These World War 2 trivia questions and answers stay with dates, places, pacts and conferences, in five rounds from the invasion of Manchuria to the peace treaties. No casualty count is asked.
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WW2 trivia questions and answers, round by round
The road to war, 1931 to 1939 runs from Manchuria to the Pact of Steel. The next two rounds follow the war from the pact of August 1939 to the meeting on the Elbe. Surrender, the peace and what the war left has Tokyo Bay, the United Nations and penicillin. The last round is the home front.
History for a quiz, read aloud
These World War II trivia questions and answers ask when, where and which document. They leave out death tolls, the camps and weapons, so a table of mixed ages can play. Pick a choice and the card gives the answer, its reason and the article behind it.
Tips
The war widens and turns, 1941 to 1945 has no easy questions; start a mixed table on Rosie the Riveter.
Questions and answers
What are some easy World War 2 trivia questions?
Which country did Germany annex in March 1938? Who resigned as British prime minister in May 1940? Which medicine was first mass produced during the war? The answers are Austria, Neville Chamberlain and penicillin.
What are some tough trivia questions about WW2?
Which truce did Japan and China sign in 1933? Which treaty settled Southern Dobruja in 1940? What ended the state of war between Japan and the Soviet Union in 1956? The answers are the Tanggu Truce, the Treaty of Craiova and a joint declaration.
Is there a Rosie the Riveter trivia question?
A whole round. It asks the year of the song that named her, who painted her for a magazine cover in 1943, what she holds in her left hand, and why the ships at Richmond, California were not riveted at all.
Are the World War 2 trivia questions and answers printable?
Yes. Play ten questions and the end card offers Print question sheet: the next 20 questions, each with lettered choices. Open More options there for Print answer key, which gives the reasons too.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article World War II or Rosie the Riveter, whichever the question links. The Normandy beaches are not asked, because neither article names them.
After the revolution of 1918 to 1919, by what name was Germany's democratic government later known?Answer: The Weimar Republic. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
By which other name was the Ethiopian Empire known?Answer: Abyssinia. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935 from Italian Somaliland and which other colony?Answer: Eritrea. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
What name was given to the tie that Germany and Italy formed in October 1936?Answer: The Rome-Berlin Axis. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
What were the foreign volunteers called who fought against the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War?Answer: The International Brigades. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which 1938 agreement gave the Sudetenland to Germany against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government?Answer: The Munich Agreement. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which alliance did Germany and Italy formalize in 1939, shortly after Britain and France gave their pledge to Poland?Answer: The Pact of Steel. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which country did Germany annex in March 1938?Answer: Austria. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which pact did Germany and Japan sign in November 1936, with Italy joining the following year?Answer: The Anti-Comintern Pact. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which region did Germany remilitarize in March 1936, in defiance of the Versailles and Locarno treaties?Answer: The Rhineland. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which region of China did Japan invade in 1931?Answer: Manchuria. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which region, the former Memelland, did an ultimatum of March 20, 1939 force Lithuania to give up?Answer: The Klaipėda Region. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which truce of 1933 followed battles between Japan and China in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei?Answer: The Tanggu Truce. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
From the pact to the Atlantic Charter, 1939 to 1941 13
A 1939 change to the Neutrality Act let the Allies buy from the United States on which terms?Answer: Cash and carry. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
After the armistice of 1940, what was the unoccupied French state called?Answer: The Vichy regime. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
From which body was the Soviet Union expelled after it invaded Finland in November 1939?Answer: The League of Nations. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
In late August 1941 the British and the Soviets invaded which neutral country to secure the Persian Corridor?Answer: Iran. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
On which date in 1940 did Paris fall to German forces?Answer: June 14. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
On which date in September 1939 did Britain and France declare war on Germany?Answer: September 3. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Through which region, wrongly thought to be a natural barrier to armored vehicles, did German forces make their flanking move in 1940?Answer: The Ardennes. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
What is the quiet period that followed the declarations of war in the west known as?Answer: The Phoney War. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
What kind of agreement did the Soviet Union sign with Germany on August 23, 1939?Answer: A non-aggression pact. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which statement of goals for the post-war world did the United Kingdom and the United States issue together in August 1941?Answer: The Atlantic Charter. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which three countries joined the Axis in November 1940?Answer: Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which treaty of September 1940 followed Bulgaria's demand for Southern Dobruja from Romania?Answer: The Treaty of Craiova. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Who resigned as British prime minister in May 1940 after discontent over the Norwegian campaign?Answer: Neville Chamberlain. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
The war widens and turns, 1941 to 1945 16
At which conference in early 1943 did the Allies demand the unconditional surrender of their enemies?Answer: Casablanca. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
At which river did American and Soviet forces meet on April 25, 1945?Answer: The Elbe. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
The capture of Mount Song by Chinese forces in September 1944 helped to reopen which supply road?Answer: The Burma Road. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Germany's summer offensive of June 1942 set out to seize the oil fields of which region?Answer: The Caucasus. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
In 1941 the Philippines was an American protectorate scheduled for independence in which year?Answer: 1946. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
In 1944 Commonwealth positions were besieged at Imphal and at which other place in India?Answer: Kohima. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
In January 1944 the Allies tried to outflank the line at Monte Cassino with landings at which place?Answer: Anzio. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
In November 1943 Roosevelt and Churchill met Chiang Kai-shek in which city before they met Stalin in Tehran?Answer: Cairo. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Into which country did Axis forces in Africa withdraw before the Allies conquered it in May 1943?Answer: Tunisia. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Japan occupied the northern part of which French colony in September 1940?Answer: Indochina. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
The Japanese offensives of December 7, 1941 fell on which date in Asian time zones?Answer: December 8. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
On which date in 1944 was Paris liberated?Answer: August 25. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
The Western Allies launched the invasion of which island on July 9, 1943?Answer: Sicily. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which doctrine, promoted by the Japanese navy, turned the country's focus southward?Answer: Nanshin-ron. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which four governments made up the Allied Big Four of January 1942?Answer: The Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which Vichy-held island did the British invade in early May 1942, fearing that Japan might use its bases?Answer: Madagascar. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Surrender, the peace and what the war left 12
Britain held a general election during the Potsdam conference. Who replaced Churchill as prime minister?Answer: Clement Attlee. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States became permanent members of the Security Council. Which country was the fifth?Answer: France. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Colossus and ENIAC were two of the first programmable computers. Which German machine was another?Answer: Z3. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
In which year did the occupation zones of Germany become two separate countries?Answer: 1949. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
In which year was a peace treaty between Japan and the Allies signed?Answer: 1951. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Japan and the Soviet Union never signed a formal peace treaty. What ended the state of war between them in 1956?Answer: A joint declaration. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
On which date did the United Nations officially come into existence?Answer: October 24, 1945. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
On which date in 1945 was the surrender document signed that ended the war?Answer: September 2. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
The surrender documents were signed on the deck of an American battleship in which bay?Answer: Tokyo Bay. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Under which body of water were oil pipelines laid as one of the engineering feats of the war?Answer: The English Channel. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
What has the recovery of West Germany after 1948 been called?Answer: The German economic miracle. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Which medicine was discovered before the war but first mass produced during it?Answer: Penicillin. Source: Wikipedia: World War II
Rosie the Riveter 13
A magazine lent its 1943 cover painting of Rosie the Riveter to which government department for the length of the war?Answer: The Department of the Treasury. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
In which California city did the Rosie the Riveter national historical park open in October 2000?Answer: Richmond. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
In which year was the song written that gave Rosie the Riveter her name?Answer: 1942. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
The model for the 1943 magazine cover painting of Rosie the Riveter was 19 years old. What was her job?Answer: Telephone operator. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
On a B-17, the Rosies placed rivets into the nacelles. What does a nacelle cover?Answer: An engine. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
On the 1943 magazine cover painting of Rosie the Riveter, what is she holding in her left hand?Answer: A ham sandwich. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
The poster now often mistaken for Rosie was first shown to one company's workers for how long in February 1943?Answer: Two weeks. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
Rosie briefly had a counterpart based on a worker at a California shipyard. What was she called?Answer: Wendy the Welder. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
The Rosie the Riveter painted for a 1943 magazine cover takes her pose from a figure by which Renaissance artist?Answer: Michelangelo. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
Thousands of Rosies worked at four shipyards in California. How were the ships there actually put together?Answer: They were welded. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
Which artist painted the Rosie the Riveter that appeared on a magazine cover in May 1943?Answer: Norman Rockwell. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
Which big band leader was among those who recorded the song that gave Rosie the Riveter her name, as it became a national hit?Answer: Kay Kyser. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
Which service for working mothers was set up under the Lanham Act of 1940?Answer: Child care. Source: Wikipedia: Rosie the Riveter
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): World War II and Rosie the Riveter. The text of each article was fetched on October 2, 2026, and on October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in it before the question was kept. Left out on purpose: death tolls and casualty counts, the camps and the massacres, the bombing of cities, weapons as a subject, and the facts the site's history packs already ask (the invasion of Poland, Dunkirk, the Blitz, Pearl Harbor as a place, Stalingrad, Midway, D-Day by name, Yalta, Potsdam as a city, V-E Day). The beaches of the Normandy landings are not asked because neither article names them. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the subject, hard will stump most tables. Each question also carries the date its article was read (checkedOn). Licence: own work