_Military History Quiz

1. The Victoria Cross is usually awarded for one act of
conspicuous bravery.  However, there was one exception
during WWII where a VC was awarded for continious bravery
over an extended period of time.  Who was the recipient?

2. What were the names of the three ships which headed
the Royal Australian Navy's committment to the 1991 Gulf
War?

3. What was "Kanga Force"?

4. What were the "Auxilary Units" formed in Britain
during World War II?

5. Some famous quotes - see if you can pick who said
them:
     a) "Something seems to be wrong with our ships today
!"
     b) "There is Jackson, standing like a stone wall"
     c) "My country right or wrong!"
     d) "Battles always seem to be fought at the junction
of two or more maps and always uphill"
     e) " There, my lord - there, you see, are the guns!"

 6. Who was lampooned as "...the very model of a modern
major-general..." by Gilbert and Sullivan.

7. What was Genral Grant's (of American Civil War fame)
Christian names with which he was christened and what
were the names he was better known as?

8. What was the name of the first ship to attempt to
engage the German cruiser Emden on 9 November 1914, in
the action which resulted in the sinking of the Emden?

9. Who was the commander of a major formation on the
Kokoda track campaign who recently died?

10. Who commanded the last Anzac Corps to be formed?

11. What were Parrotts, Rodmans and Dahlgrens?

12. What was the first act of war initiated by the
Australian government in 1914?

13. Only two British military decorations could be
awarded posthumously for bravery in the face of the
enemy.  What were they?

14. The submarine AE2 gained fame as the first submarine
to enter the Sea of Marmara (the
Dardanelles), what though was the fate of her sister boat
AE1?

15. Who was Lancelot de Mole?

16. Which WWII wartime leaders answer these descriptions?
     a) He was an Admiral of a land locked nation and had
served the Emperor Franze-Joseph as his aide de'camp in
WWI.
     b) He was often observed by his house guests getting
himself a drink from the drinks cabinet in the Drawing
Room of his country house, in the nude.
     c) His left arm shook with Palsy and his lips were
often flecked with foam.
     d) He married his own cousin who had been related to
a previous leader of his nation.
     e) He suffered from a severe stomach ulcer towards
the end of his career which it is believed affected his
judgement.  He was eventually hung from a lamp post.
     f) He spent most of his childhood in Tasmania before
rising to become a Field Marshal in the British Army
during WWII.
     g) He was missing two fingers on his left hand which
had been lost as a young officer in a naval battle.
     h) He wrote poetry and published a book about poetry
called "Other men's flowers".  He also had a Carmillia
flower named after him.

Answers to the Quiz

1. Group-Captain Leonard Cheshire.  His citation read for
"acts of continious bravery in the face of the enemy over
a 4 year period."

2. HMAS Adelaide, HMAS Sydney and HMAS Success.

3. Kanga Force was originally the New Guinea Volunteer
Rifles and 5 Independent Company.  They were ordered
north from Port Moresby, in April 1942, to harass
Japanese landing parties which had come ashore at Lae and
Salamaua.

4. The "Auxilary Units" were organised "stay-behind"
groups in the event of an invasion of the UK by the
Germans.  Their tasks included sabotage, propaganda and
intelligence gatering.

5.   a) Rear-Admiral David Beatty as four RN
battlecruisers blew up during the battle of Jutland
     b) General Barnard E Bee Confederate general in the
first battle of the American Civil War.
     c) Steven Decatur USN ( Actually he said in a toast
"Our Country!  In her intercourse with forgein nations
may she always be in the right; but our country, right or
wrong!" )
     d) Viscount Slim
     e) Reputedly the words spoken by Captain Nolan  to
Lord Lucan which started the infamous Charge of the Light
Brigade

6. Field Marshal Viscount (Garnett Joseph) Wolsely

7. Grant was originally christened as Hiram Ulysses but
he was mistakenly enrolled in West Point as Ulysses
Simpson and it stuck.....

8. HMAS Melbourne.  She was actually the flagship of the
convoy transporting the first AIF and upon sighting the
Emden, actually sheered out of line to engage the Emden
until her commanding officer, Captain Silver, returned to
his prime responsibility and dispatched the Sydney
instead.

9. Lt Colonel Ralph Honnor of 39 Bn who commanded it from
the loss of Kokoda to its disbandment.

10. General Sir Thomas Blamey, Greece 1941

11. Artillery manufacturers whose guns were named after
them, during the American Civil War.

12. HMS Sydney shelled Blanche Bay in German New Guinea
on 12 August 1914.

13. The Victoria Cross and the Mention in Dispatches.

14. AE1 was lost with all hands while patrolling of New
Britain during the early campaign against German New
Guinea in 1914.

15. The Australian mining engineer who was offically
credited with co-inventing the tank when he submitted his
design for an armoured tracklaying machine in 1911 to the
British War Office (who
promptly shelved it).

16.  a) Admiral Horthy, Regent of Hungary.
     b) Winston Churchill.  He also liked to work in bed
a lot.
     c) Adolph Hitler, before the bomb which robbed him
of the use of his left arm, it was noted to quite often
shake by itself perhaps suggesting the onset of
Parkinson's Disease.
     d) Franklin Roosevelt.
     e) Benito Mussilini.
     f) Field Marshal B.L. Montgomery.
     g) Admiral Yamamoto.  He lost his fingers during the
Battle of Tushima.
     h) Field Marshal Wavell.