40 Fun Facts About World War II Memorial

Which wartime doodle of a bald man peeking over a wall is hidden twice at the World War II Memorial?

Kilroy peeks out from two out-of-the-way corners, a nod to the graffiti American troops left wherever they went. Rangers leave visitors to hunt for both.

In the World War II Memorial's field of 4,048 gold stars, each star stands for how many American military deaths?

100 deaths per star: together the stars stand for the more than 400,000 Americans who died or went missing, about one in every 40 who served.

Which country, a U.S. commonwealth in wartime and independent since 1946, has a pillar at the World War II Memorial?

Philippines is one of 56 names in the ring: the 48 states of 1945, the District of Columbia and seven territories of the time.

The World War II Memorial was built around which older National Mall landmark, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.?

Rainbow Pool, named in 1924 for the rainbow its 124 nozzles threw, was sunk lower into the ground and kept at the heart of the memorial.

Which Saving Private Ryan actor served as national spokesperson for the campaign to build the World War II Memorial?

Tom Hanks fronted the fundraising drive, work later cited when the Army Ranger Hall of Fame made him an honorary member.

Which nonprofit network, begun in 2005 with six small planes, flies veterans free to visit the World War II Memorial?

Honor Flight began after an Ohio clinic worker found that none of his 300 veteran patients had managed to see the new memorial. The first trip carried 12 veterans.

In 2013, a group of Mississippi veterans ignored a closure and entered the World War II Memorial during what event?

A government shutdown had closed the national parks that day, but rangers let the veterans in, ruling the visit a gathering protected by the First Amendment.

Of the roughly $197 million raised to build the World War II Memorial, most came from which source?

Private donations made up the bulk: federal money came to only about $16 million, and a direct-mail appeal alone drew millions from individual Americans.

Which senator, wounded in Italy in 1945, chaired the campaign that funded the World War II Memorial?

Bob Dole kept coming back once it was built, visiting on a weekly basis for many years to greet the people he found there.

Which president dedicated the World War II Memorial, capping a four-day reunion of veterans?

George W. Bush led the ceremony on May 29, 2004, eleven years after Bill Clinton signed the law that authorised the memorial.

Which event is the subject of the first Pacific bas-relief at the World War II Memorial?

Attack on Pearl Harbor opens the twelve Pacific panels, which run through enlistment, shipbuilding and jungle fighting before ending on V-J Day.

Which bronze birds, each with an 11-foot wingspan, hold a victory wreath inside the World War II Memorial's pavilions?

Eagles perch four to a pavilion on columns 18 feet tall, and the bronze wreath they share weighs 5,000 pounds.

Almost 17,000 individual blocks make up the World War II Memorial, most of them cut from which stone?

Granite from South Carolina forms the pillars and pavilions, while the paving underfoot was quarried in Georgia.

The World War II Memorial's pillars are ordered by when states joined the Union, starting with which state?

Delaware stands to the right of the gold stars and Pennsylvania to the left, then the states alternate outward like a military procession.

Before a gold star marked a death, wartime families hung window flags bearing a star of which color?

Blue stars came down and gold ones went up when the dreaded telegram arrived, the custom behind the field of gold stars at the World War II Memorial.

Which nickname for wartime women factory workers titles a World War II Memorial relief of aircraft construction?

Rosie the Riveter stands for the women who left home for the factory floor and pushed output of planes, ships and tanks to levels never seen before.

A plaque added to the World War II Memorial in 2023 carries the prayer which president offered the nation on D-Day?

Franklin Roosevelt read the prayer to the nation by radio on June 6, 1944; Congress ordered the plaque in 2014 and it was dedicated on the invasion's 79th anniversary.

Which general's message to Allied troops on the morning of D-Day is carved on the World War II Memorial?

Dwight Eisenhower issued it to the Allied Expeditionary Force on June 6, 1944, the day the landing craft crossed to Normandy.

A World War II Memorial bas-relief marks Hitler's surprise December 1944 offensive into Belgium, known by what name?

Battle of the Bulge takes its name from the dent the attack pushed into the Allied line. Fuel shortages and stubborn American defence of crossroads towns ended it.

A World War II Memorial bas-relief shows landing craft at Normandy on D-Day, an invasion that carried which codename?

Operation Overlord put Allied troops ashore in northern France on June 6, 1944, after nearly two years of bombing German positions there.

Which island named on the World War II Memorial's Pacific fountain rim saw Marines raise a flag on Mount Suribachi?

Iwo Jima's famous flag-raising photograph, taken by Joe Rosenthal in February 1945, actually shows the second flag hoisted on the summit that day.

The World War II Memorial's Pacific reliefs end with V-J Day; Japan signed its surrender aboard which battleship?

USS Missouri hosted the signing on September 2, 1945, nineteen days after word of Japan's surrender first reached troops in the Pacific.

Which general's radio address to Americans after Japan's surrender ceremony is carved on the World War II Memorial?

Douglas MacArthur spoke on September 2, 1945, the day the war formally ended, and his announcement of peace is among the memorial's inscriptions.

Frederick W. Smith, who co-chaired the World War II Memorial's corporate fundraising, founded which delivery company?

Federal Express, now FedEx, was his creation in 1971. The former Marine Corps officer shared the fundraising chair with a wounded World War II veteran.

Which policy of supplying allies with ships, tanks and food opens the World War II Memorial's Atlantic reliefs?

Lend-Lease let allies take the equipment at once and settle up after the war, and American farms ended up feeding them too.

A World War II Memorial bas-relief shows the bomber nicknamed the Flying Fortress, known by what designation?

B-17 crews flew with fighter escorts such as the P-51 Mustang, yet enemy fighters and flak still brought down thousands of airmen.

A World War II Memorial relief recalls the German U-boats that hunted Atlantic convoys in groups known as what?

Wolf packs helped U-boats sink more than 2,500 Allied ships before the convoy system and broken German codes turned the fight around.

The World War II Memorial's tank relief recalls the mass-produced M4, named for which Civil War general?

William Sherman lent his name to a tank that was outgunned by many German rivals but won through sheer numbers. It was the British who chose the name.

The World War II Memorial's architect, Friedrich St. Florian, was born in the city of Graz in which country?

Austria was home until 1961, when he moved to the United States. He became a citizen in 1973 and beat some 400 rival entries to win the commission in 1997.

Each World War II Memorial pillar carries two bronze wreaths, oak for industry and which crop for agriculture?

Wheat and oak together show that the states and territories gave their harvests and factory output to the war as well as their people.

The field of 4,048 gold stars on the west side of the World War II Memorial goes by what name?

Freedom Wall stands on the side nearest the Lincoln Memorial and takes the central spot in the ring of pillars, like the top-ranked guest at a formal gathering.

The World War II Memorial's last Atlantic relief shows U.S. troops meeting eastern allies at which German river?

Elbe handshakes on April 25, 1945, showed that Germany had been cut in two, and its unconditional surrender followed twelve days later.

Historian Walter Lord's words on the World War II Memorial praise the American victory in which 1942 naval battle?

Midway was fought on June 4-7, 1942, and the carved lines come from the 1967 book Lord wrote about it, Incredible Victory.

The Murmansk Run, carved on the World War II Memorial's Atlantic fountain rim, was a convoy route supplying which ally?

Soviet Union ports at Murmansk and Arkhangelsk received 78 Arctic convoys between 1941 and 1945, sailing from the United Kingdom, Iceland and North America.

Ray Kaskey, sculptor of the World War II Memorial's bronzes, also made which giant hammered-copper statue?

Portlandia kneels over a doorway in Oregon and is the country's second-largest hammered-copper statue, behind only the Statue of Liberty.

Veteran Roger Durbin's 1987 question to which Ohio congresswoman led to the law creating the World War II Memorial?

Marcy Kaptur introduced the bill four times before it became law in 1993, and later said seeing the memorial built gave her a great sense of fulfillment.

Which first commander of the Women's Army Corps, later a cabinet secretary, is quoted on the World War II Memorial?

Oveta Culp Hobby organized the corps in 1942 and in 1953 became the first Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, only the second woman in a cabinet.

Which leaf, a victory symbol since ancient Greece, forms the wreaths hung in the World War II Memorial's pavilions?

Laurel stands for victory in both theaters of the war, and each wreath hangs above a large victory medallion set into the pavilion floor.

Which island named on the World War II Memorial's fountain rim was the Enola Gay's base for the Hiroshima mission?

Tinian's North Field sent the bomber toward Japan on August 6, 1945, about six hours' flying time from its target.

The World War II Memorial's Field Burial relief recalls graves marked by a helmet on which upturned American rifle?

M1 Garand rifles stood in for headstones because fallen troops could not be sent home at once, so field burials became necessary across the Pacific.