The series begins with the historical Tsingtao incident before later episodes branch into conjectural outcomes. The crisis occurred on 30 January 1939, seven months before the European war began. The exercise asks how a real diplomatic and naval confrontation could have escalated under pressures already present in 1939. A plausible naval tripwire supplies the point of departure for each later scenario.
Chapter · 0:14-1:08
A January 1939 route into a wider war
Tsingtao provides the starting point for a counterfactual in which the January 1939 confrontation grows into an earlier war in the Far East.