War History Quiz: World War One | 10 Questions

Answer: Mustard Gas

World War I saw the first significant use of chemical warfare. From 1915 to 1918 the Germans introduced a succession of poison gases, each of which was promptly duplicated on the Allied side. In January 1915 the Germans released chlorine gas against the Russians in Poland with little effect, but on April 22 they scored a tactical victory against the French and British in Flanders that went beyond their expectations.

The Allies first improvised protective devices and then developed gas masks, while at the same time producing their own chlorine.

When the Germans introduced phosgene, a more lethal type of choking gas, and gas projectiles fired by artillery, the Allies followed suit and also improved their gas masks. In 1917 the Germans introduced mustard gas and in 1918 both sides used the new poison on a large scale. Though it inflicted numerous casualties, especially when a bombardment achieved a measure of surprise, the casualties were generally not severe, with relatively few fatalities. Mustard 'gas' causes skin burns and blisters (seeping through clothing) and damages the respiratory tract. If exposed to a large amount of mustard 'gas', you can eventually die from it. Chlorine gas is lethal. Phosgene Gas causes severe edema of the lungs and death from asphyxiation within a few hours, but only if the gas mask is not used immediately. Diphenylchlorarsine Gas causes extreme irritation of the nose, throat, and eyes,and also causes severe headache and nausea, but is not lethal.

Answer: Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban

Vauban was a French military engineer who revolutionized the art of siegecraft and defensive fortifications. He fought in all of France's wars during the reign of Louix XIV (which was between 1643 and 1715). Vauban was the inventor of a systematic approach to trenches as a means of beseiging a town or fortress and protecting the beseiging troops from artillery fire.

He also introduced 'richochet gunfire', by which a cannonball could hit numerous objects before its' force was {spent;} a bayonet which could be slipped over the nuzzle of a musket and still allow the weapon to {fire;} and he improved upon methods of fortification and siege warfare. Trenches became vastly improved upon in the First World War. Trench defenses were re-designed into a zigzag pattern to prevent lines of fire within the trench, increased to being at least three or four lines of trenches deep and introduced the 'pillbox' (which was a concrete machine gun nest).

The Germans created particularly elaborate trenches. In some cases systems they were 14 miles (22 Kms) deep.

Answer: The Battle of Tannenberg

Two Russian armies, the 1st, which was under General P.K. Rennenkampf, and the 2nd, under A.V. Samsonov, invaded German, East Prussia in August 1914. Rennenkampf fought a successful action at Gumbinnen on August 20, but failed to maintain contact with Samsonov.

The German commanders Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, making use of a plan devised by Lieutenant Colonel Max Hoffmann, threw all their strength against Samsonov's isolated army near Uzdowo, just south of the historic site of Tannenberg (August 26). Samsonov fell back, losing about half of his army in the next few days, and the Germans took 92,000 prisoners. Samsonov shot himself in despair on August 29.

The Russians lost another 30,000 killed or wounded, while the Germans sustained a total of 13,000 casualties. Tannenberg was a crushing defeat for Russia, which lost almost an entire army, 400 cannons, and other war material.

Answer: Jellicoe and Beatty

The Battle of Jutland (also called Skagerrak)(May 31-June 1, 1916), was the only major encounter between the British and German fleets in World War I, fought in the North Sea, about 60 miles (97 km) off the coast of Jutland (Denmark). British Naval Intelligence had alerted admirals John Jellicoe and David Beatty that Admiral Reinhard Scheer had left port with his German High Seas Fleet. Beatty, in command of a scouting force of battle cruisers, spotted a similar German force under Admiral Franz von Hipper, and pursued it toward the main German fleet.

At about 4 P.M., both sides opened {fire;} the British suffered heavy losses and turned back toward Jellicoe's main British fleet, with the Germans in pursuit. After 6 P.M., the main fleets encountered each other, and the battle raged again.

The British had the advantage, and when the German fleet turned once more to head for home, it again ran directly again into the British fleet, which had maneuvered around to lie between the German fleet and the German ports.

The German fleet forced its way through and Jellicoe, overestimating the danger of torpedo attacks from the German destroyers, also turned away, and the battle thus came to an indecisive end. Both sides claimed a victory--Germany because it had destroyed and crippled many more ships and men, Britain because it retained control of the North Sea.

Answer: Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen was born in 1893, in Oswestry (United Kingdom). He was religiously educated and though he rejected much of his belief by 1913, the influence of his education remains visible in his poems and in their themes: sacrifice, Biblical language,and his description of Hell.

He enlisted in the Artists' Rifles on October 21st 1915, but spent only five weeks on the front. All of his war poetry was based on these few weeks. The battle experience thoroughly shocked Owen. During a period when he convalesced in Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh he met and befriended another great War Poet, Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon encouraged Owen's poetry and Owen began to write more poetry condemning the attrocities of war.

He wrote that the glorious adage of 'dulce et decorum est pro patria mori' was in fact a lie, as he described the horrors of a gas attack.

The Latin phrase means 'how sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country'. Owen died seven days before the Armistice in 1918.

Answer: Roy Brown

Baron Manfred von Richthofen was the son of a Prussian nobleman and perhaps the most renowned aviator of all time. During his time on the front between 1916 and 1918, Richthofen was accredited with having shot down 80 allied airplanes and was responsible for 127 allied personnel either killed or captured.

In January of 1917, Richthofen began to paint parts of his planes red, (most probably so that his own troops could more easily identify his plane, or maybe because it was the colors of his old cavalry regiment), and began to acquire the title 'The Red Baron'. On April 21, 1918, Richthofen broke one of the cardinal doctrines of German fighter pilots (which he actually wrote) that a pilot should never follow an enemy too far into enemy territory, when he followed Canadian pilot Wilford May far into allied held ground. May had evaded the Baron's attempts to shoot him down primarily by bad flying skills which had led to erratic and unpredictable manuevers. Canadian Pilot Roy Brown came in to the chase to try and assist his friend May and was accredited with shooting down the Baron.

This has been the source of much debate as there is also substantial argument that the Red Baron was shot down by Australian gunners on the ground, particularly because of the angle of the fatal bullet that killed Richthofen. Lanoe Hawker was a British Ace who was Richthofen's eleventh victim. Cunnel actually shot down the Baron by giving him a serious head shot, but the Baron survived that attempt. Bishop was another Canadian Ace who shot down 73 planes.

Answer: Angels

One of the most intruiging unanswered phenomenon of the entire War is the story of the Angel(s) of Mons. A story appeared in the 'Evening News', a British newspaper on September 29, 1914, which described how soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had been protected from the advancing Germans by legions of phantom English archers from Agincourt and St. George on white horses.

The article was written by one Arthur Machen, but very quickly hundreds of similar accounts appeared relating essentially the same story, however, many of them stated that the saviours had been either angels or a glowing cloud that had protected the troops. Machen quickly denounced the emerging stories, saying that he had made up the original newspaper article as a patriotic message, but many people, including the French, Americans and Germans believed that some event had saved the lives of the British troops. Reports came out that pre-dated the September 29 article which also referred to angels.

After many years of argument, the most satisfactory resolution was made by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), who concluded that many soldiers (from both sides) genuinely believed that something had occurred during the retreat from Mons and that Machen genuinely believed that he had invented the story in its entirety. No true determination of the event has ever been made.

Answer: 252,000

The Gallipoli Campaign (April 25, 1915-January 8, 1916), was a major operation of World War I, in which British, French, Australian, and New Zealand forces unsuccessfully attempted an invasion of the Ottoman Empire. The action was confined to the Dardanelles Strait and the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula near Istanbul.

The purpose of the campaign was to open up a new theatre of war to break the stalemate in France, to relieve the pressure on Russia, and to provide a supply route to Russia via the Black Sea.

It was initially planned as a naval operation, but after severe damage to a massive Allied fleet, a land offensive was planned to clear defenses from the straits leading to the Black Sea. The Allies sustained major casualties, 205,000 out of 410,000 for the British, and ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) {troops;} 47,000 out of 79,000, by the French).

They landed at beaches overlooked by bluffs on which the Ottoman Turkish army had fortified positions. Later courageous, but ineffective charges at heavily manned trenches caused more deaths.

The Gallipoli Campaign cost the lives of more ANZAC troops than any other engagement.

Answer: Somme Offensive

The Somme offensive was actually originally intended as a joint French-British attack designed to gain land and reduce German manpower. In February of 1916, however, the Germans began an immense attack on the fortress of Verdun in the Somme region of France, which forced the French to withdraw from the plan.

The fortress was more than just a strong point to the French, it was also a symbol of their determination to stop the Germans from completely invading their homeland. By the time the attacks on the fortress ended in December of 1916, over 800,000 men had died trying to capture or defend the fortress.

In the meantime, the French appealed to General Haig, who had command of the British and Commonwealth forces. He agreed to lead an attack to attempt to relieve the pressure on Verdun. Between July 1, 1916, and November 13, 1916, the Battle of the Somme resulted in over 1,120,000 casualties for an Allied territorial gain of 12 kilometers.

Answer: Passchendaele

In 1917, the area around Ypres in Belgium became one of critical importance in the eyes of the Allied commanders. It formed part of a bulge into the German held territory and a means of attacking the Germans in an effort to capture Zeebrugge and Ostend.

These were two important ports from which the Germans were sending U-Boats on routine raids of Allied naval supply lines. Not only would the Allies end these raids by pushing through Ypres and capturing the ports, but they would also be that much closer to the German Ruhr valley, a major industrial heartland.

The Allies and Germans had fought at Ypres in two prior bloody battles, but the assaults on the German trenches in Passchendaele proved the bloodiest and most futile. The battlefield was a boggy lowland with a high water table, which meant that prolonged shelling quickly turned the land into a nightmare swamp of mud.

In addition, the Germans held the only high ground. Between July 21, 1917 and November 12, 1917 just under a half a million men were killed, 250,000 German and 300,000 British, many died when they fell into mud pools and drowned due to exhaustion or slight wounds.

The land gained by the Allies proved to be of no value when naval port attacks were called off.