70 free Naval Battles of World War II trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This naval battles of World War II trivia quiz covers the sea war in every ocean. In the Pacific it runs from Pearl Harbor and the sinking of Force Z through Java Sea, Coral Sea, Midway and the brutal night actions off Guadalcanal, to the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, Leyte Gulf, Taffy 3's stand off Samar and Yamato's last sortie. In the Atlantic and Mediterranean it takes in the River Plate, Narvik, Taranto, Matapan, the hunt for the Bismarck, the Channel Dash, PQ 17, Operation Pedestal, the Barents Sea, the North Cape and the U-boat war that turned in Black May 1943. The questions range from easy (the date of Pearl Harbor, how many carriers Japan lost at Midway) to genuinely hard (which cryptanalyst first read Italian naval Enigma, who commanded Yamato's final mission), with the admirals, codebreakers, ships and decisions that shaped each battle. If you want the wider conflict, our World War 2 and World War I pages are the place to go next. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's battle articles and the official histories they cite, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which October 1944 engagement was the largest naval battle of World War II?
Leyte Gulf
It was also the first battle in which Japanese aircraft flew organised kamikaze attacks.
Q 02Which May 1942 battle was the first in which the opposing fleets never sighted or fired on one another?
Coral Sea
It was also the first battle between aircraft carriers, and it stopped the Japanese seaborne push toward Port Moresby.
Q 03How many Japanese fleet carriers were sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942?
4
Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū all went down, along with many irreplaceable veteran pilots.
Q 04How did US codebreakers confirm that the Japanese target 'AF' was Midway?
A fake message that the atoll's water plant had failed
Within 24 hours a Japanese signal reported that 'AF' was short of water, and Nimitz set his ambush.
Q 05Which US carrier was lost at Midway, only weeks after being patched up in three days at Pearl Harbor?
USS Yorktown
Estimates said she needed months in dock after the May carrier battle; instead she sortied in time to help sink four Japanese carriers.
Q 06Who commanded the Japanese carrier strike force at both Pearl Harbor and Midway?
Chūichi Nagumo
Yamamoto planned both operations but stayed with the main body; the strike force itself, the Kidō Butai, was Nagumo's.
Q 07The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place on what date?
December 7, 1941
The US declared war on Japan the next day; the same morning Japan also struck the Philippines, Guam, Wake, Malaya and Hong Kong.
Q 08Of the eight US battleships at Pearl Harbor, how many were sunk?
4
All eight were damaged; every one but Arizona and Utah was later refloated and six returned to service during the war.
Q 09The 353 Japanese aircraft that struck Pearl Harbor flew from how many carriers?
6
They came in two waves; the first launched at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian time.
Q 10Along with the target ship USS Utah, which battleship sunk at Pearl Harbor was never refloated?
USS Arizona
Her wreck remains in the harbour beneath the memorial dedicated in 1962.
Q 11How many Americans were killed in the Pearl Harbor attack?
2,403
A further 1,178 were wounded, and more than 180 US aircraft were destroyed on the ground.
Q 12Which October 1944 Philippines engagement was history's last battleship-versus-battleship action?
Surigao Strait
Oldendorf's old battleships crossed the T of Nishimura's force, though by then only Yamashiro was still in line.
Q 13In October 1944, Halsey took the Third Fleet north after a decoy carrier force led by which Japanese admiral?
Jisaburō Ozawa
The bait carriers had only 108 aircraft between them, but the ruse left the San Bernardino Strait unguarded.
Q 21How many Bismarck survivors did British warships rescue before a U-boat scare ended the effort?
110
A U-boat and a German weather ship found five more; over 2,000 men died.
Q 22How many of HMS Hood's crew survived her destruction on 24 May 1941?
3
A shell from Bismarck reached her aft magazines and she sank in about three minutes with 1,415 men.
Q 23HMS Hood was sunk in which strait, between Greenland and Iceland?
Denmark
Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were trying to slip through it into the North Atlantic convoy lanes.
Q 24The May 1941 breakout of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen was code-named what?
Q 14Who commanded the escort carrier group Taffy 3 during its desperate stand off Samar on 25 October 1944?
Clifton Sprague
Six small escort carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts faced Kurita's battleships and cruisers.
Q 15Off Samar, Kurita mistook Taffy 3's escort carriers for what?
Halsey's main fleet
Believing he faced Halsey's fleet carriers, he eventually broke off, sparing the vulnerable landing force on Leyte.
Q 16Which destroyer captain charged Kurita's fleet off Samar and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor?
Ernest Evans of USS Johnston
Without consulting anyone, he rang up flank speed and laid smoke, and his torpedo run threw the Japanese line into disarray.
Q 17Which battleship, Yamato's sister ship, was sunk by carrier aircraft in the Sibuyan Sea in October 1944?
Musashi
The bulk of the day's air strikes were poured into that single ship while Kurita's other heavy units survived.
Q 18Yamato's one-way sortie toward Okinawa in April 1945 is best known as which operation?
Ten-Go
Yamato and five escorts were sunk by carrier aircraft before reaching Okinawa, for the loss of ten American planes.
Q 19Which vice admiral commanded Yamato's final sortie despite believing the plan futile and wasteful?
Seiichi Itō
Kusaka flew from Tokyo to talk him round; Yamato capsized at 14:20 on 7 April 1945.
Q 20Swordfish from which British carrier jammed Bismarck's rudders on 26 May 1941?
HMS Ark Royal
The biplane torpedo bombers left her steaming in circles, and King George V and Rodney finished her the next morning.
Operation Rheinübung
The plan was to raid the convoys carrying supplies from North America to Britain; it lasted barely a week.
Q 25After the December 1939 Battle of the River Plate, Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled off which neutral port?
Montevideo
Uruguay gave her 72 hours; her captain, convinced a superior force waited outside, blew her up on 17 December.
Q 26Who was the captain of Admiral Graf Spee, who took his own life two days after scuttling her?
Hans Langsdorff
His raiding cruise sank several merchantmen without a single death because he took every crew aboard first.
Q 27Which cruiser in the River Plate squadron was serving with the Royal Navy's New Zealand Division?
Achilles
She and Ajax were Leander-class light cruisers, alongside the heavier Exeter which was badly mauled.
Q 28The November 1940 raid on Taranto used 21 Swordfish flying from which carrier?
HMS Illustrious
It was the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history.
Q 29Why did Japanese planners study the Taranto raid while preparing the Pearl Harbor attack?
Both targets were shallow harbours
Japan had been working on shallow-water torpedo drops since 1939, and Taranto proved it could be done.
Q 30Which British admiral commanded at both Taranto and Cape Matapan?
Andrew Cunningham
He said Taranto proved the Fleet Air Arm was 'the Navy's most devastating weapon'.