Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
97 free D-Day trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
14 free D-Day trivia questions with answers. Test your knowledge of one of history's most pivotal military operations with our comprehensive D-Day trivia quiz. This 97-question challenge covers the strategic planning, key figures, and crucial details of the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944. Whether you're a history enthusiast or just curious about WWII, see how well you understand this defining moment that changed the course of World War II.
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy, fell on what date?
June 6, 1944
June 6, 1944: the landings had been fixed for June 5 and were pushed back a day by a Channel storm; the 'D' simply stands for the unnamed day an operation begins.
Q 02D-Day opened which codenamed Allied campaign, the Battle of Normandy, that ended with the Germans retreating across the Seine?
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord ran from the seaborne and airborne landings to the German retreat east across the Seine on 30 August 1944.
Q 03Roughly how many Allied airborne troops dropped into Normandy before the seaborne assault?
24,000
About 24,000 American, British and Canadian airborne troops went in shortly after midnight, several hours before the amphibious landings began at about 06:30.
Q 04Who served as the Supreme Allied Commander overseeing the D-Day invasion?
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower drafted, and never had to release, a note taking sole blame in case the landings failed.
Q 05Which German Field Marshal oversaw the Atlantic Wall defenses in Normandy before D-Day?
Erwin Rommel
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was appointed in 1943 to oversee the development of German coastal defenses, known as the 'Atlantic Wall', in anticipation of an Allied invasion.
Q 06What was the specific code name for the naval assault phase of the D-Day landings?
Operation Neptune
Operation Neptune covered the amphibious phase: carrying the assault divisions across the Channel, bombarding the coastal defences, and putting troops and supplies ashore on the five landing beaches.
Q 07Commander Philippe Kieffer led commandos from which nation ashore at Sword Beach on D-Day?
France
They came from France: Kieffer's 177 Free French commandos of No. 4 Commando, attached to a British brigade, stormed the fortified casino at Riva Bella on Sword Beach.
Q 08D-Day was pushed back 24 hours from its planned date for what reason?
Unfavorable weather conditions
Unfavorable weather conditions forced the delay: a further postponement would have cost at least two weeks, since the needed combination of moon, tide and time of day came only a few days each month.
Q 09Which of the D-Day landing beaches saw the heaviest Allied casualties?
Omaha Beach
Omaha Beach cost roughly 2,400 American casualties on D-Day, the men landing under heavy fire from gun emplacements on the cliffs above.
Q 10The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division stormed which of the five Normandy beaches?
Juno
Juno Beach: the 3rd Canadian Division came ashore on the Mike and Nan sectors around Courseulles, Bernières and Saint-Aubin, under the British Second Army.
Q 11Which unit scaled a 35-metre Normandy cliff under Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder?
The US Army Rangers
The US Army Rangers of Rudder's 2nd Ranger Battalion climbed the Pointe du Hoc cliff with ropes and ladders; the battery's guns had been moved inland, where a Ranger patrol found and disabled them.
Q 12Fortitude South, the main deception under Plan Bodyguard, faked a threat to which stretch of coast?
Pas-de-Calais
Fortitude South pointed at the Pas-de-Calais, the shortest Channel crossing, using a fictitious First US Army Group in Kent; German reserves were held there for weeks after 6 June.
Q 13What were the Mulberries, built in Britain and towed across the Channel in summer 1944?
Q 21Which British admiral, flag officer at Dover during Dunkirk, commanded the D-Day naval operations?
Bertram Ramsay
Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, who had run the Dunkirk evacuation from Dover, was Allied Naval Commander for Neptune; historian Correlli Barnett called his plan a 'never surpassed masterpiece of planning'.
Q 22Which Norwegian destroyer was sunk by German torpedo boats off Sword Beach at 05:10 on D-Day?
HNoMS Svenner
HNoMS Svenner, hit amidships by a torpedo from Le Havre-based German torpedo boats, broke in two and sank; the same salvo missed the battleships Warspite and Ramillies.
Q 23Which town, taken by American paratroopers within two hours of landing, was the first liberated on D-Day?
Temporary portable harbours
The Mulberries were temporary portable harbours, one American off Omaha and one British off Arromanches; the British harbour handled supplies for months after a June storm wrecked the American one.
Q 14Which British general commanded all Allied ground forces in the Normandy campaign until 1 September 1944?
Bernard Montgomery
Bernard Montgomery commanded 21st Army Group and all Allied ground forces in Normandy until Eisenhower took over direct ground command on 1 September 1944.
Q 15The Normandy landings hold what record in military history?
The largest seaborne invasion
The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history: about 156,000 Allied troops landed by sea and air on 6 June 1944 across a 50-mile front of five beaches.
Q 16Which major Normandy city, an Allied objective for D-Day itself, held out until mid-July 1944?
Caen
Caen, about 15 kilometres from Sword Beach, was a D-Day objective but fell only in July, its northern half in Operation Charnwood and the rest during Goodwood.
Q 17How many Allied troops were confirmed dead on D-Day, out of at least 10,000 casualties?
4,414
4,414 Allied dead have been confirmed by name, 2,501 of them American; German casualties on the day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men.
Q 18What were the mine-clearing, demolition and bridging tanks of Normandy nicknamed?
Hobart's Funnies
Hobart's Funnies were modified Shermans and Churchills, flail, flamethrower, bridging and AVRE variants, developed under Major-General Percy Hobart of the 79th Armoured Division.
Q 19Which RAF group captain's 4 June forecast let the Supreme Allied Commander launch the invasion on 6 June?
James Stagg
Group Captain James Stagg, SHAEF's chief meteorologist, forecast a brief improvement for 6 June; the next dates with the right tides were two weeks away and without a full moon.
Q 20How many aircraft could the Luftwaffe muster over Normandy against the Allies' 9,543?
Only 815
Only 815 aircraft were available to Luftflotte 3 in France; Allied bombing and the fighter battles over Germany had crippled the Luftwaffe and secured air supremacy before the landings.
Sainte-Mère-Église
Sainte-Mère-Église, on the main road behind Utah Beach, was taken by the 82nd Airborne's 505th Parachute Infantry before dawn on 6 June, the first town freed by American troops in Normandy.
Q 24Private Bill Millin famously did what as Lord Lovat's commandos came ashore at Sword?
Played the bagpipes
He was Lovat's personal piper and arrived with the 1st Special Service Brigade in the second wave.
Q 25On the night before the invasion, the SAS dropped dummy paratroopers over Isigny and which port?
Le Havre
Operation Titanic dropped dummy parachutists near Le Havre and Isigny to draw off German reserves; the same night No. 617 Squadron dropped 'window' foil strips to fake a naval convoy on German radar.
Q 26The 4th Infantry Division landed 21,000 troops on Utah Beach at the cost of how many casualties?
Only 197
Only 197 casualties: strong currents had pushed the landing craft about 2,000 yards south of the intended zone, onto a lightly defended stretch of Utah Beach.
Q 27Which brigadier general at Utah Beach decided to 'start the war from right here' after the landings drifted?
Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
Theodore Roosevelt Jr., eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt and assistant commander of the 4th Infantry Division, ordered later waves re-routed to the new spot; he received the Medal of Honor.
Q 28Which German formation, unexpectedly in position, opposed the American landings at Omaha?
352nd Infantry
The 352nd Infantry Division, a well-trained unit Allied intelligence had not placed on the coast, held the Omaha bluffs; American forces suffered about 2,400 casualties there but landed 34,000 troops by day's end.
Q 29Sergeant Major Stanley Hollis won the only D-Day Victoria Cross for actions on which beach?
Gold
Gold Beach: Hollis of the 6th Green Howards attacked two pillboxes at the Mont Fleury battery and later rescued trapped men at Crépon, the only Victoria Cross won on D-Day.
Q 30Which British formation was the assault force at Gold Beach?
50th (Northumbrian) Division
The 50th (Northumbrian) Division, under Bucknall's XXX Corps and supported by the 8th Armoured Brigade, was the Gold assault force; its objectives included Arromanches and the high ground inland.