10 World War 2 trivia questions with answers, from Poland to Hiroshima

How the war began

1. 1Poland · September 1939

   Britain and France declared war in September 1939. What triggered the declaration?

   • AThe German annexation of Austria
   • BThe German invasion of France
   • CThe remilitarisation of the Rhineland
   • DThe German invasion of Poland
   Show the answer

   D. The German invasion of Poland. Both had guaranteed Polish independence that spring. Earlier German moves — the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia — had been met with protest but not war.

   From the “World War II” story in Histia · Full story: How did World War 2 start?

2. 2Moscow · August 1939

   Germany invaded Poland confident that the Soviet Union would not intervene. Why?

   • AThe Soviet Union had declared permanent neutrality in all European wars
   • BStalin had concluded a defensive alliance with Britain earlier that summer
   • CThe Soviet army was committed to a difficult winter campaign against Finland
   • DThe two had just signed a pact secretly dividing Eastern Europe between them
   Show the answer

   D. The two had just signed a pact secretly dividing Eastern Europe between them. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939. Soviet forces entered Poland from the east two weeks after the Germans entered from the west.

   From the “World War II” story in Histia · Full story: How did World War 2 start?

3. 3Washington · 1941

   What was Lend-Lease?

   • AThe rationing system that governed civilian supply during the war years
   • BA programme supplying arms to Britain and the Allies before the United States entered the war
   • CAn agreement leasing American naval bases in the Pacific to Japan
   • DA credit scheme allowing American farmers to borrow against future harvests
   Show the answer

   B. A programme supplying arms to Britain and the Allies before the United States entered the war. It let Roosevelt aid Britain while formally neutral. He compared it to lending a neighbour your garden hose when their house is on fire.

   From the “Franklin D. Roosevelt” story in Histia · Full story: World War 2 timeline: 26 key dates

4. 4Hawaii · December 1941

   What brought the United States into the war?

   • AThe German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941
   • BThe Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941
   • CThe fall of France to the German army in June 1940
   • DThe sustained bombing of London during the Blitz
   Show the answer

   B. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The United States had been selling Britain arms since late 1939, and lending them under Lend-Lease from March 1941, but stayed out of the fighting until Pearl Harbor. Germany declared war on the United States four days later.

   From the “World War II” story in Histia · Full story: World War 2 timeline: 26 key dates

The turning points

1. 5Stalingrad · 1942–1943

   Why is Stalingrad treated as a turning point?

   • AIt destroyed an entire German army and halted the German drive into the Soviet Union
   • BIt knocked Italy out of the war and brought down Mussolini's government
   • CIt was the battle that first persuaded the Allies to build an atomic bomb
   • DIt was the first landing of Allied troops on the European mainland
   Show the answer

   A. It destroyed an entire German army and halted the German drive into the Soviet Union. The German Sixth Army was encircled and surrendered in February 1943. Germany attacked once more, at Kursk that summer, and failed; from then on it was the Red Army that advanced.

   From the “World War II” story in Histia · Full story: World War 2 timeline: 26 key dates

2. 6Occupied Europe · 1933–1945

   The Holocaust was the systematic murder of some six million Jews. What else characterised it?

   • AIt was carried out by the regular army rather than by any dedicated organisation
   • BIt was confined within Germany's own pre-war borders and did not extend to occupied Europe
   • CIt was carried out by bureaucracy and industrial method, and also targeted Roma and disabled people
   • DIt began only once the war had turned decisively against Germany in the east
   Show the answer

   C. It was carried out by bureaucracy and industrial method, and also targeted Roma and disabled people. Persecution began in 1933 with law and exclusion, and escalated to mass killing across occupied Europe. Its administrative, industrial character is what sets it apart from earlier massacres.

   From the “World War II” story in Histia · Full story: World War 2 timeline: 26 key dates

3. 71941–1945

   Which of these happened LAST?

   • AThe German invasion of the Soviet Union
   • BThe Battle of Stalingrad
   • CThe atomic bombing of Hiroshima
   • DThe D-Day landings in Normandy
   Show the answer

   C. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Invasion of the USSR June 1941, Stalingrad winter 1942–43, D-Day June 1944, Hiroshima August 1945.

   From the “World War II” story in Histia · Full story: What happened on D-Day?

How it ended

1. 8Warm Springs, Georgia · April 1945

   Roosevelt died in April 1945. What had not yet happened?

   • AThe Yalta Conference
   • BThe attack on Pearl Harbor
   • CThe D-Day landings
   • DThe German surrender
   Show the answer

   D. The German surrender. He died less than a month before V-E Day, and it was Truman — who had not been told the atomic bomb existed — who finished the war.

   From the “Franklin D. Roosevelt” story in Histia · Full story: World War 2 timeline: 26 key dates

2. 9San Francisco · 1945

   Which organisation was founded in 1945 to prevent a third such war?

   • AThe United Nations
   • BNATO
   • CThe Warsaw Pact
   • DThe League of Nations
   Show the answer

   A. The United Nations. The League of Nations was its interwar predecessor, and its failure to stop aggression in the 1930s is precisely what the UN's founders were trying to correct.

   From the “World War II” story in Histia

3. 10After 1945

   What was the war's central geopolitical result?

   • AGermany was permanently partitioned into six separate independent states
   • BEurope ceased to be the centre of world power, and two rival superpowers emerged
   • CBritain and France divided the former German and Japanese empires between them
   • DThe European colonial empires emerged strengthened and expanded their holdings
   Show the answer

   B. Europe ceased to be the centre of world power, and two rival superpowers emerged. The alliance that beat Germany broke apart almost immediately. The Cold War is the direct continuation of how the war ended.

   From the “World War II” story in Histia · Full story: What was the Cold War, really?