Miscellaneous war and military trivia questions and answers about wars, battles, people and places.

For whom was Italian dictator Benito Mussolini named?
A: Mexican liberator Benito Juarez.

How many inmates were liberated from the Bastille after it was stormed by an angry mob on July14, 1789, at the start of the French Revolution?
A: Seven.

How did the Dutch in Amsterdam mobilize to defeat the invading Spanish during the winter of 1572-73?
A: The ice-locked Dutch routed the Spanish on skates.

What did the real Butch Cassidy do after escaping to Bolivia wit his partner-in-crime, the Sundance Kid?
A: Cassidy whose real name was Robert LeRoy Parker, reportedly returned to the U,S, and went into the adding machine manufacturing business.

Where did Adolf Hitler's sister-in-law work during World War II?
A: For British War Relief in New York City. Bridget Hitler was the Irish-born wife of Hitler's older half-brother, Alois.

Who was the first American congressman to don a uniform following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941?
A: President-to-be Lyndon Johnson, who served in the Navy.

What military firsts were achieved by Benjamin O. Davis Sr. and Benjamin O. Davis Jr.?
A: In 1940, Davis Sr. became the first black general in U.S. Army history; in 1954, his son Davis Jr. became the first black general in U.S. Air Force history.

What actor has attained the highest U.S. military rank in history for an entertainer?
A: James Stewart, who rose to the rank of a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Before the U.S. Navy adopted the standard 21-gun salute in 1841, how many blasts did its warships fie when they sailed into foreign ports?
A: One for each state in the union.

What was a tenth-century Chinese alchemist trying to discover when he accidentally produced gun powder?
A: A formula for immortality.

On what side did British-born newspaperman-explorer Henry Morton Stanley (of" Dr. Livingston, I presume" fame) fight in the American Civil war?
A: Both. He first joined the Confederate Army, but after being captured at Shiloh, he enlisted in the Union Navy to avoid imprisonment.

What rank did Russian czar Peter the Great give himself in the Russian Army?
A: None. He served as a common soldier in the artillery.

In the military world, what is EGADS?
A: The signal used when it's necessary to destroy a missile in flight. EGADS is an acronym for Electronic Ground Automatic Destruct System.

Who was Andrea Doria--the person for whom the famous passenger ship was named?
A: He was a sixteenth-century Genoese admiral who was known as the "Father of Peace" and the "Liberator of Genoa."

You may remember the Alamo, but do you now what the word means in Spanish?
A: Cottonwood.

What did the Marquis de Lafayette, America's Revolutionary War ally, name his only son?
A: George Washington Lafayette.

Who were Michael Strank, Harlon H. Block, Franklin R. Sousley, Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon and John H. Bradley, and how have they been memorialized?
A: They were the six servicemen who raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi o Iwo Jima during World War II-- and who are memorialized in the dramatic 78-foot-high Iwo Jima Monument in Arlington, Virginia.

Why was actor Paul Newman disqualified from the Navy's pilot-training program during World War II?
A: Newman's dazzling blue eyes are colorblind.