World War II Trivia Questions - World War II Multimedia Database

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Wednesday, August 2, 2006

Q; Which was the heaviest tank on the Eastern Front?

A: The principal Russian main battle tank, the T-34, was 31 tons. The Soviet Union also used a large number of British and American tanks. The British Churchill was 39 tons, the American Sherman was 29 tons. The heaviest Soviet tank was the Josef Stalin IS-3 series at 46 tons.

Ther Germans outweighed them all, by a large margin. The King Tiger II pzkpfw VI weighed 70 tons, due to its 180mm frontal armor and its 80mm side armor. Still, it could make almost 20 miles an hour with that weight. Slower than the T-34, the Tiger II was faster than the Sherman.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Regarding the question below, Steve writes: "The iron cross, in German, is the "eiserne kreuz". The ritterkreuz is the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Iron Cross, which came in 1st and 2nd classes, could be awarded for a single conspicous act of gallantry. The Knight's Cross, unlike our Medal of Honor, was usually awarded after a series of valiant deeds, i.e., shooting down 100 enemy planes or destroying 100 enemy tanks. There were additional awards on top of the Knight's Cross for further accomplishments: oak leaves - eichenlauben; swords - swarden and diamonds - brillianten.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Q: I would like to know what the symbol of the German Army is called. The insignia that appears on most of the machinery used by the Germans. Do you know what this symbol is called by chance? I believe it is called an iron cross, but whenever I try to find anything regarding an "iron cross", the only thing I turn up is the curved version of what I am actually looking for.

A: You’re looking for the balkenkreuz (“black cross”). Originating in the crusades as the flag of the Knights Templars, it was introduced on July 13, 1939 in the form of a white cross with straight, equally sized lines. The Poles used the white cross as a target marking, so in early 1940, it changed to a white outline cross made up of four right angles. Many tankers and ground crews began adding the familiar black cross with a white outline at that time. In 1941, with the arrival of the Afrika Korps, dark mustard yellow versions appeared on their vehicles.

The swastika was called the Hakenkreuz is Nazi Germany, and the Iron Cross, the top medal in Nazi Germany, is the Ritterkreuz.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Q: What were Japanese troop dispositions and strengths outside of Japan at the end of the war?

A: In planning for Operation Coronet, the invasion of Japan, the Allies planned to encounter 5,000,000 soldiers. Over 600,000 opposed the Soviets invading Manchuria on August 8, 1945.

The total number of Japanese armed forces personnel demobalized by the U.S. Military Government after the surrender was 6,465,435, including 784,047 on Kyushu. MacArthur in Japan: The Occupation: Military Phase, vol. 1, supplement, p. 266, from the Reports of General MacArthur (Tokyo: SCAP, 1950).

It's unclear to me if that figure includes the 350,000 slave laborers retained by Stalin after the Japanese capitulation, or just the Japanese soldiers demobilized by SCAP.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Q: How many German tanks fought in the Battle of the Bulge?

A: According to the Official U.S. Army history, seven armored divisions spearheaded the attack that began on December 16, 1944. The lead forces had 970 tanks and assault guns in the assault units and 450 tanks and assault guns in the strategic reserve. About 500 of these were medium tanks - Panther pzkpfw V - which, while prone to mechanical difficulties, were superior to the American medium tank, the M4 Sherman. Each armored division had 100 tanks on average, about 40-50 of them Tigers or Panthers, with 250 Tiger tanks available in total. 1,900 artillery guns, many of them nebelwerfer rocket launchers, opened a barrage. 200,000 men in seven armored divisions and 12 2/3 infantry divisions opened a front sixty miles wide. Many of those infantry divisions were volksgrenadiers, recently recruited and poorly trained civilians that were too old or too young for a maximum effort. They had many more panzerfausts (anti-tank weapons) and machine guns and assault rifles than previous German formations. Some German divisions had 8000 men, and some had 17000.

Against this land armada, the Americans had 8 armored, 16 infantry, and 2 airborne divisions. Almost all of them were at full strength with around 15,000 men. The armored divisions had 232 M4 Shermans each.

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Q: How many troops did Germany have? I have heard wide ranges from 90,000 to 24,000,000.

A: It’s hard to say definitively what Germany’s troop strength was in total for World War II, because it fluctuated as the war progressed, and because so many nations contributed soldiers to Germany’s cause. The prevailing estimate is that 18.5 million service and combat troops served in total with the Wehrmacht. The 90,000 figure is definitely way off. About 90,000 men were left in the Stalingrad pocket in February 1943 when the German 6th Army surrendered. Germany also had men in German uniform from France, Norway, Holland, Hungary, Romania, India, and many other countries. I don’t know if they’re counted in the 18.5 million. Some 5.5 million soldiers and 3 million civilians were killed and 11 million soldiers were taken prisoner. It’s unknown how many died in Allied hands after 1945, but out of 90,000 at the surrender at Stalingrad, only 5,000 returned in 1955.

Monday, February 6, 2006

Q: I'm researching my deceased father's WWII military history - haven't discovered an awful lot yet, but I did find "314th troop carrier squadron" written on a laminated wallet-sized card, which seemed to be some sort of discharge "paper". I find lots of references to a 314th troop carrier GROUP, but not a squadron. Do you have any insights?

A group is around five squadrons. A squadron is about 10 planes, give or take the operational needs. The 314th Air Refueling Squadron (now in rotation to and from Iraq) can trace its proud history back to the 314th Troop Carrier Squadron during World War II.

October 23, 1943: Constituted as the 314th Troop Carrier Squadron.

November 1, 1943: 314th Troop Carrier Squadron activated at Sedalia Army Air Field, MO., assigned to the 349th Troop Carrier Group, and equipped with the C-53 Skytrooper and the C-47 Skytrain.

March 1945: HQ 349th Troop Carrier Group arrives in England.

April 3, 1945: 314th arrives in Barkston, England with C-47s, assigned to 349th Troop Carrier Group, IX Troop Carrier Command, 9th Tactical Air Force.

July 13, 1945: Departed for US. The official USAAF diary says they had C-46s at this time.

July 31, 1946: 314th Troop Carrier Squadron inactivated at Bergstrom Field, Texas.

The 314th squadron seems to have been reactiviated for the Korean War, but I don’t have any information about its day-to-day activities. It may have been a fighter-bomber squadron in the 1950s.

The 314th Troop Carrier Group served in North Africa, Italy, and France from 1942 to 1945.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Q: I heard that the Germans only needed 1500 troops at times to occupy France during World War II. How many German soldiers were in France during the occupation?

—Researcher in the United Kingdom

A: That figure may be related to the Vichy Regime, which administered southern France under Henrí Petain from 1940-1942, when the Germans occupied the entire country. The actual figure fluctuated depending on the expected needs of the Wehrmacht, the occupation authority, and the availability of garrison troops. Germany had a growing problem in 1940, as she conquered Western Europe without a concrete plan for post-victory occupation. Often the combat troops turned around and served as garrison for the Dutch, Danish, Belgian and French towns, until they were pulled out in early 1941 for service on the Eastern Front. What was left was a growing and somewhat organized amalgamation of old and young German service troops, collaborators, allied units, and Gestapo secret police. The number of soldiers were increased in France following the Torch landings in November 1942, and again in late 1943 and early 1944 when it was obvious that the Allies were about to land. By May 1944, 59 divisions, or about 800,000 men, were available to defend the Atlantic Wall against the invasion. When the Allies broke out in August 1944, German troop garrisons in coastal towns successfully denied the Allies a port to supplement their meager supply lines going back to Normandy. Many held out until May 1945.

For precise figures, check out these books, which may give you more information:

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Q: How many types of tanks fought in World War II?

A: That’s a difficult question to answer. First, what do you consider a tank? If you're counting main battle tanks (MBT), Germany had six different versions during World War II, each with more armor and a heavier gun. But if you include tank destroyers, assault guns, or even self-propelled artillery, you have a much greater range of types of vehicles.

On the Allied side, you have the MBTs like the Sherman and the Churchill, but do Hobart’s “funnies” created to breach the Atlantic wall count? They were Sherman and Churchill chassis with anti-mine and anti-mud attachments. In the Pacific, you had assault vehicles like the Amptrac “Buffaloes” and “Crocodiles” that were lightly skinned but effective in combat.

The number of types of tanks is quite large, even if you count just the MBTs. Thre were perhaps a dozen vehicles, minimum, that counted as tanks (or were fought as tanks) from each country. The impressive thing is that almost evey nation had World War One vintage tanks in service in 1939, but the 1945 versions were completely designed, built, or upgraded during the war. The power of the main battle tank in 1945 was such that soldiers from every army on every front quavered in the face of such monsters.

Thursday, December 1, 2005

You can E-mail me with questions about World War II and I will post the answres here. No question is too obscure!

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