France attacked 25 October 1939

Late October 1942
The WAllied breakthrough had happened as planned. The IJA had little with which to resist the tanks and was effectively overrun and cut up into several pockets that would be worn down by second echelon troops moving in the wake of the advancing units.
Ningpo had been sealed off from the Japanese occupied areas and was being grind down too.
The advance post Nan-ch'ang had been a rough going for the British mainly due to terrain less so Japanese defences.
The French had had a slightly easier time in reaching Yochow but then had to cross the Yangzhe River before moving on north to link up with the Chinese Armies north of the IJA bulge.
Effectively the Chinese pocket the WAllied offensive had moved on had been relieved.
The next step was to continue north but half the job had been done.
Having initially achieved surprise and possibly not able to repeat this the main force of WAllied Airforces in China was to support the drive north to surround the IJA salient.

As the IJA had burned off their fuel and moved reserves in the wrong direction running into a Chinese Army ready for the onslaught the WAllied armoured troops would continue north and actually cut off the IJA salient in three weeks of fighting.

The swift movement of the WAllied offensives had only been possible as the WAllied combined forces equalled about half that of the entire IJA and the Chinese had been able to better equip their Armies and take the role of the anvil while the WAllies acted the hammer.
The Chinese didn't resent this as it forced the IJA off their territory and as they still didn't have the mobility to fight the mobile WAllied battle.
Also the many pockets in the rear of the IJA in the occupied provinces served to tie down large numbers of IJA troops that might have been able to stem the WAllied onslaught.
And still the Kwantung Army sat in Machuria watching the Soviet Union.

November 1942
The new WAllied Carrier Group had arrived in the Far East; RN 2x Implacable Carriers (81 aircraft), French Joffre and Alsace /GrafZeppelin Aircraft Carriers (50) adding to these there RN Aircraft Carriers Ark Royal (54), Illustrious (36) pair, Indomitable (45), Glorious (48).

As the RAF and French Air Force was busy pounding Taiwan and supporting the WAllied land offensives the carriers was split into an armoured group – Illustrious pair, Joffre and Alsace to patrol the Ryu-Kyu's and take the ferrying IJA/IJN aircraft on to delay these getting to Taiwan and the remaning four Implacable's, Ark Royal and Indomitable into two groups to patrol east of Japan with Glorious acting as an aircraft repair ship for these far ranging patrols to be supplemented with Unicorn (33) which was on its way from Britain or replaced to go back to European waters.

The arrival of the Armoured Carrier Group off the Ryu-Kyu's was an unpleasant surprise for the Japanese though WAllied fighters had flown missions there for a couple of months from Chekiang Province on the Chinese east coast.
Those early missions had been a mere nuisance these new arrivals was something else.
With radar to guide the aircraft in on enemy planes the situation changed to the detriment of the Japanese.
Some airbases was around but not on the scale needed to conduct attacks on a large Carrier group and neigher the were the command infrastructure geared to initiate such attacks which made it all a rather annoying affair for the Armoured Carrier Group.
Some Japanese aircraft of course got through to Taiwan but the situation made for an unanticipated IJA airunit attack build-up. As most such equipment was rather heavy – torpedoes and bombs against shipping had to be employed – which made for targets for redirected Dutch Submarines and for a new mission for the two other Carrier Groups patrolling Japanese Home Waters to find the bases from which those transports originated.

Reconnaisance combined with radiointelligence soon pinpointed Sasebo and Nagasaki. These were on the wrong side of the Japanese coast so were left to long-range Submarines to patrol.
Being so far south those cities would be in range of bombers of Strategic Air from Chekiang Province and bases for such was build on the coast of the province.
As soon as these were ready RAF and French Strategic Bombers would take off for Nagasaki and Sasebo to do an Antwerp.
Nobody giving much thought to the traditional building of Japanese cities and the bombers being loaded with a mix of HE and Incendiaries – european style - the cumulative effect much worse than Antwerp.
The psycological effect of these bombings hadn't been anticipated by the WAllies.

Being bombed without being able to hit back on the WAllies home territories and two cities burned to the ground deeply frustrated the Japanese and Government discussions began focusing on continuation of the war as it became clear that there was no way of retaliation.
British and French colonies had been attacked but the attacks had been fended off with British Borneo the only shortlived success. Now the Europeans had begun forcing the IJA back in China after having wiped the sea of IJN Aircraft Carriers.

Admiral Yamamoto outlined the situation - the IJA would soon have another 3 Light Carriers operational.
The RN and French Navy had defeated the Reinforcement Convoy to Hong Kong during May in the chaotic Monsoon conditions. The Carriers had been sunk and all Battleships sunk or damaged – most couldn't under the present circumstances be expected to reenter service any time soon.
The only large ships besides the coming Light Carriers would be the surviving Heavy Cruisers. The Light Carriers didn't have the capacity to take on even one of the four Groups of Carriers the WAllies had employed against the Ryu-Kyu supply chain and on the East coast of the Empire.
With depleted soon empty oil reserves with no way to remedy the situation it would be a slow roll down hill. True the IJA and IJN would continue the fight as long as factories would produce ammunition but once the means of transporting the produce to China and Taiwan had been sunk by WAllied aircraft and submarines it would be the end of the line. True the industry of Manchuria would continue running on coal but oil wasn't the only thing lacking. Metals and chemicals would also be in short supply.
Japan had lost the Thai rice export and the Chinese territory was shrinking fast it would be a matter of time – not if but when.

The IJA yelled of defaitism and cowardness and a lot more.

Adm Yamamoto said he'd gladly go down fighting with his ships but said ships would soon be unable to fight or sail. Without his ships supplies wouldn't reach the IJA in Korea or China. The Generals grumbled.
Britain and France had defeated Germany and was defending their Colonies. Neigther would allow anybody now to take those from them.
Nagasaki and Sasebo had been burned to the ground – next may be Miyazaki and Hiroshima. Taiwan starving.
To them we are just Asians who need to kow-tow. You know that.
If our Navy and Army are no longer able to fight they will bury us all and tell their Colonies – that's what happens to those who oppose us.
If we on the other hand is forthcoming and initiate negotiations we might come out better than the British and French want us.

IJA still wary of Soviet intentions in Manchuria did pull out several Divisions from the Kwantung Army to stiffen defences in the Chinese east-coast Provinces.
It was a long way from Manchuria to Nanking as the first part by railway Beijing went rather smoothly the following strecth through Shansi Province dominated by Communist pockets was downright dangerous both facing Partisan attacks but also because the many cuts of the railways and the winding way between the Communist pockets often meant march on foot.
Things had been much easier if the travel could have been done by ship but the IJN wasn't in a position to do such safely – the presence of WAllied submarines had made the Yellow Sea dangerous even along the coast. Merchantmen were regularly lost as was their Escorts.
Add to this regularly happening WAllied and Chinese Air Force attacks on anything moving by strafing aircraft which had the reinforcements take cover untill the aircraft had left.
As their moving reinforcements for Nanking were being held back by fighting in Shansi Province Shanghai was captured by the WAllies and immediately handed to the Chinese to clear though WAllied Engineers moved in to get an idea of how bad a state the port and railways were in.
The WAllied mobile Corps turned north towards Nanking then.

With the ongoing Coastal offensive part of the WAllied troops had been moved to west of Kai'feng to open a thrust towards the coast along the Hwangho River. Overwhelming firepower and control of the air made the offensive go – the short intervals in which the Communist pockets were spaced and their size made for swift advance once such a pocket had been reached. The Communist's had been reluctant to cooperate but the outlook of getting rid of one enemy in the end decided their stance and the WAllies got the go – but they would only do the offensive supported by the Communist forces.
That had made the WAllies ready to shelve the idea but the KMT leadership urged them on – as soon as the IJA had been defeated the KMT would repress and defeat the Communist's.
As the WAllied forces advanced into Shansi Province they turned east towards the coast south of the Shantung Peninsular. Bypassing Jinan the WAllies reached the next Communist pocket and then it was going for the third to reach the coast.

Along the advance through IJA held territory several Internment Camps was passed and inmates freed. The sorry state of the inmates kept the Medical teams busy each time such a camp was entered.
In one such camp a Jock Private called upon a Doctor to attend to a European claiming it to be Eric Liddell – the Flying Scotsman. The Doctor realized from his observations and information provided by fellow internees the state of his illness and recommended surgery to remove a possible brain tumor. Without a Hospital nearby Liddell was flown out of China to Singapore for surgery.

No just that the final clearing of the city being left to the Chinese so that the more mobile forces may move on.