Pearl Harbor: The First Wave
Japan’s war in China brought her into direct conflict with the United States. As Japanese forces moved south into Indochina, the threat to American interests in the Philippines, as well as the British and Dutch […]
History
Operation 102: Storm Over Chungking
Despite mounting perhaps the longest and most sustained bombing campaign against a single city, the Japanese had failed to force China out of the war. Operations 100 and 101 had caused tremendous destruction to Chungking’s […]
The Franco-Thai War
Since the Japanese had largely completed the blockade of major Chinese ports, most supplies destined for the Kuomintang forces were brought into China on the Burma Road. This link allowed Chiang Kai-Shek to import quantities […]
German Raiders in the Indian Ocean
German merchant raiders were even more active in the Indian Ocean than they were in the Pacific. The first Kriegsmarine surface vessels to reach the Indian Ocean was the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, which […]
German Raiders in the Pacific
Although the war in China had been raging since 1937, it wasn’t until 1939 that Europe likewise followed Asia into a general war. The two conflicts would remain largely separate endeavours until the Japanese attack […]
Operation 101: Chungking, the Underground City
Operation 100 had proved that the Japanese had the capability to conduct a sustained bombing campaign against Chinese cities, however it had also proved that the effectiveness of these raids was questionable. The government of […]
Khalkhin Gol Part 2: Zhukov’s Whirlwind
After two months of fighting, neither side had made a decisive breakthrough in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. Although the Japanese had failed in their first attempt to claim the disputed area, they were determined […]
Khalkhin Gol Part 1: Border Wars
The Battle of Khalkin Gol, or the ‘Nomonhan Incident’ as the Japanese termed the battle, was the culmination of a series of skirmishes that had occurred along the disputed Mongolia-Manchukuo border. In 1938 Russian and […]
Operation 100: The Bombing of Chungking
The tri-city of Wuhan fell to the Japanese invaders in October 1938. The invaders, believing that the Chinese would capitulate with the fall of their temporary capital, were surprised to see Chiang Kai-Shek and the rest of […]
The Invasion of Canton
Although the Japanese had successfully eliminated most Chinese air opposition in Southern China during the autumn of 1937, shipments of new aircraft from foreign partners continued to arrive in the area. American, British, German and […]