Thai aircraft in WW2

[m10bob]

Ki 21

[m10bob]

Ki 43

[m10bob]

Ki 27

[m10bob]

Curtiss Hawk 3

[m10bob]

Martin 139 (B 10)

[Leandros]

Curtiss Hawk 75-N:

[LeeChard]

I had no idea they had that many different planes. Very cool, thanks!

[LargeSlowTarget]

The mod "War option 1941" by Skyland contains the Thai Airforce (and Navy). With his kind permission I have used his data and art files in my Bottlenecks mod.

[spence]

It seems that the Thais had a bunch of airplane types but roughly how many of each?

The Thai forces didn't do much to assist the Japanese from what I've read.

[m10bob]

The mod RHS also has the Thai army, navy and AF units.

[spence]

The mod RHS also has the Thai army, navy and AF units.

I got the impression from multiple sources that the Thais were something much less than stalwart supporters of the Japanese. I read somewhere that those Ki-43s were used on occasion against both Allied and Japanese a/c. I also saw a TV Special about the Burma RR that claimed that up to 90,000 Thais died due to mistreatment while building that RR (along with many Indonesian "volunteers"). The Thais also changed leaders during the war to a much less supportive (of the Japanese) leader and the Japanese Army in Thailand changed over from a garrison force of mostly service troops to a regular Combat "Army".

Does the RHS mod account in some way for this change as the war wears on or does it simply add a bunch of units to the Japanese OOB?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: spence

The mod RHS also has the Thai army, navy and AF units.

I got the impression from multiple sources that the Thais were something much less than stalwart supporters of the Japanese. I read somewhere that those Ki-43s were used on occasion against both Allied and Japanese a/c. I also saw a TV Special about the Burma RR that claimed that up to 90,000 Thais died due to mistreatment while building that RR (along with many Indonesian "volunteers"). The Thais also changed leaders during the war to a much less supportive (of the Japanese) leader and the Japanese Army in Thailand changed over from a garrison force of mostly service troops to a regular Combat "Army".

Does the RHS mod account in some way for this change as the war wears on or does it simply add a bunch of units to the Japanese OOB?

My understanding is that the Thai government was not totally unhappy with their British territory status - they got rapid modernization and a decent economy- so they tried to stay as neutral as possible while recognizing the IJA was not going to be stopped by British or Thai resistance. So they "permitted" the Japanese to occupy the country and use their airfields while keeping a modicum of autonomy in their government.

They sat on the fence until it became clear the Allies were beating the pants off the Japanese everywhere and would eventually retake Indo-China. There may have been some OSS-type contact with the Thai leaders to set up resistance for when the time came to revolt. Perhaps the Allies also had a hand in the change of government - I don't know.

I don't think there was any invasion into Thailand until just before the end of the war, so the country was relatively unscathed (except for what the Japanese did to their people) the Thais welcomed the return of Western investment. From what I saw visiting Thailand and Laos (and have read/viewed about Burma, Malaya, Cambodia and Vietnam), Thailand has emerged as the most stable and prosperous country of the region - a dividend of not getting into a shooting war with Western powers or the Japanese.

[m10bob]

The Thai were willing to ally themselves with Japan in the first place by the fact Thailand had a short war against the nearby French forces just before the War in the Pacific which lasted long enough for France to send over relatively decent planes (for the time) like those Potez's and the Morane Saulniers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Thai_War