Armed and Dangerous Trivia Quiz

Answer: Claymore

The name of 'claymore' is the anglicised version of the Gaelic words meaning 'great sword'. The weapon is particularly associated with the Highlands - the northernmost regions of Scotland. It was first used in the early fifteenth century, and its last use in battle is dated to the late seventeenth century.

A shillelagh is an Irish club, and a halberd is a type of long handled axe. The dirk is a dagger, also often associated with Scotland and part of traditional Highland dress.

The photo is of a modern replica.

Answer: Nepal

The name can also be spelled as kukri or khukuri, and the knife is used in Nepal as an everyday tool as well as a weapon. It is particularly associated with the Nepalese forces known as the Gurkhas who formed their own regiments within the British Army from the mid nineteenth century. When India, which neighbours Nepal, became an independent country in 1947 many of the Gurkhas transferred to the Indian Army, although the British Army also retained its own Gurkha regiments.

The Gurkhas fought as part of the British Army in many conflicts, including both world wars, and were renowned for their bravery. Gurkha soldiers were awarded twenty-six Victoria Crosses, the highest award for bravery in the British Army, between 1858 and 1965.

The photo shows the distinctive curved blade of the knife.

Answer: Yew

The skill of the archers using the longbow is credited with giving the English victory over the French in several major battles of the Hundred Years War, including those of Crecy and Agincourt in 1415. A trained bowman could shoot between five and six arrows per minute, which gave the opposing forces little respite between volleys.

Yew was the favoured wood for making the bows, although other woods, such as ash, were used as well. Demand for yew was so high that English woods were soon exhausted, leading to import from continental Europe. Laws were passed to force shipowners to bring in wood as well as their normal cargoes, which had the effect of decimating yew stocks in Europe as well.

The introduction of firearms brought an end to the longbow as a weapon, but they are still produced for sport in modern times.

The photo is of an English longbow made from yew.

Answer: Cocktail

The name comes from the Soviet foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, and was coined by the Finns. They were not the first to use the weapon, as there is evidence of its use during the Spanish Civil War which began in 1936. The Finns came up with the name when the Soviets invaded Finland in November 1939. Faced with an army possessing a large number of tanks, the Finns had to come up with a means of fighting them. The bombs were quite effective, particularly as the Finns developed tactics to make best use of them. They are still used by protesters in many countries, since they are easy to produce.

The picture shows a defused Molotov cocktail.

Answer: Device

Effectively, these are 'booby traps', put together with whatever materials are available to cause damage to unsuspecting opposition forces. The phenomenon is not new, but the use of the expression of IED dates from the 1970s, when the British Army were in conflict with the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. Improvised munitions have been used in many conflicts around the world, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria. They can include car bombs and bombs carried by suicide bombers, although it seems to be applied more often to the type of roadside device aimed at passing vehicles.

The device shown in the photo was created for training purposes.

Answer: Orange

Agent Orange was sprayed from the air on crops and foliage on the ground in Vietnam. The forces were told that the crops were being grown to feed the guerrilla forces, and that destruction of the forests would mean that the opposition forces would have fewer places to hide. Many sources refer to a figure of around 20 million US gallons being sprayed over the period of the war. As well as the contamination of the foliage, many Vietnamese people suffered greatly, with a greatly increased incidence of birth defects and other problems.

Other herbicides were also used during the Vietnam War, and identified by colours. These included Agents Pink, Green and Purple, but none of the other options I listed, and Agent Orange was the best known of them.

The photo is of drums left in Vietnam.

Answer: Bolt

The crossbow is one of the easier weapons to operate, particularly when compared to the longbow. Its projectiles could be deadly, even against an armoured knight. It needed little training and was used by the lowest ranked infantry, so carried little status. It also took a long time to reload, so only two bolts could be shot in each minute, and left the operator vulnerable during the reloading process.

The crossbow led to the death of King Richard I (the Lionheart) in 1199. He was shot in the shoulder by a bolt, which led to the gangrene from which he died.

The British players may well remember Bob Monkhouse saying 'Bernie, the bolt' in the game show 'The Golden Shot', which involved competitors aiming a crossbow to win prizes.

The photo shows a crossbow and various accessories, including bolts.

Answer: Shuriken

The literal translation of shuriken is 'sword hidden in the hand', and the weapon can be thrown or used at close quarters to stab an opponent. They were one of the weapons used by the traditional samurai of Japan, although nowadays they are associated with video games and ninjas. There are two main types - the bo-shuriken, which is a spike shape, and the hira-shuriken, which is the better known version in the west, and often referred to as the 'throwing star'.

The katana is a samurai sword and a kanabo is a spiked club. The nunchaku consists of two wooden rods joined by a chain at one end.

The photo shows several different types of shuriken.

Answer: World War I

By 1916, the war had become bogged down (literally) with troops from both sides in trenches. A prototype tank was developed in the UK in late 1915 before being shown to the army in February 1916. By September 1916, the tank was ready to use in anger and made its first appearance in combat in September 1916, in the Battle of the Somme. The French were not far behind, as they were developing their own version of the tank at the same time.

The picture is of a Mark V version of the tank, first used in 1918.

Answer: Lance

The lance was a wooden pole, with ash being a favourite wood, tipped with a metal spike and measuring anything between nine and fourteen feet long. Knights would paint it in the same colours as their coats of arms. In jousts, the spike would be replaced by a coronal, a metal cap, although this did not necessarily prevent injuries. In 1536, King Henry VIII suffered severe injuries after being unhorsed during a joust, with some historians believing that this caused some brain damage and a change in his character.

Lancers were mounted soldiers, armed with a lance, and were still operating as such into the twentieth century. The name lives on in the name of several army units in the twenty-first century.

The photo shows knights using their lances in a joust.