Welcome to our WW II Visual Quiz. This quiz is sort of like the old airplane recognition tests during the war: all you have to do is look at a picture and correctly identify what it is. The only scoring is how many questions you answer correctly on the first try. Study the picture and click your mouse on the down-pointing arrow in the window that says "select one." You'll see three choices for the answer, but only one is correct. When you select the correct answer, the word "correct" will appear in the right-most window and you'll be rewarded with more information about the picture (after all, this is an educational site!). If you select a wrong answer, the window on the right will invite you to "try again!"

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Questions answered correctly on first try:

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1. What does this patch represent?      -- select one -- Flying Tigers China-Burma-India Theatre Burma-China Troop Carriers

The CBI Theater was established on March 4, 1942 to control American forces on the Asia mainland. The goal of the force was to assist American allies, particularly China, in containing Japanese expansion westward. The CBI Theater did not contain large numbers of U. S. combat troops, but posed logistical problems beyond any previously faced by the U.S. Army. From India to the interior of mainland China, thousands of American soldiers ran railroads, built roads, provided medical care, flew cargo planes, and trained Chinese troops.

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2. What is this device?      -- select one -- A Hawkins mine issued to paratroopers A Limpet mine designed to sink ships An officer's whiskey flask with shot-glass holder

The British manufactured Hawkins mine was carried by paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions during D-Day (Pathfinders, demolition groups, and engineers specifically). The small size of the Hawkins mine allowed it to be carried easily by airborne troops, often strapped to the lower leg or in the large thigh pockets characteristic of paratrooper jump pants. It was known in inventory as "Grenade, Hand, No. 75, Anti-Tank, Mark I."

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3. This emblem was for what Allied command? -- select one -- Tactical Air Forces, Europe Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces Allied Commando Forces

The Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) was an alliance of American, British, and French forces responsible for planning and executing Allied activities in Western Europe against the Germans. SHAEF, led by supreme commander General Dwight Eisenhower, was the organization that developed Operation Overlord. SHAEF was established on February 13, 1944, and, following the German surrender on May 9, 1945, was disbanded on July 15, 1945. The black background represents the Axis powers. The flaming sword symbolizes the armed strength of the Allies who are represented by the rainbow arc. The Allies bring peace and restore freedom, depicted by the blue sky above the rainbow.

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4. What was this device used for?  -- select one -- Encrypting messages so the enemy could not read them Tracking airplanes in the dark Sending signals to bombers to improve their aim

The device pictured is the German Enigma machine, surely the best known of the WW II cipher machines used by either side in the conflict. Invented in 1918, it was developed as both a commercial and military encipherment system before and during the war. The Enigma was an electro-mechanical device that utilized a stepping wheel system to "scramble" a plain-text message to produce cipher-text via polyalphabetic substitution. Potentially, the number of cipher-text alphabets is astronomically large — a fact that led the German military authorities to believe, wrongly as it turned out, in the absolute security of this cipher system. [ More Information? ]

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5. What is this miniature vehicle?  -- select one -- An armored British teapot carrier One of Field Marshall Goering's toys A remote-controlled demolition transporter

The German "Goliath" (Sd.Kfz. 3 02/303a/303b) wire-controlled light demolition carrier was the first remotely controlled engineer vehicle of its kind. It was used as a mobile, armored explosive platform for pillbox, obstacle, and stronghold destruction. Resembling a squat mini-tank, the Goliath was one meter long, propelled by two automobile starter motors or a 2-cylinder gasoline engine, and held an 85-kg TNT "bunker-buster" charge. An operator controlled and detonated this device through a 400-meter electric cable, which spooled from the rear of a "mother" vehicle or trailer. The Allies first encountered this "secret" weapon at Anzio in early 1944 (and later on the Normandy beaches). Tactically speaking, the midget tank was a failure. At Anzio, most of them bogged down in the sand and were easily picked off by American artillery or dragged away without them detonating.

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6. Can you identify this tank?  -- select one -- An Italian Garibaldi light tank A Finnish Viren medium tank An American Sherman tank

Officially designated the M4 General Sherman main battle tank, the Sherman was the most widely used tank series in the war, being employed not only by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, but also by British, Canadian, and Free French forces. The M4 was employed in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and western Europe and throughout the Pacific Theatre. A total of 49,324 tanks was produced in 11 plants between 1942 and 1946. Even though it was usually out-gunned by heavier German tanks and its armor was far thinner (it was dubbed the "Zippo" because of its tendency to catch fire when hit), the Sherman was far more reliable than the panzers it faced and rarely broke down. Numerous specialized devices of all sorts (mine-detonating flails, bridging equipment) could also be fitted onto the Sherman's versatile, reliable chassis, making it the workhorse of the Anglo-American armies of World War II.

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7. What is the "gremlin's" name on this patch?  -- select one -- Minnie Fifinella Gladys

Fifinella, a female "gremlin," was adopted by WW II's Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) as their emblem. Gremlins were said invisible beings endowed with potent magical powers. According to their victims, these mischieveous, imaginary, elf-like creatures were responsible for all kinds of mechanical failures and other problems. At first, gremlins were suspected of being enemy agents, but investigators found that they played their terrible pranks anywhere, anytime, on anyone — regardless of nationality. (Although gremlins predated Murphy's famous law that whatever can go wrong will, they were obviously motivated by the same principles.) Walt Disney, who designed the insignia for the Flying Tigers, also designed Fifinella for the WASPs. Fifinella was spunky, had long eyelashes, hip boots, and gossamer wings, and came zipping merrily out of a bank of clouds. Her "job" was to scare off male gremlins.

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8. What does this banner signify?  -- select one -- One son serving in the armed forces A general's house A veteran of one WW II campaign

Developed by an Army officer who had two sons serving in World War I, the blue star service banner was a means by which a family could identify how many of its sons were serving in the armed forces. The banner, first patented in 1917, consisted of a white rectangle with a heavy red border. Inside of the white area were blue stars, one for each son in military service. The banners were widely used in the First and Second World Wars, but rarely used during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. Since September 11, 2001 the display of blue star service banners has been revived by the American Legion in order to honor American forces involved in defending the United States. These banners are sometimes mistakenly believed to indicate how many sons have been killed in combat.

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9. Can you identify this airplane?  -- select one -- P-61 Black Widow P-51 Mustang P-47 Thunderbolt

The P-51 was developed by North American Aviation, Inc. at the request of the British in 1940. The prototype, Model NA-73X, was developed in less than four months and tested in October of 1940. The plane entered production in 1941 and by mid-1942 active-duty combat planes were being flown by the Royal Air Force. Although the British initially named the fighter the "Apache," the name was eventually changed to "Mustang," a name that would later be added to the American P-51 designation. The P-51 was considered one of the best fighters produced during World War II, and even saw limited action in the Korean War as a ground-attack plane. The last documented use of the P-51 in combat was the 1969 conflict between Honduras and El Salvador.

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10. What Pacific island is shown below?  -- select one -- Peleliu Okinawa Iwo Jima

At just after 0900 hours on February 19, 1945, Marines hit the beaches of Iwo Jima, Japanese for "Sulfur Island." Iwo was a volanic atoll whose most prominent feature was the 550-foot dormant volcano, Mt. Suribachi (pictured). Troops who faught there considered it one of the ugliest and most unpleasant islands of the Pacific. The coarse, deep black-colored sand on its beaches made it hard for men and machines to move, which kept the assault troops pinned down on the narrow shores during the initial landing. Jets of green and yellow sulfur gas rose from vents in the rocky ground (and still do today), giving the whole island the smell of rotten eggs. During the 36-day campaign to take the island, a Marine fell to Japanese fire every two minutes; over 25,000 Americans were killed or wounded there. It was the only battle in U. S. history where Marines suffered more casualties than the enemy.

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11. These GIs are crossing part of what German defensive line?  -- select one -- Himmler's Belt The Siegfried Line The Granite Curtain

The Siegfried Line was the belt of mutually supporting pillboxes, tank-traps, minefields, gun emplacements, observation bunkers, and other static defenses set up by the Germans in the 1930s along the entire length of their western frontier in response to France's Maginot line. As planned, it was to feature over 22,000 fixed positions and stretch from the Swiss border in the south to the Dutch border in the north. It provided a slight respite for the German army in retreat in 1944, but was breached by Canadian troops in 1945 and dismantled after World War II. It was named by the Allies after the legendary Germanic hero Siegfried (the Germans had named it the West Wall). Among its more recognizable features were the bands of pyramid-shaped "Dragon's Teeth" — concrete obstacles arranged in tight clusters across roads and pastures that were designed to block the passage of tanks. Many of these survive on the German border today (see photo, inset).

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12. Who ordered the prayer below written?  -- select one -- Patton Montgomery Eisenhower

Chief Chaplain of the Third Army, James H. O'Neill, at the direction of General Patton, composed the now famous "Patton Prayer." The story of how the prayer was composed commenced with a telephone call to O'Neill on the morning of December 8, 1944. "This is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for weather? We must do something about those rains if we are to win the war." (Rain had plagued Patton's Army throughout the Moselle and Saar Campaigns since September, and had caused his attacks to become bogged down.) The prayer eventually was distributed to every soldier in the Third Army, although, as with many of Patton's actions, it attracted criticism. The complete story as told by O'Neill himself is here. The full text of the prayer can be found here.

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