Here it is folks, my 3rd annual Boxing Day trivia quiz. I have one request. Please give people a chance to answer. Even if you know every answer right up front only answer a few at a time. I'll leave it up to you as far as how many you want to answer at a time.

1. In the movie, Battle of the River Platte, also known as Pursuit of the Graf Spee, what ships played the following? Hint, two ships played themselves, one of which while under another name.

Graf Spee:
HMS Exeter
HMNJS Achilles
HMS Cumberland
HMS Jamaica

2. After the night action of November 13th off Guadalcanal where the IJN Hiei had her steering damaged, which led to her loss, the Japanese decided to improve the armor around the steering gear. What material did they use?

3. Japanese Aircraft Carriers would sometimes have their superstructures, or “islands” to port, and sometimes, like most other navies, to starboard. At the battle of Midway two carriers had it to port, and two to starboard. Which ones had them where?

4. In World War II the British used a type of ship called a MAC ship. What does MAC stand for? Hint, it wasn’t an early Apple computer.

5. In World War II two famous British armed merchant cruisers, AMC, fought actions against the Scharnhorst and Scheer. Which ship fought the Scharnhorst and which the Scheer?

6. At the first “Battle of Guadalcanal” November 13th 1942, the American force was in a long line, thirteen ships long. What ship was the “lucky” number 13 and what happened to her in the battle?

7. What was the last battleship to be sunk in surface action against another battleship?

8. Although technically a Royal Navy ship, HMS, this ship was crewed by Canadian officers and men and commission into the Canadian navy. She was the only Canadian aircraft carrier to be damaged in WWII.

9. On December 19th Italian frogmen, manning manned torpedoes, sank or heavily damaged two British battleships in Alexandria harbor. What were the ships?

10. In a famous, or infamous, incident in WWII the liner Laconia was torpedoed by a u-boat. The u-boat commander surfaced to help rescue the survivors, even raiding in the clear to allied forces his position in order to lead rescuers to the location. What was the name of the u-boat skipper?

11. What German warship, it’s classification as to type of warship changed during the war, was partly sank and still fired on advancing Russian forces near the close of WWII?

12. What tanker was used as a supply ship to the Graf Spee and later was boarded by the Royal Navy in neutral waters with the cry, “The Navies Here.”

13. Many people know that the Yorktown and Saratoga were originally planned as battlecruisers. Not everybody knows that they were to be joined by two sisters. What were the names of the two sisters?

14. Originally the Iowa class was planned as a six-ship class. The Illinois and Kentucky were the two unfinished sisters. A large part of the Kentucky exists to this day. What is the circumstance behind this piece of Kentucky surviving?

15. There was one last class of American battleships planned after the Iowa class, consisting of five ships, mounting four triple 16 inch gun turrets. What were the five ships names?

16. This US Destroyer was the only US warship torpedoed in WWI. Ironically her namesake was sunk by a German torpedo in WWII.

17. This famous American battleship, a pre-dreadnought, served in WWII as the IX-22.

18. In honor of our Flat Tops Campaign what was the first US flattop?

19. What US carrier served the shortest time before being sunk?

20. Several of the American Essex class was named after carriers sunk during the war. What 5 ships were so named?

21. This Royal Sovereign class battleship was sunk by torpedoes in harbor?

22. This US ship was named after an Australian cruiser sunk while serving with US forces.

23. One of my favorite movies is Operation Petticoat. At least three episodes in the movie were based on real life American submarines. Who wrote the “toilet paper” letter? Tokyo Rose actually did claim there was a submarine operating that was an unusual color, what was that boat? There really was a pink sub, which boat was it?

24. World War II picked up pretty much the same way World War I ended with the sinking of this liner on the 2nd day of the war.

25. Bonus Question: On the box art of the DML 1/700 scale USS Oakland light cruiser there is a mistake. The painting shows the Oakland in the foreground; in the background a US battleship is sailing, while overhead a flight of US aircraft flies by. What’s wrong with this picture?

no 12 is the altmark, i leave the rest for the others
dave

Yes David, Altmark is correct. Captain Vian, in HMS Cossack, was involved in both this episode, and the night destroyer attack on the Bismarck.

Hi Rodger

Nice collection of trivia questions
I'll have to looks for some answers and I'll post them as a group

Thanks for "spiccing up" the area

Skipper

The Lexington and Saratoga's sister ships would have been the Constellation, Constitution, Ranger and United States.

The 5 US super battleships would have been the Montana, Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire and Louisiana.

subhunter

My source on this question is Battleships and Battlecruisers 1905-1970 by Siegfried Breyer. He lists the four battlecruisers as
CC-1 Lexington, ex Constitution
CC-2 Constellation
CC-3 Saratoga
CC-4 Ranger, ex Lexington
CC-5 Constitution, ex Ranger
CC-6 United States

Yes for the Montana class.

I'll take the Japanese aircraft carrier question.... The akagi and soryu carried on starboard side like our carriers, the kaga and hiryu on port.

# 14 The Wisconsisn smashed into something and tore her hull up, so a large section of the hull of the Kentucky was used to replace the damaged part on the Wisconsin thus giving the Wisconsin her nickname "WIS-KY"

# 4 MERCHANT AIRCRAFT CARRIERS

You're half right Steve. My source on this question, http://www.combinedfleet.com/cv.htm Shows Soryu with it to starboard, and Hiryu to port, but Akagi having it to port and Kaga to starboard.

Yes, a large section of the bow from the unfinished Kentucky was used to repair the Wisconsin. I never heard the "Wis-KY" nickname, but I like it.

# 18 first Purpose built or First?

Right you are Matt. At the recent "The Gathering" for IPMS region 5 there was a great dio done of a MAC consisting of the bow section with catapult and a Hurricane figher. I'm not sure what scale it was, 1/48 or 1/32 perhaps, but it was VERY impressive.

Also impressive was the courage of these fighter pilots who would catapult off with no hope of safely landing. Only a crash and a swim waited for them at the end of their flight.

First ever.

USS Birmingham was the first "converted" for flight but couldn't take landings.........

USS USS Pennsylvania was the first to recieve a landing

USS Langley First Converted to a Full AC

The USS Lexington was the first purpose built.....

#20 the Essex class re-names

CV 10 - Yorktown
CV-12 - Hornet
CV-16 - Lexington
CV-18 - Wasp
CV-37 - Princeton ( made me work for this one )

#13 Rodger, I did some digging and it was the Lexington and Saratoga, not the Yorktown, and with four sister ships.

Originally earmarked as Lexington class battlecruisers there were six ships planned in this class namely:

Lexington
Constellation
Saratoga
Ranger
Constitution
United States

Two hulls were completed as Lexington class aircraft carriers, namely the- USS Lexington and as the third hull ‘Saratoga’ was ‘more complete’ than the second hull ‘Constellation’, the Saratoga was converted and the Constellation scrapped.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see Subhunter's answers.

Rodger, Truly Brilliant Questions, knew four of #20 (the obvious four) not the Princeton.

on the amcs ill go for rawlpindi against the scharnhorst and jervis bay vs scheer(sorry about the spelling)

Absolutely! B*llocks to that for a way to fight a war. Hopefully they got the Condor before they had to ditch.

Apparently when the Hurricanes burst out of the cloud cover over the Atlantic (FAR outside fighter range), the Condor (Kondor?) crew thought they were hallucinating.

#6. Aaron Ward brought up the rear.
Torpedoes from Amatsukaze passed under Aaron Ward and destroyed Barton.
Aaron Ward, although damaged, survived the battle and with a tug’s help made port at Tulagi.

Fletcher was the ‘blessed’ one and made it through the entire battle without a proverbial scratch!

Right on all three. I was going for the Langley, the old Covered Wagon, as she was the first "flat top." Pennsylvania was only half flat.

Correct. I thnk most people would forget Princeton.

#7 IJN Yamashiro (actually sunk)
#8 HMS Nabob (asw carrier)
#9 Queen Elizabeth and Valiant

subhunter

#16 USS Jacob Jones
#17 USS Oregon
#21 HMS Royal Oak (sunk by Prien's U-47)

ACK! I either have to stop having a couple rum and cokes before doing these quizes, or have somebody proof them first. LEXINGTON not Yorktown. My bad.

Thanks for the compliment.