A-Z of Military Leaders Trivia Quiz

Answer: Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk led three Turkish divisions in the defense of the Dardanelles and he was instrumental in the defeat and expulsion of the Allied Forces. After WW1 he led a national uprising (the misleadingly called "Turkish War of Independence") against the last Ottoman sultan and the Greeks, laying the foundations of the new Turkish State. In 1923 he became the first president of the Republic of Turkey. Atatürk died in 1938, after an extensive programme of modernization.

Answer: Beauregard

Confederate General Pierre Gustave Beauregard's career during the American Civil War served as an example of how former colleagues among the American officers found themselves on opposing sides throughout the war. He had served as an engineer under Winfield Scott, who was General-in-Chief of the Union Army in 1862, and he captured Fort Sumter from the command of one-time friend and former West Point instructor Major Robert Anderson.

Answer: Canute

Canute's rule was marked by good governance. He maintained peace with the defeated Saxons and supported the church. He divided England into four earldoms: Mercia, Northumberland, Wessex and East Anglia. After he became king of Denmark in 1018, he continued to live in England.

Answer: Darius III

After his humiliation at Issus, Darius III fought and lost against Alexander again at Gaugamela in 331 B.C. Darius' lack of military prowess forced him to flee to Bactria where he was assassinated in 330 B.C.

Answer: Eisenhower

In his early army career, Dwight Eisenhower excelled in staff assignments, serving under Generals Pershing, MacArthur and Krueger. Perhaps controversially, he was appointed to command the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942, despite no experience of operational command.

A superb leader and diplomat, 'Ike' was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces invading France in 1944. He succeeded Harry Truman as President of the USA in 1952.

Answer: Frederick II

In his younger days, Frederick did not aspire to be the highly successful military leader that he eventually became. He was more interested in cultural pursuits like art, music and literature, and he rebelled against the harsh, even brutal, upbringing at the hands of his father, Frederick William.

Answer: Goering

Although better known for his later career as a Nazi politician and Reichsmarshall of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring had first earned fame as a World War I flying ace. He was the commander of the crack Jasta Richthofen unit during the final months of the war.

Under his leadership, the Luftwaffe in WW2 was an extremely effective tactical weapon but proved inadequately equipped as the strategic force necessary for ultimate victory in total warfare.

Answer: Hannibal

Hannibal earned distinction when he marched an army of 35,000 men from Spain over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy where he defeated the Romans at the battles of Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae. As he pressed southwards, persistent resistance weakened his forces and he led a failed attack on Rome in 211 B.C.

Answer: Ivan IV

Ivan IV began as a successful and popular ruler who earned his nickname 'the Terrible' from the later part of his reign. After the defection of close friend Prince Andrei Kurbsky, and the death of his wife, he became unpredictable and violent. His Oprinchiniks imitated his behaviour, and chaos ensued.

In one infamous example of the atrocities that typified his reign, he ordered his army to murder the rebellious inhabitants of Novgorod; the death toll reached nearly 40,000.

Answer: Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who believed she had a divine mission to save France. In 1429, after persuading Charles VII to let her lead a force to relieve Orleans, she won a decisive victory that allowed France to gain permanent advantage over the English. Captured in 1430, she was burned at the stake by the English as a heretic in Rouen.

She was about 19 years old at the time. Joan was canonized on 16th May, 1920.

Answer: Khan, Kublai

Kublai Khan established the Yuang dynasty as Emperor of China. Despite his military accomplishments, he is better remembered for his contributions to economic prosperity by rebuilding the Grand Canal, encouraging foreign commerce, introducing paper currency, repairing public granaries, and extending highways.

Answer: Leonidas

Despite the heroic self-sacrifice of the Spartans at Thermopylae, the victorious Persian King Xerxes I did not accord any honour to the dead body of Leonidas. The head was severed and the corpse crucified.

Answer: Meade

General George G. Meade was appointed Commander of the Army of the Potomac only three days before the Battle of Gettysburg. Despite this, he won comprehensively. He was criticised, however, by Lincoln for not following up his victory and crushing the retreating Confederate forces. Although he retained his position, he was subordinate to Ulysses S. Grant for the rest of the war.

Answer: Neville

Richard Neville is better known in history, perhaps, as the Earl of Warwick. In his lifetime 'Warwick the Kingmaker' attempted to wield power through the weaknesses of both Yorkist and Lancastrian kings, and he switched sides several times throughout the turbulent times known as the Wars of the Roses. He was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471.

Answer: Octavian

Octavian emerged from the War of the Second Triumvirate, in which he had shared an uneasy alliance of power with Marc Antony and Lepidus, as sole ruler of Rome. He became emperor, adopting the name of Augustus Caesar.

Answer: Paulus

As Deputy Chief of Staff of the German Army, Friedrich Paulus had been a key contributor to the planning of Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. As commander of the 6th Army he oversaw the capture of Kharkov in May 1942 but then became trapped with his army at Stalingrad. After grim fighting for many months, Paulus surrendered his forces on February 2, 1943.

Answer: True

Like many other rulers in Britain during the Roman occupation, Boudicea witnessed the suffering caused by heavy taxes, conscription and various other indignities. The final outrage came when her husband Prasutagus died, and the Romans plundered her chief tribesmen and brutally annexed her dominions.

She led an uprising while the main body of the Roman army was campaigning in Wales and sacked St. Albans and Colchester. She was eventually defeated, at great cost to the Romans, in her attempts to take London. One of the many legends surrounding Boudicea is that her burial site lies beneath Platform 10 of King's Cross Station in London.

Answer: Radetzky

Josef Radetzky was a Bohemian-born count who led the Austrian army to comprehensive victories against the Sardinian-Piedmontese forces to gain ultimate control of northern Italy in 1848-49. Johann Strauss (Senior) composed a brilliant march in his honour, which is often performed today.

Answer: Scott

General Winfield Scott's career reads almost like the military history of the United States in the first half of the 19th Century. He participated in the War of 1812, Blackhawk War (1832), Seminole War (1838-1842) and Mexican War (1846-1848). At the outbreak of the American Civil War he was General-in-Chief of the Union Army and, although subsequently retiring from this position, he still contributed in an advisory capacity throughout the war.

Answer: Tamerlane

Tamerlane's name is a corruption of his nickname, 'Timur the Lame', for he had an undeveloped left side that rendered him partially disabled. Between 1389-1401, he conducted a number of campaigns of conquest that saw his empire stretch from India in the east to Syria in the west. He was a ruthless soldier, as infamous for his atrocities as he was famed for his accomplishments.

Answer: Ullmann

Daniel Ullmann's military career began unpromisingly, being captured at Cedar Mountain in August of 1862. After being paroled he met with Lincoln, eventually persuading the President to enlist black troops.

Ullmann raised five regiments of black troops in Louisiana. The units were designated as the Corps D'Afrique, later redesignated as United States Colored Troops. Ullmann's Brigade performed well in the siege of Mobile in the spring of 1865.

Answer: Von Moltke

Helmuth von Moltke was firmly established as a talented staff officer when he eventually earned his battle spurs in leading successful military campaigns in Denmark in 1864. He led the campaigns against Austria in 1866 and France in 1870-71. In 1857 he was appointed Chief of the Prussian General Staff and soon changed transformed it into a model military planning machine that paid meticulous attention to detail.

It is said that after the defeat of France in 1871 the French said that the name of the general who had defeated them was a hitherto almost unknown General "Staff".

Answer: William the Conqueror

William did rather well for himself to become both Duke of Normandy and King of England. His poor prospects as an illegitimate son of Robert of Normandy and a very dubious claim to the throne of England did little to stand in the way of this extremely ruthless and ambitious leader.

Answer: Xerxes I

Upon becoming King of Persia, Xerxes prepared for an invasion of Greece. He marched his huge army of 100,000 men from Sardis through Thrace and Macedonia where he defeated Leonidas at Thermopylae. He went on to occupy Athens before suffering defeat at the Battle of Salamis.

Answer: False

Brigadier General Zollicoffer was born in Tennessee and, although opposed to the secession, accepted a commission in the Confederate Army. He was killed while on a night reconnaissance at the Battle of Mill Springs on 19th January, 1862.