World War Two Small Arms Trivia Quiz

Answer: M1 Garand

The .30 caliber M1 Garand was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1936 and was the first semi-automatic rifle ever widely adopted as a standard issue firearm. The M1903 Springfield was used by the U.S. during WWII, but was being phased out of service when fighting broke out.

The semi-automatic M1941 Johnson competed against the Garand in testing trials, but only a small number originally made for the Dutch West India Colonies were used by USMC parachutists. Lee-Enfields armed British Tommies during both World Wars.

Answer: Its ammunition

Luger developed the 9mm round at the request of the German Navy by re-necking the case of the 7.65mm round used in his earlier pistols. The 9mm Luger/Para became one of the most widely used pistol cartridges in the world and is still used by militaries, police departments, and shooting enthusiasts around the world.

Answer: Degtyarev DPM

A modified MG-42 designed to use NATO 7.62 ammunition serves in the German Army today as the MG-3. The Browning M2HB, more commonly known as the .50 cal still sits atop American tanks and other fighting vehicles. L4A4 and L4A5 model Bren guns, modified to fire 7.62 NATO rounds were still in service with the British Army and Navy as well as many British Commonwealth countries in the early 1990s.

The Degtyarev DPM was replaced by the improved RP-46 version in Russian service in 1946 and then with the Kalashnikov PK series of machine guns.

Answer: MP-44

The Sturmgewehr 44 was designed as an automatic rifle firing an intermediate round more powerful than pistol ammunition but having a more controllable recoil than standard rifle rounds. It was intended to replace submachine guns, bolt action rifles, and light machine guns in some instances. Over 500,000 were produced and issued to German soldiers before the end of WWII.

This weapon provided the basis for many post-war rifle designs.

Answer: Bren

The Bren gun was originaly designed in Czechoslovakia and was adopted by the British before WWII. It was redesigned to fire the rimmed British .303 round and this gives the gun its characteristic curved magazine. Its designation as Bren is a combination of Brno (the Czech factory where it was first built) and Enfield (its British manufacturer).

Answer: Suomi KP-31

The Finnish Suomi had a 70 round drum magazine and was used to great effect during the Winter War of 1939-40, demonstrating the value of the submachine gun for suppressive fire. Finnish production of the Suomi ended in 1944, but the weapon continued to be used into the 1990s when it was finally withdrawn from service.

Answer: FN Browning High Power

The High Power was developed from a John Browning design by FN Herstal and was adopted by the Belgian Army in 1935. It was also adopted by many other countries around the world including many of the British Commonwealth nations (UK, Canada, Australia, etc.). Germany used thousands of HPs manufactured by FN in occupied Belgium during the war while the allied forces used HPs manufactured under license in Canada by Inglis.

Answer: 20

The BAR had a 20 round detachable box magazine. It was originally designed as a shoulder fired weapon providing walking fire as troops advanced across no man's land. It proved to be too heavy and powerful to be accurately fired from the shoulder and was given a folding bipod. It served with distinction as a squad automatic weapon in the US military through WWII and the Korean War.

Answer: Smaller backblast

The Projector Infantry Anti Tank was a man-portable spigot mortar that used a large spring and heavy bolt to ignite the propellant charge of a HEAT round. The spring then absorbed the recoil of the anti-tank round and (hopefully) recocked itself for the next target.

The PIAT produced very little backblast and could be used in confined spaces common in urban fighting. The Bazooka and Panzerschreck produced large backblasts that could be dangerous to the firer and anyone to their rear. The heavy spring made the PIAT much weightier than the Bazooka or Panzerschreck.

The PIAT had similar range and penetration as the Bazooka, but fell well short of the Panzerschreck in both categories.

Answer: 7.92 mm

The German MG-42 fired over 1,200 7.92 mm rounds every minute. For comparison, the American M60 has a rate of fire of about 550 rounds per minute. The 7.62 mm round is a NATO standardized ammunition and common among western post-war weapons. The .303 was used by the British and the .30 used by the US during WWII.