1. air force
   all of Germany's military forces
2. armored divisions

In WWII, "Wehrmacht" referrred to all of Germany's armed forces, including the Luftwaffe (air force), Kriegsmarine (navy), and Heer (army). It was the one of the best militaries in the world at the start of the conflict in 1939.

1. Paris
   Versailles
2. Washington

Following WWI, the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany from rearming … but Hitler secretly began building up his forces, anyway. By the time the Allies found out, they waffled on a course of action, allowing Hitler to continue rearmamament.

1. true
2. false

It would be like saying all American soldiers are Democrats. Not all German soldiers were associated with the Nazi party.

1. "lightning war"
   "merciless murder"
2. "grease gun"

Using a lethal combination of high speed and firepower, the Wehrmact used blitzkrieg ("lightning war") tactics to simply overrun its enemies. Allied troops trembled at the idea of confronting the Wehrmacht when it was at full strength on the battlefield.

1. about 3 million
   about 1 million
2. about 13 million

Germany needed bodies on the battlefield, and it got them -- to the tune of about 13 million men in the Heer alone. Most of those troops were drafted into the Heer, forced to to the Nazis' bidding.

1. armored forces
   air force
2. mountain troops

The Panzerwaffe commanded Germany's armored and motorized units in WWII. These units were among the most feared in the conflict, capable of devastating Allied lines in one crushing blow.

1. about 90
   about 330
2. about 2,000

Germany illegally built huge forces before the war, including nine Panzer divisions of about 330 tanks each, more than enough to invade Poland in September 1939.

1. "New World Order"
   "The Executioners"
2. "God with us"

The Wehrmacht held on to a motto from earlier days: "Got mit uns," which means "God with us." But it's hard to believe that God wanted anything to do with Hitler's lunacy.

1. yes
   no
2. They attended church…and worshiped Hitler.

Germany was an overwhelmingly Christian country in the war era. And yes, even as troops stormed across Europe they took part in religious ceremonies and services.

1. American Civil War
   French Civil War
2. Spanish Civil War

In the late '30s, Spain endured a horrifically bloody civil war. Hitler's Wehrmacht joined the fray, in large part to hone its tactics and equipment for future conflicts.

1. about 400,000
   about 800,000
2. about 2 million

Hitler's invasion of the USSR in 1941 turned into a gory quagmire. By 1944, an unbelievable 2 million German troops were dead … not even counting those who were fighting the Allies on the Western Front.

1. He fought in the trenches with his men.
   His tank tactics were amazing.
2. He was a turncoat who helped the Allies.

Erwin Rommel was the "Desert Fox," a general who knew exactly how to deploy his armored vehicles in battle. Time and again, he left Allied forces reeling.

1. Jeep
   tanks
2. horse-drawn vehicles

We often think of the German war machine as ultra-advanced. But at the start of the war, most ground troops actually hopped into horse-drawn vehicles that moved them around the front.

1. France
   Spain
2. United States

In 1940, Germany used the Manstein Plan to invade and capture France. The plan utilized German forces masterfully, overruning French lines and capturing Paris in a matter of weeks.

1. They were about 5% deadlier.
   They were 50% deadlier than Allied troops.
2. They were actually terrible shots.

German troops were trained to an exacting degree, and though Allied fanboys don't like to admit it, on average, German troops inflicted about 50% more casualties than their counterparts. That's true even whether they were defending or on the attack.

1. Luftwaffe
   Heer
2. Kriegsmarine

Albert Kesselring was a Luftwaffe commander who conducted operations all over Europe and the USSR. He was extremely effective at his job, winning respect from Allied commanders throughout the war.

1. rail
   plane
2. bicycle

Europe's railroads were critical to infantry troop movements, especially for a German army suffering from a lack of trucks. Once the Allies bombed rail lines, the Heer had a difficult time moving its troops effectively.

1. 100,000
   1.5 million
2. 5.6 million

Compared to the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine was much smaller. But it was still a formidable force that had 1.5 million personnel in WWII.

1. Kriegsmarine
   Luftwaffe
2. Heer

In WWII, German U-boats (submarines) were a deadly weapon of the Kriegsmarine. They sank many Allied ships in the Atlantic, particularly early in the war.

1. United States
   UNITED STATES, duh
2. USSR

Given the brutality they faced at the hands of the Germans, perhaps it's fitting that the USSR inflicted around 75% of casualties that the Wehrmacht endured. The Soviets killed millions upon millions of German troops who invaded the USSR.

1. air war
   ocean war
2. land war

German U-boats often fought in coordinated groups -- wolfpacks -- that roamed the Atlantic Ocean. Allied military and merchant sailors dreaded sailing into waters where wolfpacks prowled.

1. a chemical warfare unit
   the myth that the Wehrmacht was not part of Nazi war crimes
2. a division of the army committed to hygiene services

As the war's atrocities came to light, a myth of the "Clean Wehrmacht" arose, essentially calling the army an apolitical unit that simply followed orders. But piles of documents showed that generals and troops alike knew about Nazi war crimes throughout the war.

1. from Africa
   from the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine
2. from France

As Allied guns took their bloody toll, the Germans began redistributing personnel from the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe to the Heer, where they often become more cannon fodder.

1. true
2. false

In December 1944, elite German troops mounted a last-ditch offensive in the Ardennes Forest, taking the Americans by surprise. The Allies held on, and from then until the end of the war, the Americans rarely faced top-level German troops in major combat.

1. Heer
   Kriegsmarine
2. Luftwaffe

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a vital fighter plane for the Luftwaffe in WWII. Germany built more than 33,000 of these planes, which shot down countless Allied bombers and fighters.

1. long-range bombers
   nuclear
2. armored units

Heinz Guderian was a general whose armored tactics proved their worth during major invasions of Europe and the USSR. And long before many of his contemporaries he understood the value of radio for coordinating tank attacks.

1. true
2. false

It's true, there were multiple Wehrmacht units made up of men from Soviet lands, men who saw Germany as the lesser of two evils. In some cases, Germany forced Soviets to fight against their will.

1. suicide pilots
   militia
2. landmine teams

The Volkssturm ("people's storm") was a militia of desperation, created to slow the USSR's counteroffensive. But the Volkssturm included the very young and the very old and was ineffective as a fighting force.

1. The Allies took all of the ships.
   The ships were sunk.
2. Germany was allowed to keep all ships.

Once the war was over, the Allies confiscated all of the Kriegsmarine's ships … and then they divvied them up, using them for various post-war tasks.

1. to fight the Japanese
   to hunt Hitler's generals
2. to keep order among German POWs

After Germany surrendered the Allies were inundated with prisoners, so they let some Germany military police remain active to keep the situation under control.