Major Engagements of the 20th Century Quiz

Answer: Somme

Although originally planned as a major offensive, the German attack at Verdun postponed the attack. When Verdun turned into a bloodbath, the Somme Offensive was undertaken by the British to relieve the French at Verdun of German pressure. The result was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. On the first day, July 1, 1916, the British lost almost 60,000 men (dead, wounded and taken prisoner), making it the bloodiest day in British history. Even with the staggering losses, the Germans did not prevail, and the Central Powers suffered the loss of many men, setting the stage for the Allied victory.

Answer: Ypres

At the Second Battle of Ypres, German attackers used poison gas canisters filled with chlorine to deal heavy casualties to the French forces around the first engagement at Gravenstafel. Although the Germans used gas again at Frezenberg and Bellewaarde, they could make no more significant progress around the Ypres Salient.

Answer: Marne

At the Second Battle of the Marne, Erich Ludendorff planned a diversionary attack to draw Allied forces away from the main offensive through Flanders. The resulting Allied counterattack devastated German troops and shattered Ludendorff's planned attack through Flanders.

Answer: Tsushima Strait

At the Tsushima Strait in the Sea of Japan, Admiral Heihachiro Togo dealt a sound defeat to the Russian fleet, destroying two-thirds of the fleet under Zinovy Rozhestvensky. This surprising victory and the battles in the Russo-Japanese War established Japan as one of the upcoming major world military powers.

Answer: El Alamein

At the Battle of El Alamein, both commanders ensured a large buildup of forces for months before the battle. When Rommel went home on leave, Montgomery struck, with numerical and tactical superiority with Rommel absent. After heavy losses by both sides, Rommel's Afrika-Korps began a long retreat out of North Africa.

At Tobruk, an army of Commonwealth forces withstood a siege by Rommel for many weeks. When they were relieved and replaced, Rommel attacked again, this time easily capturing the port city.

At Bir Hakeim, a group of Free French made a heroic stand against the Italians before breaking out from the surrounded town. Tunis was the last city held by German forces in North Africa, and was the site of a hurried retreat as well as a mass surrender.

Answer: Singapore

In the early years of the Japanese involvement in World War II, they struck hard at Allied possession all across the Pacific. Singapore was one such target, and was held by a large number of British forces under Arthur Percival. General Yamashita's troops had just captured most of Indochina and Malaysia, and they paused at Singapore.

In the night, Japanese troops crossed the Johor Strait in rafts and attacked Singapore. Within a day or two, Percival announced a surrender.

Answer: Stalingrad

Although both Leningrad and Stalingrad were sieges, Stalingrad became the much more important victory. General Friedrich Paulus's armies were trapped and surrounded by Marshal Georgiy Zhukov's Soviet forces. German relief forces tried to break through, getting the closest at only 40 miles away from Paulus.

When Paulus surrendered, the loss of troops and equipment dealt a blow that Nazi Germany would be hard-pressed to recover from. At Leningrad, after a desperate siege lasting 872 days, advancing Soviet armies relieved the city.

At Moscow, German troops made it to the outskirts of the Russian capital, with victory within their grasp. However, Hitler decided to shift his attack to the Caucasus, possibly saving the entire world from becoming under Nazi rule.

Instead, the Soviet capital was spared. As the winter set in, devastating the Nazi lines, Soviet troops began a counterattack that freed Moscow and saved the Allies. At Kursk, a large armored engagement dealt a further severe blow to Nazi Germany.

Answer: Midway

At the Battle of Midway, carriers under the U.S. Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance engaged carriers under Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. The Japanese had planned a diversionary attack in the Aleutians to draw away the U.S. carriers, but the American code-breakers discovered the plan. Admiral Chester Nimitz's plan resulted in the destruction of most of the Japanese's major aircraft carriers, with the loss of only one major U.S. carrier.

At the earlier Battle of the Coral Sea, a stalemate ensued from an intense carrier plane dogfight. Both the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Battle of Philippine Sea were later naval battles that had no significant outcome on the balance of naval power in the Pacific.

Answer: Overlord

At Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, the Americans assaulted two beaches, code-named Omaha and Utah. The British were responsible for Gold and Sword Beaches, and the Canadians were responsible for Juno Beach. At Omaha, the veteran German 352nd Division caused heavy casualties to the American troops.

At Utah, the 4th Division landed miles off course, but ended up on a very lightly defended sector, losing less than 200 men. At Gold Beach, the British suffered moderately high casualties in trying to take a heavily fortified position.

The British at Sword Beach landed at the right spot, but suffered only a few more casualties than the Americans at Utah. At Juno Beach, the Canadians assaulted a heavy defense manned by a conscripted unit, and they were the only Allied units to reach their planned D-day objectives.

At Pointe du Hoc near Omaha Beach, the U.S. 2nd Ranger Battalion climbed tall cliffs to take and defend an important German artillery point that could suppress both beaches.

The U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions landed behind Utah Beach, with the objective to link the Utah and Omaha beach heads. The British 6th Airborne landed behind Sword Beach to cut off and disrupt the German reinforcements that would be flowing into the area. Operation Market Garden was the largest airborne invasion in history, with the risky objective of securing a crossing across the Rhine River. Anvil-Dragoon was Overlord's follow-up invasion of southern France, and Avalanche was the Allied amphibious assault in the Gulf of Salerno in Italy.

Answer: New Guinea

The Commonwealth forces played a dangerous game of tug-of-war with the Japanese, fighting in the inhospitable climate and terrain of New Guinea. In the entire campaign on that island, more troops from both sides were lost than in the more famous invasion of Guadalcanal. The further naval victory in the Coral Sea saved Australia from Japan.

Answer: Inchon

When the Korean War broke out, the Communist North Koreans drove the South Koreans to a small area at the end of the Korean Peninsula, known as the Pusan perimeter. U.N. forces quickly mobilized and sent help. General MacArthur, named Supreme Commander, devised an amphibious landing at Inchon, located around the middle of the Western coast of Korea.

The highly risky move paid off against the surprised North Koreans, facilitating an Allied advance that drove the North Koreans back all the way to its own border with China, where Communist China entered the war on North Korea's side.

The new Communist China had a much more efficient war machine than the previous Nationalist China, and the masses of Chinese troops drove the combined forces of the U.N. back to the middle of the Korean Peninsula, where the De-Militarized Zone, or DMZ, still stands today as a reminder that an official "state of war" still exists between the two countries.

Answer: Arab-Israeli War

In 1948, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, Yemeni, Libyan, Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, Iraqi, and various Palestinian forces began a war with the newly-created Israel, outnumbering Israel's forces. The previous ragtag Israeli militia groups were organized into one large Israeli Defense Force, supported by a large influx of Jewish immigrants. Before long, the Israelis boasted more troops than the Arab coalition, gaining the edge.

Although the Israelis had virtually no military equipment, they quickly imported other models to counter the Arabs' British equipment.

Some Arab losses were also incurred when the Arab armies arbitrarily attacked British bases in the area. After an intense beginning, the Israelis quickly mobilized a larger force with better equipment, allowing them to secure a sound victory over the Arabs.

In the Six Day War, the Israelis, with a technically deficient ground army, faced a large force from its Arab neighbors. It had a good start when its Air Force crippled the Egyptian Air Force in a surprise attack.

After a short war, the result was surprising to the world: Israel had captured land from its would-be aggressors. In the Yom Kippur War, a similar Israeli victory ceased further hostilities between the countries. In the Persian Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was confronted by a huge world coalition, including the Arabs. Hussein tried to confuse the Arab loyalties by drawing Israel into the conflict, launching multiple Scud missiles at Israel. Only pleas by President Bush prevented the Arabs from leaving the coalition.

Answer: Khe Sanh

Khe Sanh was a large Marine base that was the center of U.S. military operation in Vietnam. The North Vietnamese stunned the world by besieging the large U.S. base, as it had stunned the world more than a decade earlier by attacking the French at Dien Bien Phu. Massive air support by the U.S. Air Force allowed a military victory, where thousands of Vietnamese died for a little over 200 Americans. Even so, the North Vietnamese scored an important psychological victory, proving that the Americans could be scared, too.

Answer: Saigon

For months leading up to the attack, the North Vietnamese placed huge supply and arms stashes in the villages around Saigon, right under the nose of the indifferent or sympathetic South Vietnamese. Even when the American III Corps found multiple arms caches, the North Vietnamese still had more than enough to attack Saigon.

The U.S. troops were preparing an operation to counter the Vietnamese in Cambodia, but General Weyland noticed some suspicious patterns, and called the operations off to defend Saigon.

The move paid off when the Vietnamese attacked soon, finding an unexpecting but large U.S. garrison.

Answer: Mogadishu

In Mogadishu, a large American operation was prepared to capture some leaders of Mohammed Aidid's large Somali militia. As everything was going well, multiple UH-60 and MH-60 Blackhawks were shot down by RPGs. At one crash site, two Delta Force snipers protected the helicopter Super 64 from a large Somali force. Even with their heroism, the site was overrun, and the pilot Mike Durant was taken prisoner but later released.