The Winds of War Trivia Quiz

Answer: Battleships

Pug is an officer of the old school. His mind is used to evaluate battle situations in function of armour and ammunition. He underestimates the most important advantages of submarines (concealment) and aircraft carriers (mobility).
Robert Mitchum (1917-1997) plays this quite stubborn Navy officer.
Pug's eldest son Warren is one of the first to enlist on the Navy piloting course. When Pug's youngest son Byron joins the Navy, Byron picks the submarines.
In the sequel "War and Remembrance" (about the Second World War itself), Pug will be responsible for mass production of landing vehicles before getting an assignment on his favourite battleships.

Answer: Rhoda

Pug is married to Rhoda, a girl he wanted to marry as soon as they met. Pug and Rhoda married in 1915, and now they have three adult children. Rhoda is a genius in making everyone feel at home.
Hitler has invited diplomatic personnel from various embassies, and their wives. A long queue is waiting to shake Hitler's hand, but Rhoda is one of the few people who attract Hitler's personal attention.
Polly Bergen (born 1930) plays the part of Rhoda Grover Henry.
Madeline is Pug's and Rhoda's daughter.
Nathalie Jastrow is the Jewish scholar whom Byron meets in Italy.
Pamela Tudsbury is the daughter of the British reporter Alastair Tudsbury, and accompanies her father on various travels.

Answer: Art

Byron has always been fascinated by Renaissance art. So he goes off to Italy to try and write a dissertation on religious motives in Renaissance art. In Italy, Byron meets Nathalie, the daughter of a famous Jewish philosopher. Byron falls in love with her instantly.
Jan-Michael Vincent (born 1944) performs the role of Byron.
Religion, history and philosophy are quite boring according to Byron Henry - up till the moment he and Nathalie are trapped in Europe when war breaks out.

Answer: Assistant to a radio program

Rhoda and Pug, Madeline's parents, aren't quite pleased when Madeline leaves for New York and gets a job as Cleveland's personal assistant. Cleveland presents the immensely popular radio show "Who's in Town", a program with various guests who comment on the news of the day.
Lisa Eilbacher (born 1956) plays the role of Madeline.
The only banker present in the series "The Winds of War" is Wolf Stoller, a German Nazi banker.
"The Winds of War" contains no roles for spies nor for nurses.

Answer: Janice

Warren Henry, Pug's eldest son, has joined the Navy immediately after graduating. When he's offered the opportunity to follow a piloting course, he goes to Pensacola and becomes one of the first Navy pilots.
In Pensacola, Warren meets Janice Lacouture, the daughter of a US senator who advocates to stay out of the war. Warren and Janice soon marry, and a few days later Warren is assigned to an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Fleet.
Ben Murphy (born 1942) plays Warren Henry in "The Winds of War".
Victoria, Deborah and Elizabeth are the first names of some of the actresses starring in "The Winds of War". Victoria Tennant plays the role of Pamela Tudsbury. Deborah Winters plays the role of Janice Lacouture. And Elizabeth Hoffmann appears in two episodes as Eleanor Roosevelt.

Answer: She takes a cab to Warsaw

Nathalie Jastrow is an attractive US scholar, niece of a famous Jewish author. She lives with her uncle Aaron in Italy, and is accompanied to Poland by Byron Henry (after Aaron insisted).
The village of Medzice is situated in southern Poland, near a town then known as Oswiecim - renamed Auschwitz by the invading Germans.
When the Germans invade Poland, Nathalie, Byron and some other companions drive in an old cab to Warsaw, some 350 km to the North. There Nathalie visits the US embassy and meets her former fiancé Leslie Slote.
When Warsaw is on the verge of succumbing to the German army, Nazis evacuate all civilians from various embassies of neutral countries to Berlin. There Nathalie and Byron will meet Pug and Rhoda.
In "The Winds of War", Ali MacGraw (born 1939) plays the role of Nathalie Jastrow.
The flight to Switzerland, the train to Spain and the boat to Palestine are methods of transport Nathalie will try in the sequel series "War and Remembrance" to escape from the Nazis.

Answer: On board the steam ship Bremen

Pamela Tudsbury is accompanying her father Alastair to Germany, in order to write a series of articles on Nazi Germany. Pamela meets Pug on deck of the Bremen, crossing the Atlantic.
Victoria Tennant (born 1950) plays Pamela Tudsbury in "The Winds of War".
Alastair Tudsbury and Pamela invite Pug to Hitler's speech at the Reichstag when Hitler declares war on Poland.
Pamela drives Pug to Swinemünde, but she is not allowed at the yard itself.
Pamela never visits Karinhall. Pug does meet Goering at his mansion.

Answer: Because Aaron is a Jew

Aaron Jastrow is a Jew, but doesn't practice the Jewish religion anymore. However, according to the Nuremberg laws made by the Nazis, Aaron would be considered a Jew, as well as his niece Nathalie.
The series "The Winds of War" is set in 1939, so Germany has already had the Kristallnacht - one of the infamous highlights of anti-Semitic practices.
John Houseman (1902-1988) plays the role of Aaron Jastrow.
The series contains no spies for the French, nor people who've tried to kill Mussolini. The only Russians present in the series are some military advisors and generals of Josef Stalin (who he himself was Georgian, not Russian).

Answer: Berel

Berel Jastrow, cousin to Aaron and a distant relative of Nathalie's, is living in Poland near Krakow. When the Germans invade Poland, Berel convinces some distant relative to drive Nathalie and Byron from Medzice to Warsaw, in an old cab. It is quite crowded with eight people in this cab, but they reach Warsaw. Berel organises a group of people in Warsaw to fight the fires from continuous bombardments.
Chaim Topol (born 1935) plays the role of Berel Jastrow.
Sammy (Mutterperl), Moses (Sacerdote) and Benjamin (Murmelstein) are some of the minor Jewish characters in the sequel series "War and Remembrance".

Answer: Charles De Gaulle

Whereas the Henry family and the Jastrow family are fictive characters (and thus their adventures are fictive too), all events are set against an accurate historic background. So most of the main politicians in power in 1939 are portrayed during the series, and Victor Pug Henry (the fictive protagonist) meets real people such as Roosevelt, Hitler, Churchill, Stalin and Mussolini. Charles de Gaulle was in 1939 only a minor French colonel.

He would later be promoted to general and become leader of the Free French, but his historic role only gets started after the period described in the TV series "The Winds of War" (March 1939 - December 1941).