Mjollnir
I’m pretty sure you’re wrong about that. The attack on the Philippones came hours later.
Which attack are your speaking of? I think the Japanese did sieze a couple of small Navy ships in Chinese ports, maybe before the Pearl Harbor raid.
Singapore was what I was referring to.
I would add to Tristan’s comments that US war production even at the outset of its involvement was likely exceeded only by the Soviet Union among the Allies, and ultimately outweighed all of the other Allied nations combined.
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The Soviets, in a word, sucked at production, relative to its size at least. ENGLAND, of all people, had to send them convoys of freighters carrying tanks by sea.
Well, the Commonwealth did. Not just England (or the UK, for that matter).
I think it’s rather harsh to say that Soviet production “sucked” just because the British sent them equipment (perhaps some from the wider Commonwealth, but I suspect most of the tanks came from England proper). Keep in mind the catastrophic damage that the Germans initially inflicted on the Soviet armed forces and production base. Germany had conquered a majority of the USSR’s manufacturing centers by late 1942. Most of the industrial capacity available to the Soviets after 1941 had either been uprooted and evacuated ahead of the Wehrmacht, or was built from scratch in the Urals and Asia. This “industrial militia” was trying to equip an army that was also being built more-or-less from scratch, since probably upwards of 80% of the force that had faced Germany in June 1941 had been captured or wiped out by the end of the year.
The volume of actual weapons supplied to the Soviets by the Allies was small relative to their own production (though certainly welcome during the crisis). I don’t believe the Soviets actually cared very much for the British tanks, and many were used for training, thus freeing up Soviet tanks for the front. The most signifcant lend-lease export to the USSR was likely US trucks, which drastically improved the supply and transport situation, and again permitted Soviet industry to concentrate on the tanks that they did best.
While the craftsmanship of Soviet industry is always open to criticism (e.g., the legendary mallet carried by T-34 drivers to aid in shifting), it too is understandable when you consider the pressure it was under, and the “planned obsolescence” factor when one knows that the life-expectancy of what one is producing can be measured in weeks or days.
…we do seem to be drifting off topic, but it’s interesting nevertheless 
A lot of the tanks were US-built Grants (IIRC; the British named them differently from the US – I’m thinking of the ones with the sponson-mounted main gun and additional turret) in the early stages of the war. I was thinking more of the Commonwealth effort in manning the convoys rather than the production efforts.
FWIW, I watched Frank Capra’s Prelude to War (made in 1942) this morning, and it makes the argument that the conflict began on September 18, 1931, with the “sabotage” of the Mukden railway line that led to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
I believe this is incorrect. Sinapore was not attacked until the following day, according to this website. I’d have to say it’s authenticity seems a bit questionable, but it claims that Singpore was bombed and some nearby islands were invaded on that day.
This site confirms the dates of the first I found. Looks a bit more authoritate, but I know there might be an issue if the Intl dateline making the two a day apart. I’m not sure whether Singapore might be a day ahead or behind of HI. Though the first, less authoritative site says unequvically that Singapore had warning of the attack.
For part of September 7th 1941 in Hawaii it was September 8th on the Asian mainland. The Phillipines must be something of the order of 20+ hours ahead of Hawaii (Guam/New Guinea are GMT+10, Hawaii is GMT-10). The International Dateline runs down the Pacific to the west of Hawaii. If the times are calculated using GMT instead of local time (something I haven’t done) it may turn out that the attacks to the west of the dateline happened earlier than to the east.