Military History/Weapons Questions

Since I was a kid I've been a WWII buff & figured there may be others out there. (I was born in late 1946 so WWII & Korea were the stories I grew up with) First book I ever remember really enjoying was Walter Lord's "Day Of Infamy" (about the Pearl Harbor attack) & like to think of myself as a pretty good trivia buff. (My wife, if asked to name the beach code names for the 6/6/1944 Normandy invasion can still come up with 4 out of the 5!)
So, seeing as the heating season is almost done & political topics can get pretty rough, I figured I'd see if there was any interest in this topic.
I'll start & the questions can be anything related to military history/hardware/weapons...etc & the only rule is that you have to answer off the top of your head......No Googling the answer...That's no fun!

Since I mentioned the Normandy invasion, how about a few questions on that:


1. What was the overall code name for the invasion?
2. What were the top secret British cement blocks (to form a harbor) that were floated acroos the channel code named?
3. There were five beach code names: 2 American beaches, 2 British beaches & 1 Canadian Beach......What were their code names?


Feel free to ask any questions you want.

1. Operation Overlord?
2. Mulberrys?
3. Sword, Gold, Juno, Omaha, Utah.

coaledsweat wrote:1. Operation Overlord?
2. Mulberrys?
3. Sword, Gold, Juno, Omaha, Utah.

Damned good!! (Extra Credit: which beaches were which county's?)

Omaha, Utah --- USA
Gold, Juno --- UK
Sword ---- Canada

ktm rider wrote:Omaha, Utah --- USA
Gold, Juno --- UK
Sword ---- Canada

Almost had it.....
Juno..Canadian
Gold & Sword ..UK

A little tougher one: Name any of the Japanese aircraft carriers involved in the 12/7/1941 Pearl Harbor attack?
(no deduction for misspelling)

Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu. They were all at the bottom of the Pacific in 3.5 years.

coaledsweat wrote:Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu. They were all at the bottom of the Pacific in 3.5 years.

LOL...wow!! you are good!! (actually I think there were 2 smaller carriers involved also, but I may be wrong) The carriers you named were actually all sunk within 6 months of the Pearl Harbor attack at the battle of Midway!


Shoot me a question or 2!

Who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and what was his warning to the Japanese high command?

coaledsweat wrote:Who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and what was his warning to the Japanese high command?

Admiral Yamamoto who feared they had just suceeded in awakening a sleeping giant.

What were the code names of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki A-Bombs, & how were they different?

Devil5052 wrote:Admiral Yamamoto who feared they had just suceeded in awakening a sleeping giant.

That's a myth, there's no documentation to support it. It was used in the movie Tora, Tora, Tora. Whoever wrote movie said he got it from the Admiral's journal or something along those lines but they can't find the passage anywhere.

wasn't one of them code named " Big Boy" ? Man ! I am addicted to the History Channel and STILL don't know the answer....

Devil5052 wrote:What were the code names of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki A-Bombs, & how were they different?

One was "Little Boy" , I believe the difference was the type of material used. Uranium and plutonium maybe?

Little Boy and Fat Man. The first was a Uranium bomb, the second was plutonium.

Name the pilot that dropped the second bomb, everyone knows Paul Tibbets (who just recently died) dropped the first one.