Franco-Thai War

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Franco-Thai War

Part of: Second World War

date	October 1940 to May 9, 1941
place	Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Gulf of Thailand
Casus Belli	Thailand calls for the return of "lost areas" in Indochina
output	Thai territorial gains in Laos and Cambodia
Peace treaty	Tokyo

Parties to the conflict
Vichy France French Indochina	Thailand
Commander
Jean Decoux	Plaek Phibunsongkhram
Troop strength
50,000 soldiers, 20 tanks ~ 100 planes	60,000 soldiers, 134 tanks ~ 140 aircraft
losses
321 dead or wounded 178 missing 222 prisoners of war 22 aircraft	54 dead 307 wounded 21 prisoners of war 8–13 aircraft

The Franco-Thai War between the France of the Vichy government in Indochina and the Kingdom of Thailand took place between October 1940 and January 1941 and ended with the victory of Thailand.

prehistory

Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram mustering Thai troops (1941)

Laos and the north-west of Cambodia belonged to the Siamese (Thai) sphere of influence until the end of the 19th century . After the Franco-Siamese War in 1893, Siam had to cede today's Laos to France, and in 1907 also the later Cambodian provinces of Battambang , Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey . In the 1930s, the nationalist wing of the People's Party under Phibunsongkhram (Prime Minister from 1938 to 1944) and his chief propagandist Wichitwathakan called for the return of the "lost territories". They aspired to a "Greater Thailand Empire".

In August 1939, the French government proposed negotiations for a mutual non-aggression treaty. Thailand responded by calling for negotiations on the border with French Indochina , particularly including various islands in the Mekong . If there was a tendency towards such negotiations in Paris and also at the French embassy in Bangkok, the defeat of France against Germany in the western campaign in 1940 meant that responsibility for further talks lay with the French colonial administration in Indochina. This had no interest in expanding the Thai sphere of influence and blocked.

In August 1940, the Thai Prime Minister Phibul Songkhram sounded out possible reactions on the part of the German Reich, Italy, Great Britain, the USA and Japan, should Thailand take back the areas that it had had to surrender in 1904 under French pressure. Germany and Italy were positive about this and Japan saw this as a good opportunity to draw Thailand even more to the side of the Axis powers .

course

Cartographic representation of the sea battle of Ko Chang

This was now a welcome time for the Thai leadership to begin an attack on the French colony of Indochina , which - without a declaration of war - began with minor clashes and escalated on December 1, 1940. The French Navy dispatched three ships to attack the coastal town of Trat . Three planes of the Thai Air Force attacked them. On January 4, 1941, French bombers attacked the cities of Udon Thani and Nong Khai . On January 6, a Thai division crossed the Cambodian border and took the border town of Poipet , and a second division marched into Laos .

On January 11, 1941, the Thai Air Force attacked the Vietnamese city of Hanoi with six bombers and four fighters. In the conflict, Thailand dominated the land and the air, but suffered a heavy defeat in the sea battle of Ko Chang on January 17, 1941. The last major ground action of this war took place on January 16 or 22, when Thai units attacked French positions near Yang Dang Khum. The last combat mission of the RTAF was a bombing raid on Sisophon on the morning of January 28 at 7:10 a.m. by three Martin bombers from bomber squadron 50, which were accompanied by three Hawk 75Ns from fighter squadron 60.

Negotiations and Consequences

Thai territorial gains as a result of the war in white

The Japanese Empire , at that time already the dominant great power in Southeast Asia, took on the role of mediator. A ceasefire was agreed for January 28th. On February 7, 1941, a peace conference began in Tokyo under the auspices of Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke . Negotiations ended on May 9 with Thai territorial gains in the French colonies of Laos and Cambodia .

The Victory Monument in Bangkok in memory of the Franco-Thai War

France joined the parts of the Laotian provinces of Bassac (now Champasak ) and Luang Prabang (now Sainyabuli ) west of the Mekong, as well as the Cambodian province of Battambang , most of Siem Reap (but not the temples of Angkor Wat ) and the north of the former Kampong Thom Province (now Preah Vihear ) to Thailand. Only the province of Battambang, one of the most productive rice-growing areas in Southeast Asia, was of economic importance. The remaining areas recovered were largely undeveloped jungle. In honor of its leader and field marshal, Thailand renamed the northwestern part of Cambodia "Phibunsongkhram Province". In Bangkok in 1941 the Victory Memorial was erected in memory of the (supposed) war win and the fallen.

On November 17, 1946, the results of Franco-Thai negotiations canceled the original agreement of May 9, 1941. Thailand had to surrender the provinces of Pak Lay and Bassac to Laos, while the provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap were ceded again to Cambodia. The concessions were a condition for Thailand's admission to the United Nations (UN). As a result, the UN Security Council approved the admission with Resolution 13 on December 12, 1946 and the country joined the UN four days later, on December 16.

Killing Christians

During the war in December 1940, Thai police shot and killed seven Thai Catholics suspected of spying for France in the village of Songkhon ( Wan Yai district , Mukdahan ). However, it may also have played a role that the radical nationalist military government generally rejected everything “foreign” and viewed Christianity as a “foreign religion”. Among those killed were a catechist , two religious sisters of the Love of the Holy Cross and four lay women (including three girls aged 14 to 16). They were considered martyrs of the faith in 1989 by Pope John Paul II. Beatified .

Web links

• The Franco-Thai War 1940-1941 , Pattaya Sheet No. 19, 2004
• Detailed documentation at www.wings-aviation.ch
• Fabienne Mercier-Bernadet: Le conflit franco-thaïlandais (June 1940-May 1941), une manipulation japonaise? In: Revue historique des armées , No. 223, 2001. (French)
• La bataille de Koh Chang. (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ * Chris Baker , Pasuk Phongpaichit : A History of Thailand. 3. Edition. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne 2014, pp. 130-131.
2. ↑ For details on this and the subsequent secret negotiations with Japan, see ET Flodd: "The 1940 Franco-Thai border dispute and Phibun Songkhram's commitment to Japan". Journal of Southeast Asian History , 10: 2, pp. 304-325 (1969)
3. ↑ Barend Jan Terwiel : Thailand's Political History: from the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 to recent times . Bangkok: River Books 2005. ISBN 9749863089 . P. 272 ​​f.
4. ^ Fabienne Mercier-Bernadet: Le conflit franco-thaïlandais (June 1940-May 1941), une manipulation japonaise? In: Revue historique des armées , No. 223, 2001.
5. ↑ Hans Richard, Christian-Jaques Ehrengardt: 1940/41 Air Battle for Indochina - France's Forgotten War . In: Flieger Revue Extra No. 35. Möller, 2011. ISSN  0941-889X . P. 84.
6. ↑ The forgotten war on www.wings.de.ms ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ^ Judith A. Stowe: Siam Becomes Thailand. A story of intrigue. C. Hurst & Co., London 1991, ISBN 0-8248-1393-6 , p. 155.
8. ^ Judith A. Stowe: Siam Becomes Thailand. A story of intrigue. C. Hurst & Co., London 1991, p. 186.
9. ^ David K. Wyatt : Thailand. A short history. 2nd edition, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004, p. 245.
10. ^ Arthur J. Dommen: The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans. Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam . Indiana University Press, Bloomington / Indianapolis 2001, pp. 162 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
11. ^ Procedure Concerning the Admission of New Members to the United Nations . In: Karel C. Wellens (Ed.): Resolutions and Statements of the United Nations Security Council (1946–1992) . Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht / Boston / London 1990, p. 594 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
12. ↑ Matthew, Margaret, and Stephen Bunson: John Paul II's Book of Saints. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing, Huntington (IN) 1999, pp. 305-306, entry Martyrs of Thailand .
13. ↑ Kathleen Jones (Ed.): Butler's Lives of the Saints. December. Burns & Oats, Tunbridge Wells (Kent) 2000, pp. 142-144, entry The Martyrs of Thailand.