In may 19 forty, a bunch of things happen, not necessarily in this ordera winston churchill becomes prime minister of so now we have one of the major players in this story ensconced in power. But may is also the month where the phony war ends on the western front. The germans blow through a couple of neutral countries and then into france. France will be defeated in a mere six weeks. If you're making calculations based on world events in japan, all of these valuable areas in your neck of the woods that are controlled by the dutch and the french and the british don't seem so formidably defended any more.