The Wednesday Quiz II:5 -- Twentieth Century Battles

The Wednesday Quiz -- Season II -- Quiz 5

Twentieth Century Battles

The Wednesday Quiz is a "closed-book" test of knowledge and intuition; please do not look up answers, ask others for help, or answer as a team.

Questions about the rules and the ~Fabulous Prizes~ are answered here.

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This week's Quiz is an is-it-or-isn't-it game about something that's really kind of an oxymoron. The idea of a "battle" -- two armies engaging each other in a specific, limited context of time and place -- was pretty much obsolete by the 1910s. So we are using the word "battle" here in a broad context to indicate any sustained military unpleasantness. Having said that, for each grim little tale,

Is It or Isn't It an Actual (and more or less accurately described) Twentieth-Century Battle?

1. Antietam (1941) -- As the French Army retreated in disarray at the beginning of World War II, nearly two thirds of its soldiers were caught near the village of Antietam between Italian forces advancing from the south and German forces advancing from the north. Surrounded, outnumbered, and cut off from supplies, the French capitulated in what is still the "biggest surrender" -- measured in number of POWs captured -- in history. Paris would fall to the Germans eight days later.

2. Bangladesh (1971) -- From its declaration of independence from (West) Pakistan in March to eventual victory in December, much of Bangladesh was a field of continuous chaos and violence. Killing of civilians by the U.S.-backed Pakistani troops was a commonplace, and although the figure of three million fatalities claimed by Bangladesh is probably somewhat high, the figure of 26,000 claimed by a official Pakistani inquiry is generally considered extremely low.

3. Bay of Pigs (1969) -- Often thought of as merely a humiliating fiasco for the United States, the Bay of Pigs in fact exacted an enormous toll of military and civilian casualties. Preliminary bombing of the heavily-populated landing area caused, according to Cuban estimates, nearly a quarter of a million deaths.

4. Borodino (1903) -- As Greek armies steadily drove troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire north during the Second Balkan War, the Italian army was sent across the Adriatic to support the Archduke's cause. Arriving in the mountains of the Balkan Peninsula weeks before their supplies of food, heavy weapons, and ammunition were ready, the Italians were quickly surrounded in the Borodino Valley and attacked with withering, continuous artillery and machine-gun fire. Roughly 235,000 soldiers and civilians perished.

5. Kampala (1951-53) -- After Uganda's Idi Amin recklessly invaded his southern neighbor, the larger and better equipped Ethiopian army quickly shattered his armed forces, launched a counter-invasion, and laid siege to his capital, Kampala. Somewhere between 600,000 and 900,000 died before international pressure led to a lifting of the siege two years later.

6. Leningrad (1941-4) -- Nazi Germany, with a little help from Finland, lays siege to the Soviet Union's second city. Close to a million soldiers and another million civilians die from cold, starvation, and combat in what was probably the Century's single deadliest sustained battle.

7. Okinawa (1945) -- The largest of the many amphibious assaults in the Pacific Theater of World War II, the Battle of Okinawa was an attempt by the Americans and their allies to secure a base for the bombing and presumed invasion of Japan. In addition to tens of thousands of American casualties and more than 100,000 Japanese soldiers killed, an enormous proportion of the Okinawan civilian population died during the battle.

8. Passchendaele (1917) -- From June to November, Allied troops assailed the German trenches in hopes of capturing the Belgian village of Passchendaele, the idea being that this would force U-Boats to stop using Belgian seaports. Over the course of six months, and at the cost of 140,000 combat deaths, the Allies managed to advance five miles and capture the village. Except, it turns out that U-Boats hadn't actually been using Belgian seaports. The Germans recaptured the village at the Battle of the Lys, five months later.

9. Stalingrad (1942-3) -- Troops of Nazi Germany and their allies occupied most of this strategically significant Soviet City in the fall, but found themselves trapped when Soviet armies cut off their supply lines at the beginning of the cold, cold winter. Holding the city was a logistical impossibility, but German dictator Adolph Hitler, a big advocate of the power of positive thinking, insisted that his troops do it anyway. Estimates vary widely, but well over a million Soviet, Germany, Italian, Romanian, and Hungarian soldiers died in the engagement.

10. Somme (1916) -- Estimated as the 10th deadliest battle of the 20th Century, and the deadliest outside of the Russian Front of World War II. The British and French attempt to break out of World War I's stalemate of trench warfare. The British famously lose some 60,000 soldiers on the first day of the attack; after an eventual million or so combined deaths on either side, the battle ended with the Allies having advanced several miles in some locations.

Submit your answers in the comments!