An Almost Forgotten War During WWII...


In the summer of 1940, France lost the war against the lightning-fast attacking Germans, is defeated...





...largely occupied by the Hitler Wehrmacht - and what is not occupied by the Wehrmacht...



...is run by a collaboration government under the former national hero Marechal Phillipe Pétain as "Chef d'Etat"...



...and governed by the "Prime Minister" Pierre Laval...:



This collaborationist government is based in the small town of Vichy, which is why it is commonly referred to as "Vichy France" and the "Vichy government".

Another regime at the other end of the world would like to use this hour of defeat and the great weakness of militarily defeated France to display a large piece of French colonial possessions and thus expand its own empire.

On December 1, 1940, the forces of the Kingdom of Siam (today Thailand) invade French Indochina (Vietnam and parts of Laos and Cambodia)...:



This is how the Franco-Thai War began - a conflict that is almost invisible against the backdrop of the Second World War and is almost forgotten today.

Thailand has 60,000 soldiers...



...134 tanks (mostly British Vickers tankettes and Japanese type "Type 83")...





...and 140 relatively modern aircraft (US and Japanese production) mobilized...:






The troops are commanded by a member of the royal family, General Prince Plaek Phibunsongkhram...:



Opposite them are troops of the Vichy regime under Admiral Jean Decoux, since July 1940 the new (Vichy) Governor General of French Indochina...:



His force includes 50,000 soldiers...







...which are distributed over the entire huge colony, exactly 20 tanks (all BT-17)...



...and about 100 obsolete planes..:



**contunued next post**

Part II


The Thai war planners...



...go - quite logically! - assuming that France will hardly be able to send reinforcements to Indochina after the defeat by hiter Germany!

The fighting on land is so clearly dominated by the Thais:

On January 6, 1941, a Thai division crossed the Cambodian border and captured the border town of Poipet...



...a second division marches into Laos...:



On January 11, 1941, the Thai Air Force attacks the Vietnamese city of Hanoi with six bombers and four fighter planes...:



The French can only limit their counterattacks to pinpricks:

Three French torpedo boats and destroyers shell the Thai coastal town of Trad but are attacked and damaged by Thai airmen and hastily sail away.

On January 4, 1941, French bombers attack the Thai cities of Udon Thani and Nong Khai - causing some devastation.

The greatest French success, however, comes in a naval battle:

On January 17, 1941, the Thai Navy is defeated during the naval battle off the island of Ko-Chang, which is now extremely popular with Thailand tourists...



... and will be practically wiped out practically wiped out - the French commander-in-chief is, after all, an admiral and therefore a specialist.

The battle is fought exclusively between light units (French destroyers, Thai destroyers and gunboats) - there are no "heavy ships" in the Thai one. still in the French colonial navy!













But this has no influence on the land battles - the Thais are advancing further.



The last major ground action of this war takes place on January 22 when Thai units attack French positions at Yang Dang Khum...





... inflicting heavy casualties on the French but failing to take the position.

The last combat mission of the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) was a bombing raid on the town of Sisophon (in present-day Cambodia) on the morning of January 28, 1941.

Then a powerful arbiter intervenes: the Japanese Empire, which is observing the conflict very closely.

The Japanese mediate a ceasefire from January 28 - and on February 7, 1941 a peace conference begins in Tokyo under the patronage of Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke.

Negotiations end on May 9 with Thai gains in French colonies of Laos and Cambodia. France has to cede the provinces of Sayaburi, Battambang and Siem Reap (but not the temples of Angkor Wat!) to Thailand...:

Good stuff . There is about as much in this post as I have ever read on this little known "war within a war".

Phil

Based on those aircraft colour profiles, I fancy doing a 1/48 DH Tiger Moth in those Vichy colours. Who'da thought it?