Thanks to the mountains, jungles, and forests, as well as the near-constant rainfall turning the ground to mud, progress was limited throughout the remainder of 1941. Germany was making slow but steady progress in the Soviet Union, occupying all of the Baltic states in the north and reaching Odessa in the south, and Romania joined the Axis. Italy had recovered somewhat in North Africa and had taken back its lost provinces plus a couple, completed the takeover of Greece, and actually managed to capture Gibraltar, on which I had placed an Italian objective. That made the UK supply situation a bit more critical, since all supplies to the Far East and Mediterranean needed to be routed around Africa. On November of 1941 (a date which will live in infamy), Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, bringing the US into the Allies, much to the dismay of the rest of the Axis faction.
A pesky UK Marine unit had held up the Chinese advance in the north for months, until Chinese reinforcements and a TAC wing arrived and eventually routed the division. The TAC bombing, out of reach of UK fighters, allowed some additional Chinese air combat experience for faster tech development. The northern edge of India was slowly but steadily being taken, with very little Allied resistance aside from that stubborn Marine unit and a single division of regular Nepalese infantry. Infrastructure upgrades through the mountains from China continued to complete, reaching level 4 throughout and level 5 in about half or more, improving the supply situation. Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, was occupied by Chinese troops in early December, and the country became a Chinese puppet, taking that second Allied division in the north out of the Allies and placing it in the Axis. A few days later, Japan managed to take Singapore, while Chinese troops occupied Calcutta in early January of 1942, removing just about every viable UK naval base in the Far East (there's one on the end of Sumatra that's in a Level 1 infrastructure province, so it's impossible to take). Freshly raised Garrison divisions were placed in the ports, to free up the combat units for further advances. With the new year, another round of logistics techs were put into the research queue. The UK surrender progress bar was up to about 25%. Hmmm, I wonder what I would need to do to land troops in England......
The US declared war on Vichy in January of '42, Germany absorbed the continental France portion of Vichy via the "Case Anton" decision, and the UK landed a small invasion force in southern France during February, which was summarily crushed. The Soviets also managed to land a small contingent of troops in occupied southern Greece, which the combined German and Italian forces in the region were busy dealing with.
Also in February, China's first CVL entered service, and a second CVL was started, more to boost Carrier Practical than for a useful ship. One more level of engine tech to 1938 levels and China's first true CV of a great fleet should be viable. Chinese CL designs are finally up to 1936 standards, other than engine tech which is soon to reach the current tech level. Chinese-design CLs to supplement the two German-design CLs and replace the remaining obsolete WWI relics are expected to enter production within a couple of months when the next set of techs completes. The second licensed German-design DD finished, and the first level of ASW tech finished researching, giving China a CVL+2xDD group to hunt the annoying UK subs operating off the coast of Vietnam and even into the Japanese islands. With Singapore and the nearby DEI islands taken by the Axis, the subs have to be operating either from Australia or Manila, and I placed an objective for Japan on Manila. I'm preparing a small expedition to take Darwin in northern Australia, while the Japanese have occupied a significant portion of the eastern end.