WWII - Strange & Interesting Facts: 2 Quiz

Answer: 4.5

Most people think it is the anchor that holds the ship in place but it is actually the weight of the chain.

Answer: All of them

Lipes operated on Darrell Rector, Roby on W.R. Jones and Moore on George Platter.

Answer: It sank the 71,000 ton Japanese carrier Shinano four hours after it was launched

The Japanese spent four years constructing the huge Shinano and it only lasted four hours. It was the USS Batfish that sank three Japanese submarines in four days. It was the USS Finback that rescued Bush. I made up the other one.

Answer: All of these

The Argonaut was 381 feet long and displaced 2,700 tons of water and had two six inch deck guns. It was too big to maneuver and presented a huge target. It was eventually sunk by Japanese destroyers on January 10, 1943.

Answer: They all did

We probably all knew about Bader. It is interesting to note that he had no legs before the war and yet he went on to score 22 kills.

Answer: Pinguin

I'll bet you picked the Atlantis, which sank 22 ships for 145,697 tons. The Pinguin, however, sank 32 ships for 154,619 tons. The Orion had 10 ships for 62,915 tons and the Komet had only 6 for 31,005 tons.

Answer: A British Women's Auxiliary Air Force photo-reconnaissance expert

Babington-Smith was good at her job. Her specialty was German aircraft and she worked with the US Eighth Army Air Force to pinpoint aircraft factories as bombing targets. She is officially credited with being the first to recognize the Me-163 rocket plane and the V-1 buzz-bomb sites at Peenemuende.

Answer: A former British Army officer who made propaganda broadcasts for the Germans

Baillie-Smith was an interesting man. In 1933, as a lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders, he was caught giving military secrets to the Germans. He was tried, convicted and spent five years in the Tower of London, where he was known as the "Officer in the Tower".

He became a German citizen when he was released. In 1945, he was captured in Austria and sentenced to five years for treason.

Answer: All of these

The Booker T. Washington was named for the famous American educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute. He was born into slavery in 1856. The ship was launched on September 29, 1940 and was christened by the famous singer, Marian Anderson. Its captain was Hugh Mulzac who had earlier been offered the command of an all African-American ship and refused, saying that "under no circumstances will I command a Jim Crow vessel." Twenty-two years passed before Mulzac would again receive an offer to command a naval ship. During World War II, his demand for an integrated crew was finally met.

Answer: He was a leading Axis propagandist while living in Italy

After the war, Pound was brought back to the United States to face charges of treason. He was found unfit to face trial by reason of insanity by a special federal jury and sent to a mental hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remained for 12 years from 1946 to 1958.

When asked, after his release, for his opinions on his home country Pound said, "America is a lunatic asylum." He later returned to Italy and lived there until his death.