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World Wars: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
The First World War
The First World War began in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and ended in 1918. Millions of people died.
Key fact
The fighting stopped at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918.
Trench Warfare
On the Western Front, armies dug hundreds of kilometres of trenches. Machine guns and artillery made attacks deadly, and the front lines barely moved for years.
Key fact
Tanks were first used in battle in 1916.
The Second World War
The Second World War lasted from 1939 to 1945. It began when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and became the deadliest conflict in history.
Key fact
Around 70 to 85 million people died.
Allies & Axis
The main Allies, including Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and China, fought the Axis powers: Germany, Italy and Japan.
Key fact
The US entered the war after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
The Holocaust
During the war, Nazi Germany systematically murdered around six million Jews, along with Roma, disabled people and others. It is remembered so that it never happens again.
Key fact
Holocaust Memorial Day marks the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January 1945.
D-Day & the End
On 6 June 1944, D-Day, Allied troops landed in Normandy. Germany surrendered in May 1945, and Japan in September 1945, after atomic bombs hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Key fact
D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history.
After the Wars
After 1945, countries created the United Nations to keep the peace, and rebuilt Europe with help such as the US Marshall Plan.
Key fact
Former enemies Germany and Japan soon became close US allies.
Fun facts
Pigeons carried messages in the First World War. One, Cher Ami, was awarded a French medal for bravery.
Tanks got their name as a cover story: workers were told they were building water tanks.
Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda kept fighting in a Philippine jungle until 1974, not believing the war was over.
The name “Axis” came from a 1936 speech by Mussolini about an axis running between Rome and Berlin.
Anne Frank’s diary, written while hiding in Amsterdam, has been translated into over 70 languages.
D-Day’s date hung on a weather forecast: meteorologists predicted a brief calm spell, and they were right.
The Marshall Plan sent about 13 billion dollars to help rebuild Western Europe.
Story: The Wrong Turn
The Wrong Turn
28 June 1914, Sarajevo. A bomb is thrown at Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s car. It bounces off, and the heir to Austria-Hungary’s throne escapes.
Later, he decides to visit the wounded in hospital. Nobody tells his driver, who takes a wrong turn, stops, and starts to reverse.
Standing right there is Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old conspirator. He fires twice. Within weeks, Europe was at war.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
The First World War ended in 1918.
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True. With the armistice of 11 November.
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Question 2 of 10
Tanks were first used in the First World War.
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True. At the Somme, in 1916.
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Question 3 of 10
The Second World War began in 1939.
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True. With the invasion of Poland.
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Question 4 of 10
Japan was one of the Axis powers.
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True. Alongside Germany and Italy.
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Question 5 of 10
Around six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
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True. In a planned genocide.
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Question 6 of 10
D-Day took place in Normandy in 1944.
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True. On 6 June.
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Question 7 of 10
The United Nations was founded after the Second World War.
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True. In October 1945.
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Question 8 of 10
The First World War’s fighting stopped at midnight.
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False. At 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918.
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Question 9 of 10
The Western Front moved hundreds of kilometres every week.
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False. It barely moved for years.
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Question 10 of 10
The Second World War was smaller than the First.
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False. It was far larger and deadlier.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. World Wars has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- Imperial War Museums — First and Second World War histories
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Holocaust Encyclopedia
- The National WWII Museum — D-Day and the war’s end
- United Nations — History of the UN
- Imperial War Museums — The Christmas truce; evacuation; Chain Home radar; the poppy
- National WWII Museum — Navajo code talkers
