1. about 3%
   about 30%
2. about 80%

The numbers are — and due to the magnitude, will always be — approximate, but about 60 to 80 million people died in the war. That was about 3% of the world’s population.

1. Japanese
   Soviets
2. Americans

The lesson? Never betray Stalin. WWII was a bloodbath for the Germans, as more than 4.3 million troops never made it home. Most of them died at the hands of the Soviets.

1. front-line soldier
   cook
2. truck mechanic

Elizabeth is the only current head of state to have served in the war. Among other jobs, she served as a truck mechanic, making her a straight-up icon unmatched in WWII political history.

1. Navy
   Air Force
2. Army

The Army took the brunt of combat action in WWII, so it’s logical that its personnel won 324 Medals of Honor out of the 464 doled out during the war. In total, 266 of those medals were awarded posthumously.

1. about 4 weeks
   about 4 months
2. about 14 months

Britain lost pilots as fast as it could train them. During the Battle of Britain, Royal Air Force pilots survived, on average, for about four weeks.

1. Germany
   USSR
2. America

The Nazis are never your friends. In 1941, Hitler betrayed his alliance with Stalin, attacking the USSR. By the end of the war, the USSR would suffer around 25 million dead, far more than any other nation.

1. Norway
   California
2. England

In April 1940, a German bombardment struck Dombas, Norway. The attack killed 31-year-old Robert M. Losey, the first American to die in WWII combat.

1. 5
   12
2. 22

On June 6, 1944, the Allies launched the biggest amphibious assault in human history, on five codenamed beaches of Normandy, France. Those beaches are forever enshrined in the annals of combat.

1. Sword
   Omaha
2. Utah

Some troops were lucky, encountering less German resistance than expected during D-Day. Others, like those who struggled ashore to Omaha Beach, were cut down in vicious streams of machine gun fire — nearly 2,400 Allied casualties occurred at Omaha Beach alone.

1. “D"
   “Doomsday"
2. “Destruction"

The "D" was just a "D." In military parlance, it merely referred to the "day" that the the Battle of Normandy began.

1. about 5,600
   about 9,000
2. about 73,000

The Americans shouldered much of the burden (and bloodshed) of D-Day. Of the 156,000 troops who waded into slaughter, nearly half (73,000) were Americans.

1. 34 days
   192 days
2. 872 days

The Germans were determined to capture the Soviet city of Leningrad; the Soviets were equally determined to stay. For 872 days, the two sides engaged in a bloody back-and-forth siege.

1. lead pipes
   human flesh
2. brick dust

The siege will likely forever stand as the worst in the history of humanity. In Leningrad, civilians were so hungry that some resorted to cannibalism to survive. The police initiated special patrols meant primarily to keep people from eating each other.

1. Slovakia
   Poland
2. Italy

Poland suffered enormously due to German aggression. About 3 million Polish Jews died at the hands of the Nazis, accounting for half of all the Jews murdered by Hitler.

1. about 16 months
   about 3 years
2. about 4 years

It was undoubtedly the longest 16 months of their lives — that’s about how long American troops served overseas in WWII.

1. 17
   13
2. 36

Murphy’s sister falsified his birth date so that he could join the Army at just 17 years of age. His youth didn't matter -- before he turned 20, he’d earned every medal of valor the Army could offer.

1. Britain
   France
2. America

Historians often fault the United States for its delayed entry into the war. But America suffered more KIA (405,000) than Britain (373,000) or France (213,000) in WWII.

1. about 800,000
   about 16 million
2. about 1.3 million

Once America finally joined the war, it did so with vigor. More than 16 million of this nation’s people served in uniform during the conflict.

1. true
2. false

It’s true, the Soviets rushed tanks into production, building more than 105,000 in hopes of thwarting German attacks. America built more than 88,000 tanks. Some Soviet tanks were so shoddy that they immediately broke down following production.

1. America
   Italy
2. Japan

American industry went into hyperspeed during WWII, manufacturing about 325,000 planes — that’s nearly as many as Germany (190,000) and the USSR (157,000) combined.

1. forced Poland to surrender
   built huge fortifications
2. bombed civilians

Hitler, incensed at Britain’s unyielding resolve during the Battle of Britain, resorted to full-scale bombardment of major British cities. The "Blitz" leveled parts of city areas and killed tens of thousands of civilians. But still, the British carried on.

1. Italy
   Finland
2. America

Twice, the USSR invaded Finland during WWII, and twice they regretted doing so. The Fins inflicted massive casualties on the Soviets during the intermittent Winter War.

1. true
2. false

False. Even though it’s an island country, Japan had only around 260 warships. The United States? More than 1,400.

1. to spread Nazism in America
   to build an atomic weapon
2. to hunt war criminals

In the late 1930s, the Nazis tried to spread their message of hatred in the U.S., in part through a group called the German American Bund. Media and political pressure caused the group’s dissolution in 1941.

1. gunshot
   hanging
2. firing squad

Faced with certain capture in Berlin, Hitler took the easy way out. He chomped a cyanide capsule (for insurance) and then shot himself in the head. The Furher’s war was over.

1. 38
   about 100
2. more than 500

The Russians called him "White Death" for a reason. Hayha killed more than 500 Soviet troops in WWII — more sniper kills than anyone, ever.

1. true
2. false

On August 18, 1945, days after Japan surrendered, Anthony J. Marchione’s plane was struck by Japanese fighter pilots who violated the cease-fire agreement. He was the last American airman killed in WWII.

1. Nebraska
   New York
2. Rhode Island

More than 30,000 New Yorkers were killed or wounded in WWII, more than any other state. Alaska, in comparison, had around 90 casualties.

1. 0
   more than 200
2. about 1,000

After the widespread use of chemical agents during WWI, these weapons lost favor in WWII. There were no recorded chemical attacks in the Second World War.

1. 1
   about 20 (all tests)
2. just shy of 50 (all tests)

The Manhattan Project yielded one nuclear bomb test. After that, the U.S. rushed the bomb into production — and the next two atomic blasts in human history went straight to Japan.