World War 2
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98 free World War 2 trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
88 free World War 2 trivia questions with answers. These WWII trivia questions cover the whole war, not just D-Day and Pearl Harbor. Eighty-eight questions run from the invasion of Poland in 1939 through Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Midway, El Alamein, Normandy, the Bulge, Iwo Jima and Okinawa to the surrenders of 1945, with stops at the home front, rationing, the codebreakers of Bletchley Park, the Manhattan Project and the leaders on every side. The set is built for pub quizzes, classrooms and anyone who reads a lot of history: about a third of the questions are ones most people know, a third need real recall, and the rest will separate the buffs from the casuals. Every answer has been checked against a primary source or an encyclopaedia entry, so the dates, names and numbers here are ones you can argue with confidence.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Operation Weserübung, launched on 9 April 1940, was the German invasion of which two countries?
Denmark and Norway
Denmark and Norway were invaded on 9 April 1940; Denmark surrendered within hours, while Norway fought on until June 1940, securing Germany's Swedish iron-ore route through Narvik.
Q 02Which of these was one of the "Big Four" Allied powers?
China
Together with the Big Three, China was later counted among the "Four Policemen".
Q 03Which country was annexed into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938, in the event known as the Anschluss?
Austria
Austria's Chancellor Schuschnigg had been browbeaten by Hitler at Berchtesgaden a month earlier.
Q 04Which October 1944 engagement is the largest naval clash of World War II?
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf (23–26 October 1944) involved more than 200,000 naval personnel and is by most measures the largest naval battle in history; it also saw the first organized kamikaze attacks.
Q 05Which Eastern Front clash of massive urban fighting is often called the turning point against Nazi Germany?
Battle of Stalingrad
Fought from August 1942 to February 1943, it is considered the largest and deadliest urban battle in military history.
Q 06In what year did Germany invade Poland, generally considered the start of World War II in Europe?
1939
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, which led to Great Britain and France declaring war on Germany two days later, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe.
Q 07Who served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during D-Day?
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, gave the order to launch the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944; he later became NATO's first supreme commander and US president.
Q 08What was the code name for the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944?
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II.
Q 09Which country signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany in August 1939?
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in Moscow in the early hours of 24 August 1939 (dated the 23rd), with a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
Q 10Midway, in June 1942, came one month after which earlier carrier-versus-carrier engagement?
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea (4–8 May 1942) was the first naval battle in which the opposing ships never sighted each other; Midway followed on 4–7 June 1942.
Q 11Which Prime Minister led Britain into the war in September 1939 and resigned in May 1940?
Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain announced Britain's declaration of war on Germany in a radio broadcast on 3 September 1939 and resigned on 10 May 1940, days after the Commons Norway Debate shattered his authority.
Q 12Which leader was known as 'Der Führer' and led Nazi Germany during World War II?
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler merged the offices of chancellor and president after Hindenburg's death in August 1934, taking the title Führer und Reichskanzler, and led Germany until his suicide in Berlin on 30 April 1945.
Q 13Who became US president in April 1945 and went on to authorise the atomic bombings of Japan?
Q 21The Soviet invasion of which country on 30 November 1939 began the Winter War?
Finland
Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union on 30 November 1939; the Winter War ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty, signed 12 March 1940, which ceded Karelia and Vyborg to the USSR.
Q 22Which of these was one of the "Big Three" Allied powers of World War II?
United States
The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union were the 'Big Three', supplying the great bulk of Allied manpower and materiel; the three met together at Tehran in November 1943 and Yalta in February 1945.
Q 23Which admiral commanded the Japanese strike force that attacked Pearl Harbor?
Chūichi Nagumo
Harry S. Truman
Only on taking office was he briefed on the atomic bomb.
Q 14Which of these countries was NOT a major Axis power during World War II?
Spain
Franco's Spain shifted from "strict neutrality" to "non-belligerence" after the fall of France while still giving the Axis assistance.
Q 15On what date did Japan launch a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor?
December 7, 1941
The three US carriers assigned to the base were at sea, and its oil storage and repair facilities were not attacked.
Q 16Which city was the target of a sustained German bombing campaign known as 'The Blitz' from 1940-1941?
London
The Blitz was a prolonged German bombing campaign against British cities, primarily London, lasting from September 1940 to May 1941.
Q 17The post-war trials of Nazi war criminals were held at the Palace of Justice in which city?
Nuremberg
Nuremberg's Palace of Justice was chosen partly because it was relatively intact and had an attached prison, though the tribunal's permanent seat was Berlin.
Q 18What was the name of the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp?
Auschwitz
Auschwitz was the largest Nazi camp complex, with more than 40 sub-camps including Birkenau, where the gas chambers stood, and Monowitz, a labour camp for IG Farben; about 1.1 million people were murdered there.
Q 19Who was the Emperor of Japan during World War II?
Hirohito
Hirohito reigned from 1926 to 1989, more than 62 years, and is known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa; his radio broadcast on 15 August 1945 announced Japan's surrender.
Q 20Which British city was hit by the German air raid 'Operation Moonlight Sonata' in November 1940?
Coventry
Coventry suffered a particularly devastating German air raid on the night of November 14, 1940, which the Germans code-named 'Operation Moonlight Sonata'.
Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo commanded the Kido Butai, whose six aircraft carriers launched two waves of aircraft that struck Pearl Harbor at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian time on 7 December 1941.
Q 24Which German field marshal earned the nickname 'Desert Fox' for his command of German and Italian forces in North Africa?
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel's leadership in the North African campaign made him one of the ablest tank commanders of the war and earned him der Wüstenfuchs, the Desert Fox.
Q 25Which mathematician reconstructed the German military Enigma machine sight-unseen in late 1932?
Marian Rejewski
Marian Rejewski of the Polish Cipher Bureau deduced the Enigma's rotor wiring from intercepted traffic in December 1932; Poland shared its results with Britain and France in July 1939, before the war.
Q 26The February 1945 Yalta Conference took place on which peninsula?
Crimea
Yalta lies on the southern coast of Crimea; the talks were held at the Livadia Palace, with Stalin's delegation at the Yusupov Palace and Churchill's at the Vorontsov Palace.
Q 27What was the codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941?
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, when more than three million Axis troops crossed into the Soviet Union along a front from the Baltic to the Black Sea, opening the Eastern Front.
Q 28Which British statesman was Prime Minister for most of World War II and again from 1951 to 1955?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill took office on 10 May 1940, the day Germany invaded France and the Low Countries, led Britain until the July 1945 election, and returned as Prime Minister from 1951 to 1955.
Q 29Which July-August 1945 conference brought the 'Big Three' together over defeated Germany and the post-war order?
Potsdam
The Potsdam Conference ran from 17 July to 2 August 1945 at the Cecilienhof palace; Churchill was replaced mid-conference by Clement Attlee after losing the British general election.
Q 30Which term names Germany's doctrine of fast armoured thrusts backed by close air support?
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg was a highly effective tactic that allowed Germany to achieve swift victories in the early stages of the war, notably in Poland and France.