Campaign
While nationalistic demonstrations and anti-French rallies were held in Bangkok, border skirmishes erupted along the Mekong frontier. The superior Royal Thai Air Force conducted daytime bombing runs over Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Sisophon, and Battambang with impunity. The French retaliated with their own planes, but the damage caused was less than equal. The activities of the Thai air force, particularly in the field of dive-bombing, was such that Admiral Jean Decoux, the governor of French Indochina, grudgingly remarked that the Thai planes seemed to have been flown by men with plenty of war experience.
In early January 1941, the Thai Burapha and Isan Armies launched their offensive on Laos and Cambodia. French resistance was instantaneous, but many units were simply swept along by the well-equipped Thai forces. The Thais swiftly took Laos, but Cambodia was more difficult to take.
At dawn on January 16, 1941 the French launched a large counterattack on the Thai-held villages of Yang Dang Khum and Phum Preav, initiating the fiercest battle of the war. Because of over-complicated orders and nonexistent intelligence, the French counterattacks were stopped and fighting ended with a French withdrawal from the area. The Thais were unable to pursue the retreating French, as their forward tanks were kept in check by the gunnery of French Foreign Legion artillerists.
With the situation on land deteriorating for the French, Admiral Decoux ordered all available French naval forces into action in the Gulf of Thailand. In the early morning of January 17, the superior French fleet caught a Thai naval detachment at anchor off the island of Ko Chang. The subsequent battle of Ko Chang that the result is heavy damage each other.
On January 24, the final air battle took place when Thai bombers raided the French airfield at Angkor near Siem Reap. The last Thai mission to bombing at Phnom Penh commenced at 07:10 hours on January 28, when the Martins of the 50th Bomber Squadron set out on a raid on Sisophon, escorted by thirteen Hawk 75Ns of the 60th Fighter Squadron.
Read more about this topic: Franco-Thai War
Famous quotes containing the word campaign:
“You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.”
—Mario Cuomo (b. 1932)
“The fact that a man is to vote forces him to think. You may preach to a congregation by the year and not affect its thought because it is not called upon for definite action. But throw your subject into a campaign and it becomes a challenge.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“Dianne’s not one of the boys, but she’s not one of the girls, either.”
—Marcia Smolens, U.S. political campaign aide. As quoted in Dianne Feinstein, ch. 15, by Jerry Roberts (1994)