These are the ten questions from War Dossier daily challenge #44, of 5 November 2026, with the correct answer and an explanation for each. Today's challenge is a different one and it is free to play.
On 15 June 1944, at about 08:40, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions assaulted the beaches of Charan Kanoa on the southwest coast of Saipan. Around 8,000 men landed in some twenty minutes. Japanese artillery on the inland heights swept the beaches and inflicted thousands of casualties on the first day alone. It was the start of one of the toughest battles of the Pacific.
Challenge answers
1 / 10
What amphibious operation does this photograph show, with the first wave of Marines taking cover on the beach?
The Saipan landing
The Tarawa landing
The Guadalcanal landing
The Iwo Jima landing
The image shows the first wave of Marines on the beaches of Saipan on 15 June 1944.
2 / 10
In what year was the improved 120-PM-43 version introduced?
1943
1938
1945
1941
The 120-PM-43 was introduced in 1943 as a modified and improved version of the earlier M1938 mortar, of which German forces had already captured and copied large numbers.
3 / 10
Why was French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers at the time of the Allied landings?
He happened to be there by chance, visiting an ill son
He had traveled to personally inspect the coastal defenses
He was chairing a Vichy government meeting relocated to Algiers
He had just taken command of the French fleet in the Mediterranean
His presence in the city was due to a personal matter rather than any planned military mission.
4 / 10
What happened to the Red Army's anti-tank dog program from 1942 onward?
It was progressively scaled back until being largely abandoned
It was equally extended to all Soviet fronts
It came to depend on captured German officers
It became the main method against infantry
After the problems detected in the field, the use of these dogs declined and resources were redirected to other canine tasks.
5 / 10
Which of these aces was among the first pilots to fight in a jet fighter?
Walter Nowotny
George Beurling
Hans-Ulrich Rudel
David McCampbell
Beurling and McCampbell flew propeller fighters and Rudel the Stuka; only Nowotny fought early in the Me 262 jet.
6 / 10
What approximate proportion of convoy PQ-17's merchantmen ended up sunk?
About two-thirds
Roughly a quarter
Exactly half
Less than a tenth
Twenty-four of the thirty-five merchantmen were lost, close to two-thirds of the total.
7 / 10
Where was the unfinished E-100 hull found in April 1945?
Hidden in a wood at Henschel proving ground near Paderborn
On a stopped train near Berlin
Sunk in a Bavarian river
In the yard of the Krupp factory in Essen
American troops found it hidden among the trees of the Henschel proving ground at Haustenbeck, near Paderborn.
8 / 10
What event ultimately made carrying out Operation Downfall, the Allied plan to invade Japan, unnecessary?
Japan's surrender following the atomic bombings and the Soviet entry into the war
The signing of an armistice negotiated in Switzerland
A coup that toppled the Japanese government before summer
The sinking of the invasion fleet in a typhoon
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, together with the Soviet declaration of war, precipitated Japan's surrender and made the plan moot.
9 / 10
In which military branch did Arnold serve, unlike his Allied counterparts Cunningham and Chuikov?
the US Army Air Forces
the Royal Navy
the Red Army
the French Army
Arnold led US military aviation, a different sphere from naval or ground command.
10 / 10
Why does the Bren's curved magazine point upward, unlike most other automatic rifles where it points down?
The .303 British cartridge is rimmed
So the gunner can see better through the sight
To reduce the weapon's overall weight
It's purely an aesthetic choice with no technical reason
The .303 British cartridge has a rimmed case, which feeds more reliably when the curved magazine is mounted on top, with gravity assisting, rather than pointing down as with magazines for rimless ammunition.
Today's challenge is another ten questions. No sign-up, nothing to install.
