Yokosuka E1Y Type 14
The Yokosuka E1Y was designed by a team from the Japanese Naval Arsenal in 1921, with the team being led by visiting members of Short Brothers, a UK aircraft manufacturer. Initial versions were very overweight […]
Month: February 2015
Boeing 218
The Boeing 218 was an export version of the F4B (US Navy) and P-12 (USAAC) fighter, which had entered American service in 1929. A small number of 218s were sold to Chinese warlords (sources are […]
Nakajima A1N Type 3
By 1926 the Japanese Navy’s Mitsubishi 1MF fighters were no longer considered adequate, and the search began for a replacement. Aichi, Mitsubishi and Nakajima were invited to put forward prototypes for evaluation. Nakajima obtained a […]
Peaceful Seas: The End of the Chinese Navy, 1937
The Republic of China Navy of 1937 was, by the standards of the era, very small and limited in its abilities. The largest vessels it had in commission were light cruisers like the Ning-Hai (Peaceful […]
Fighter Combat Over Nanking, 1937
By September 1937, the progress of the war was beginning to take shape after the confusing initial forays in Shanghai. Additional Japanese troops had landed on the banks of the Yangtze and had begun to […]
Trans-Oceanic Bombing of China, 1937
In mid-July 1937, with the situation in China clearly heading towards a broader conflict, the newly formed First Combined Air Group (1st Rengo Kokutai) had been deployed to support Japanese forces operating in-country. The group […]
Defending Shanghai, 1937
The Sino-Japanese War began slowly. In July 1937 the Japanese Army, in response to an exchange of gunfire with Chinese forces around the Marco Polo Bridge outside Peking, launched an unauthorised operation to conquer northern […]
The Shanghai Incident, 1932
In September 1931, the Japanese staged the ‘Mukden Incident’ and eventually invaded and occupied Mukden, Manchuria, ejecting the ruling Chinese in the process. After Chinese boycotts of Japanese goods in response to this incursion, Japanese […]