China celebrated its first victory on October 8, 1939. At the First Battle of Changsha, Japan attacked the capital of the Hunan Province, but the Chinese army cut Japanese supply lines and defeated the Imperial Army.
Still, Japan captured the Nanning and Guangxi coast and stopped foreign aid by sea to China after winning the Battle of South Guangxi. China wouldn't go down easy, though. It launched the Winter Offensive in November 1939, a country-wide counteroffensive against Japanese troops. Japan held in most places, but it realized then it would not be easy to win against China's sheer size.
Although China held onto the critical Kunlun Pass in Guangxi that same winter, keeping a supply flow from French Indochina to the Chinese army, the Battle of Zoayang-Yichang saw Japan's success in driving toward the provisional new capital of China at Chongqing.
Firing back, Communist Chinese troops in northern China blew up rail-lines, disrupted Japanese coal supplies, and even made a frontal assault on Imperial Army troops, resulting in a strategic Chinese victory in December 1940.
As a result, on December 27, 1940, Imperial Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, which aligned the nation with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy as part of the Axis Powers.
1941: Axis vs. Allies
As early as April 1941, volunteer American pilots called the Flying Tigers begin to fly supplies to Chinese forces from Burma over "the Hump"—the eastern end of the Himalayas. In June of that year, troops from Great Britain, India, Australia, and France invaded Syria and Lebanon, held by pro-German Vichy French. The Vichy French surrendered on July 14.
In August 1941, the United States, which had supplied 80% of Japan's oil, initiated a total oil embargo, forcing Japan to seek new sources to fuel its war effort. The September 17 Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran complicated the matter by deposing the pro-Axis Shah Reza Pahlavi and replacing him with his 22-year-old son to ensure the Allies' access to Iranian oil.
The end of 1941 saw an implosion of the Second World War, starting with the December 7 Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii—which killed 2,400 American service members and sank four battleships. Simultaneously, Japan initiated the Southern Expansion, launching a massive invasion aimed at the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Malaya, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Midway Island.
In response, the United States and the United Kingdom formally declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941. Two days later, Japan sank the British warships HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales off the coast of Malaya, and the U.S. base at Guam surrendered to Japan.
Japan forced British colonial forces in Malaya to withdraw up to the Perak River a week later and from December 22–23, it launched a major invasion of Luzon in the Philippines, forcing American and Filipino troops to withdraw to Bataan.
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