Quiz 6

Question 1

Synthetic Fuel

Answer 1

Petroleum products derived from coal, natural gas, biomass and other chemical products. This conversion process tends to be expensive but became vital to the Third Reich’s continuing existence during the last days of WWII.

Question 2

WOLFSCHANZE

Answer 2

The “Wolf’s Lair,” Hitler’s headquarters on the Eastern Front in Poland, where he came closest to being assassinated in 1944.

Question 3

JULY 20, 1944

Answer 3

Date of a near-fatal assassination attempt against Hitler at the Wolfschanze, led by a group of senior Wehrmacht officers.

Question 4

CLAUS VON STAUFFENBERG

Answer 4

A German military officer and war hero who planted a bomb at the Wolfschanze intended to kill Hitler.

Question 5

OPERATION VALKYRIE

Answer 5

The code name for a plan approved by Hitler to activate Germany’s reserve army in the event that Allied bombing caused a complete breakdown of law and order. A group of anti-Nazi conspirators within the Wehrmacht, however, used this plan as a cover for an assassination attempt against Hitler on July 20, 1944.

Question 6

ME-262 SCHWALBE (SWALLOW)

Answer 6

The first operational jet fighter. It also sported a swept-wing design which is characteristic of fighter jet aircraft to this day. It had about a 5 to 1 kill ratio

Question 7

OPERATION GOMORRAH

Answer 7

Code name for a series of Allied air raids on the German city of Hamburg in July of 1943. These raids created the first firestorm in history, essentially a tornado of fire.

Question 8

OMAHA BEACH

Answer 8

Code name for one of the Normandy beaches (the others were “Sword,” “Gold,” “Utah,” and “Juno.” A series of mishaps, strong defenses and unexpectedly fierce resistance by the Germans made Omaha the costliest of the landing areas on D-Day. American troops came ashore there.

Question 9

REMAGEN

Answer 9

A German town on the Rhine famous for its Ludendorff Bridge (Ludendorff was a German general of WWI and a colleague of Paul von Hindenburg). The Germans mined the bridge, as they did all the other bridges over the Rhine, but the fuses were removed by Polish troops, preventing the bridge’s destruction

Question 10

YALTA

Answer 10

A seaport and resort town in the Crimea on the Black Sea. Site of the last high-level conference among the original Big Three: Churchill, FDR and Stalin (Feb 4-11, 1945).

Question 11

HARRY S. TRUMAN

Answer 11

The 33rd President of the United States, who came to power in April of 1945 upon the sudden death of Franklin Roosevelt. It would be his responsibility to oversee the end of WWII, many aspects of which he had been left in the dark about as Vice-President.

Question 12

ELBE RIVER

Answer 12

A major river in eastern Germany. Dresden is the major German city on the Elbe. It arises in the Czech Republic, enters and crosses Germany, and empties into the North Sea near Cuxhaven.

Question 13

TORGAU

Answer 13

A town on the Elbe in Germany, where Soviet troops first met their western counterparts from Britain, America and France on April 25, 1945. This Allied link-up signaled the end of the Third Reich which collapsed less than two weeks later.

Question 14

VOLKSSTURM

Answer 14

A German National Guard established in October of 1944. It pressed into national service any male aged 16 to 60 who was not already in the German armed services. Elements of the Volkssturm in Berlin faced the Soviets when they entered the city in the last week of WWII.

Question 15

EVA BRAUN

Answer 15

Adolf Hitler’s mistress. She married Hitler on April 29, 1945, and then committed suicide with him the next day in his command bunker under the Reich Chancellery building in Berlin, as Soviet troops were approaching.

Question 16

ALBERT SPEER

Answer 16

Hitler’s long-time friend and personal architect. Together they planned and designed the Nuremberg Party Rallies of the 1930’s and the new buildings for the Thousand Year Reich.

Question 17

TADAMICHI KURIBAYASHI

Answer 17

Japanese commander on Iwo Jima, killed in the final action of that battle, although his body was never positively identified.

Question 18

MT. SURIBACHI

Answer 18

A mountain and dormant volcano on Iwo Jima. Site of the famous photograph of the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima shot by American photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Question 19

JOE ROSENTHAL

Answer 19

American photographer famous for his photograph of the raising of the American flag on Mt. Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Question 20

YAMATO

Answer 20

The largest battleship ever built, sporting naval guns capable of launching shells 18” in diameter. It was sunk in April of 1945 off Okinawa, taking the majority of its 2800 man crew down with it.

Question 21

U.S.S. INDIANAPOLIS

Answer 21

American heavy cruiser tasked with delivering vital parts of the atomic bomb to be used at Hiroshima to the island of Tinian in the Marianas. Few people knew of its secret mission

Question 22

Atomic bomb

Answer 22

The first nuclear device evidence ever invented

Question 23

Manhattan Project

Answer 23

A secret Allied project, based in the U.S., to develop an atomic bomb during WWII.

Question 24

Potsdam Project

Answer 24

The last high-level Allied conference of WWII, attended by Truman, Stalin, and Churchill, although Churchill was voted out of office during the conference and replaced by Clement Attlee, Britain’s new Prime Minister

Question 25

Alamogordo

Answer 25

A small town in New Mexico and headquarters of the testing facility which exploded the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945. The actual site of the explosion was in the desert 60 miles from Alamagordo.

Question 26

July 16, 1945

Answer 26

The date when the Atomic Age began. The date of the first atomic explosion in history.

Question 27

Trinity

Answer 27

Code name for the first atomic bomb test near Alamagordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. The bomb fused the desert sand into a kind of radioactive green glass, later called Trinitite. The Trinity test was of a plutonium fission device.

Question 28

Potsdam Declaration

Answer 28

Allied warning issued to Japan at the end of the Potsdam Conference to surrender or face annihilation. Four days later, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days after that, Nagasaki was bombed.

Question 29

Little boy

Answer 29

The code name of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It was a uranium fission device delivered by a B-29 named the Enola Gay.

Question 30

Fat Man

Answer 30

The code name of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. It was a plutonium fission device delivered by a B-29 named Bockscar,

Question 31

U-238

Answer 31

The most abundant, naturally occurring isotope (form) of the element uranium. Uranium itself is the largest naturally occurring atom, with a nucleus of 92 protons and 146 neutrons. About 99.2% of all uranium atoms are in this form

Question 32

U-235

Answer 32

A rare isotope of uranium with a nucleus of 92 protons and 143 neutrons. Only about 0.7% of all uranium atoms are in this form, but this is the form most suitable for making an atomic bomb.

Question 33

Pu-239

Answer 33

When U-238 is bombarded with slow neutrons, the nucleus often captures a neutron and becomes U-239. U-239 is very unstable and decays readily into neptunium-239 (Np-239), which is also unstable

Question 34

CRITICAL MASS

Answer 34

Fissile materials explode whenever just enough mass is available to sustain a run-away reaction of free neutrons, called a chain reaction. The mass sufficient for explosion is called a critical mass.

Question 35

PAUL TIBBETS

Answer 35

Pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima

Question 36

HIROSHIMA

Answer 36

Japanese city on the island of Honshu. Site of an army headquarters and port facility during WWII. The first victim of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945

Question 37

NAGASAKI

Answer 37

Second Japanese city to be a victim of the atomic bomb. In fact, to this day only Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been bombed with nuclear weapons

Question 38

AUGUST 6, 1945

Answer 38

Date of the bombing of Hiroshima using Little Boy, dropped by the Enola Gay.

Question 39

AUGUST 9, 1945

Answer 39

Date of the bombing of Nagasaki using Fat Man, dropped by Bockscar.

Question 40

ENOLA GAY

Answer 40

The B-29 bomber which dropped the atomic bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima, now in the Udvar-Hazy (Smithsonian) Air Museum in Washington, D.C.

Question 41

BOCKSCAR

Answer 41

The B-29 bomber which dropped the atomic bomb, Fat Man, on Nagasaki, now in the National Museum of the Air Force at Dayton, Ohio.

Question 42

OAK RIDGE

Answer 42

The town in Tennessee where the core of the uranium bomb used at Hiroshima was manufactured.

Question 43

V-J DAY

Answer 43

August 15, 1945 in Asia (August 14 in America). Victory over Japan Day. The day that the Japanese agreed to surrender.

Question 44

U.S.S. MISSOURI

Answer 44

An American battleship, also called the “Mighty Mo” and the “Big Mo.” One of the largest American battleships ever built, and it has the distinction of being the last American battleship ever built. Famous for its role in the surrender of Japan.

Question 45

SEPTEMBER 2, 1945

Answer 45

Date of the formal surrender of Japan on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Also the official end of WWII.

Question 46

DECOLONIALIZATION

Answer 46

European colonies across the globe, created in the late 19th century, were granted independence one by one after WWII. This process is called decolonialization.

Question 47

NUREMBERG TRIALS

Answer 47

Trials of the leaders of Nazi Germany, held in the German town of Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. Nuremberg had been the site of the Nazi Party rallies of the 1930’s and had enough intact buildings after the war to provide a venue for the trials.

Question 48

TOKYO WAR CRIMES TRIALS

Answer 48

Similar to the German war crimes trials at Nuremberg, the Tokyo trials began on May 3, 1946, and lasted until November 12, 1948. Trials were also held at various places in China. Twenty-eight major Japanese figures were tried out of the eighty detained after the war