The Panay Incident
USS Panay was a river gunboat built in Shanghai in 1927-8 for the US Navy’s Yangtze River patrol. She was a small vessel, only around 500 tons displacement, with a shallow draft that allowed her […]
Sino-Japanese War
Operation Zet: Soviet Aid to China
As the fighting erupted in Shanghai in August 1937, the Chinese authorities began to look to the great powers of the west for assistance. The first to offer meaningful help was the Soviet Union, with […]
Bombers Over China
After the debacle that was the initial bombing campaign against China, the 1st Rengo Kokutai was forced to take stock. So many bombers had been lost to enemy fighters and anti-aircraft fire that a radical […]
The Battle of Shanghai: Encirclement, 1937
The Battle of Shanghai continued into October 1937. After the Japanese had successfully landed at Baoshan, on the southern bank of the Yangtze, they failed to follow up this success with further gains. Pushing south […]
The Blockade of Canton
As the fighting around Shanghai and Nanking raged, events around the southern city of Canton (now Guangdong) were conspiring to draw Japanese air and naval forces into battle in that area. Still hoping to conclude […]
The IJAAF in Northern China
Although the “China Incident”, as the Japanese referred to the war in China, began near the old northern capital of Beijing air activity in the area was minimal compared to the central Shanghai front. Chiang […]
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 […]