The Longest Day Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Lt. Col. aide de camp to Norm Cota played by Eddie Albert

The Americans have finally created a gap in the concrete to be able to move inland off Omaha Beach. Brig. Gen. Norm Cota urges the men to move forward, Eddie Albert's character stands up and waves his arms to move the men up off the beach. A shot rings out and the Lt. Colonel falls over into one of the barbed wire obstacles. NOTE: only a handful of characters are actually identified by name in the movie. Most of the people are nameless warriors trying to accomplish their task and stay alive doing it.

Answer: Tom Hanks

Sean Connery plays a young Scottish soldier landing on Sword Beach. Robert Mitchum plays Brig. Gen. Norm Cota (Asst. Division Commander - US 29th Infantry Division). John Wayne plays Col. Vandervoort - (Commander - US 82nd Airborne Corps). Tom Hanks stars in "Saving Private Ryan"; another great movie that starts with the D-Day invasion.

Answer: Cornelius Ryan

Cornelius Ryan wrote two fantastic books about World War II that also became equally fantastic movies. "The Longest Day" was one and "A Bridge Too Far" (about Operation Market Garden) was the other.

Answer: Richard Beymer

Richard Beymer's character thinks that if he has been lucky at craps, he will be unlucky in the upcoming battle, so he goes back to try and deliberately lose his winnings, so that when he parachutes into combat he will be "jumping clean". While "West Side Story" is his most famous role, Beymer has made guest appearances on several TV shows, including "Twin Peaks" in the 90s and "Paper Dolls" in the 80s.

Answer: Ouisterham

The French soldiers are first seen on one of the British ships going over a 3-D map of Ouisterham. Their primary objective is to take out the German gun sitting in the top floor of the casino. The best part of the whole scene is the nuns who calmly walk right through the middle of the battle and set up a first aid station in one of the buildings that the French are fighting out of.

Answer: Henry Fonda

Brig. Gen. Teddy Roosevelt (son of President Teddy Roosevelt) led the US 4th Infantry onto Utah Beach. He is first seen on ship requesting to go ashore with the first wave of troops, which is reluctantly granted by his superior. The actual Teddy Roosevelt died of a heart attack one week after leading his troops onto Utah Beach.

Answer: Straight for me!

This is one of many great one-liners throughout the movie. At the end of a long night in one of the bunkers overlooking Omaha Beach, Pluskat decides to take one final look out over the channel, when he sees the Allied armada appear out of the mist on the horizon. Pluskat immediately radios his commander to inform him that the invasion is coming.

His commander does not seem as concerned which leads to this poignant exchange: "My dear Pluskat, where are all these ships heading?" "Straight for me!"

Answer: He becomes deaf.

In the beginning of the movie, Red Buttons' character is constantly referring to his hearing. In one of the craps games, he asks the shooter to use a cup to roll the dice because he "likes to hear the sound of the dice coming out of the cup." And when Col. Vandervoort (John Wayne) finishes briefing his troops, he barks out "Do you read me?" Buttons' character is the lone voice that answers. "Loud and clear, sir!" His character ultimately winds up stuck on the roof of a church whose bells are ringing all night and thus he loses his hearing.

Answer: "Wounds my heart with a monotonous languor"

The poem is first heard as the Nazis are trying to decipher various radio messages to the French Resistance. The first line of the poem is played, and the espionage report claims that when the second line of the poem is broadcast, the invasion can be expected within 24 hours.

Answer: "Sometimes I wonder which side God is on?"

All are examples of still more great one-liners in the movie. Vandervoort utters the line the day before the invasion, when he is complaining about the rainy weather. Blumentritt says the line when he learns that Hitler is still asleep and nobody wants to wake him to get permission to move the Panzers to the front. "We'll start the war from right here!" - Brig. Gen. Teddy Roosevelt. "There are only two types of soldiers..." - Brig. Gen. Norm Cota. "Which would the troops rather be..." - Field marshall Erwin Rommel.