This set joins the four lessons in the Second World War depth-study pathway: placing a topic by theatre and dates, comparing accounts with provenance, explaining a development from several sources and keeping explanation apart from endorsement. Questions 1 to 3 use real, widely recorded dates. The source extracts are all invented for practice.
The questions run from easy to harder. Write full sentences, open each answer only after trying, and mark yourself honestly.
Source P (invented extract). Logbook of a harbour pilot at the invented port of Karang Bay, 1942. “The convoy sailed at dawn on 9 March. By noon two of the merchant ships had been lost to a submarine. The escorts searched until dark.”
Source Q (invented extract). Bulletin from the Karang Bay port authority to shipping companies, 1942. “The convoy of 9 March reached its destination with losses within the expected limits. Cargo schedules are unchanged.”
Source R (invented extract). From a modern textbook written for this exercise. “Convoy escorts improved as the war went on, but in early 1942 losses to submarines remained heavy.”
Questions
1. (Easy) Put in order: D-Day, the German invasion of Poland, Japanese formal surrender, Pearl Harbor.
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Invasion of Poland (1 September 1939), Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941), D-Day (6 June 1944), Japanese formal surrender (2 September 1945).
2. (Easy) Name the theatre for (a) Operation Barbarossa and (b) the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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(a) The Eastern Front. (b) The Pacific and Asia.
3. (Easy) A question covers 1941 to 1942. Which of these fall inside it: the invasion of Poland, Pearl Harbor, D-Day?
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Only Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941). Poland (1939) is before the window and D-Day (1944) is after it.
4. (Medium) State the provenance of Source P: who, when and what form.
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A logbook kept by a harbour pilot at Karang Bay, written in 1942, as a working record made at the time.
5. (Medium) What does Source P state directly about the convoy, and what does it not state?
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It states that the convoy sailed on 9 March, that two merchant ships were lost to a submarine by noon and that the escorts searched until dark. It does not state the total number of ships in the convoy, the cargo lost, or whether the losses were higher or lower than usual.
6. (Medium) Compare Sources P and Q on the convoy of 9 March. Give one point of agreement and one difference, with provenance.
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Agreement: both refer to the convoy of 9 March and to losses (Q says “losses”, P gives two ships). Difference: P, a pilot’s logbook, records the losses factually and without comment on whether they were acceptable, whereas Q, a bulletin to shipping companies, describes them as “within the expected limits” and stresses unchanged schedules. Q may be written to reassure companies that their business can continue.
7. (Medium) A student writes “Source Q is more reliable because it is an official bulletin.” Explain what is wrong and rewrite it.
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Being official does not make a source automatically reliable, because Q has its own purpose of reassuring shipping companies. Rewrite: “Source Q, an official bulletin, is useful as evidence of how the port authority described the convoy to shipping companies, but its phrase ‘within the expected limits’ may reflect a wish to reassure, so it needs checking against Source P.”
8. (Harder) Using Sources P, Q and R, explain how serious the convoy losses were in early 1942. Begin with a claim.
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Claim: the sources suggest that losses were serious but were officially described as manageable. Source P records two ships lost within hours. Source R, an interpretation, says losses to submarines remained heavy in early 1942. Source Q describes the same convoy’s losses as within expected limits, which may show that heavy losses were already expected, or that the authority wished to reassure. Limit: one logbook, one bulletin and one textbook sentence cannot show the total picture across the war.
9. (Harder) A student writes: “The port authority was wrong to call two lost ships acceptable.” Rewrite this in an evidence-based way and say why the original does not fit the question “Explain why Source Q describes the losses as within expected limits.”
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The original is a moral verdict. It does not explain why Q says what it says. Rewrite: “Source Q says the losses were within the expected limits, which may be because the authority wished to reassure companies that schedules would continue, or because losses of this kind were already expected, as Source R suggests for early 1942. The sources do not show which reason applies.”
10. (Harder) Label each as fact, source viewpoint, interpretation or endorsement: (a) “The convoy sailed on 9 March (according to Source P).” (b) “Convoy escorts improved as the war went on.” (c) “The escorts should have done more.” (d) “The bulletin says schedules are unchanged.”
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(a) Source viewpoint, a claim from the logbook, treated here as supported within this exercise. (b) Interpretation, from Source R. (c) Endorsement or condemnation without evidence, which would need criteria and support before it could be used. (d) Source viewpoint, attributed to the bulletin.
If you got these wrong
| Error type | What it looks like | Go to |
|---|---|---|
| Wrong theatre or year, events outside the window | Questions 1 to 3 | Locate a topic by theatre and dates |
| Describing sources separately or trusting “official” automatically | Questions 4 to 7 | Compare primary accounts |
| Listing sources without a claim, or going beyond the evidence | Questions 8 | Explain a development using several sources |
| Verdicts and opinion in place of evidence | Questions 9 and 10 | Separate explanation from endorsement |
Return to the pathway overview for the study order. If you would like a teacher to read your written answers, our online one-to-one History tuition starts from your own option and depth study.