WW2 quiz: 7 questions

The number of tanks was only part of the story. Germany massed its panzer divisions, equipped every tank with a radio, and supported the advance with dive-bombers. French armor was distributed among the infantry, while a command system built for the warfare of 1918 struggled to respond to the speed of the attack.

Japan imported 80% of its oil, mostly from America. After the July 1941 embargo, its leaders faced a narrowing choice: act while fuel remained or risk losing the capacity to fight. Pearl Harbor became a question of timing.

German forces faced fresh Soviet reserves before Moscow, including Siberian divisions released after intelligence indicated that Japan would strike south. Their own supply line stretched 1,000 km, their logistics were exhausted, and temperatures fell to −30°C. The short war Germany needed was over.

Japan lost four fleet carriers and veteran naval airmen in one morning. The ships could be rebuilt; pilots with ten years of experience could not quickly be replaced. Japan never regained the initiative lost in those five minutes of dive-bombing.

Air and sea power allowed the Allies to cut strongholds off from supply. A bypassed garrison could thus be neutralized without the cost of storming it. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops spent the rest of the war waiting for ships that never came.

At Tehran in November 1943, Stalin promised to attack in step with Overlord. Pressure on both fronts would limit Germany’s ability to shift reinforcements between them. The coordinated offensives achieved that purpose.

Yalta and Potsdam largely ratified the military situation left by the armies. Within three years, occupation lines had hardened into the Iron Curtain, and the map of victory had become the map of the Cold War.