World War II's Famous Ships Trivia Quiz

Answer: KMS Bismarck

On May 24, 1941, Bismarck, along with an escort heavy cruiser, met battlecruiser HMS Hood and battleship HMS Prince of Wales in the Denmark Strait. Although it is debated on which ship destroyed it, the Hood was sunk with a single artillery round to the powder magazine.

Bismarck is one of, if not the, most famous European battleship in 20th century history.

Answer: IJN Yamato

Yamato, armed with nine 18.1 inch guns (cannons), was the most heavily-armed warship in history. Weighing a massive 65,000 tons unladen, she was also the biggest. Her sister ship, Musashi, was commissioned in mid-1942 to continue to terrorize the United States and British navies until the end of the war.

It is debated whether or not Yamato would have won in a one-on-one contest with the rival American counterpart, the Iowa-class Battleship.

Answer: KMS Prinz Eugen

The Prinz Eugen also participated in the "Channel Dash" in early 1942. Along with the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, she dashed through the English Channel in an attempt to link up with the rest of the German Kriegsmarine.

After the war, Prinz Eugen was the last operating German cruiser (excluding the light cruiser Nürnberg). She was re-christened the USS Prinz Eugen and was later sent to the Bikini Atoll atomic tests in 1946, meeting her ultimate fate there.

Answer: USS Intrepid

Intrepid, one of the few US carriers to survive the war and live into the 1960s, was decommissioned in 1974, and by 1982 had been named an official museum ship. It lives on the western side of Manhattan, where millions of people visit its historic flight deck each year.

Answer: USS Missouri

USS Missouri is one of, if not the most distinguished and most well-known warship in American history. Having survived and operated longer than any other ship in the navy, it is highly esteemed.

Answer: Fletcher Class

The Fletcher Class was, at the time, the most advanced naval destroyer in the world. Many served in the United States Navy until the end of the Vietnam conflict. During the 1950s, several dozen were sold to countries around the world. The last Fletcher Class destroyer to leave service on the high seas forever was the Mexican ARM Cuitlahuac (formerly the USS John Rodgers) which was decommissioned in 2001, making the total service time of the Fletcher Class nearly six decades and taking it into a new century.

Answer: USS Montana

USS Montana was a ship that was never meant to be. Even if production had begun after WWII, they would find little use as ship-to-ship naval combat declined after the 1940s. Had the Montana-class been produced, however, they would have held the throne as the fastest, and most powerful battleships in the world (twelve 16-inch on the Montana vs. nine 18-inch on the Yamato).

Answer: HMS Prince of Wales

The Prince of Wales was, upon its commissioning, Britain's most advanced battleship available. Its performance in the Battle of the Denmark Straits was extremely disappointing. In the Pacific, it had been ordered, with World War I-era battlecruiser HMS Repulse, to reinforce the British garrison at Malaya.

However, the battlegroup was intercepted before they reached their objective and they were destroyed.

Answer: IJN Fuso

Fuso, lead ship of the Fuso-class battleship line, was a force to be reckoned with. Despite a relatively weak AA armament and low armor quality, her 12 14-inch cannons were a force to be reckoned with. Her sister ship, Yamashiro, was also sunk at Surigao Strait.

Answer: HMAS Sydney

Sydney was sunk with no survivors, one of the greatest tragedies in Australian naval history. Her wreck, however, was rediscovered in 2008, and many felt that was enough to let the dead crewmen rest in peace.