-Submarine Patrol.

HMS Ark Royal, the famous carrier whose air groups was responsible for disabling the Bismark earlier in the year, was finally sunk on 14th November 1941 by U-81 off of Gibraltar.

HMS Barham, a veteran Battleship involved in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, was sunk by U-331 in the Mediterranean on 25th November 1941.
Source: Author JJMcGiver

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
12/26/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us