Siam - The Pocket Empire

[Semi-Lobster]

The Political and Military History of Siam: 1932-1948



The Trairanga

In 1932 a massive upheaval occured in the small South-East Asian nation. On June 24, 1932 a small cadre of army officers and civil servants overthrew the old Conservative Royal government. This blood-less coup was both quick and descisive over the following weeks Siam would change and the self proclaimed 'Promotors' who had made King Prajadhipok (Rama VII) a figure head.



King Rama VII

After the coup lead by a young law proffessor named Pridi Phanomyong.



Pridi Phanomyong

These men where the Western-oriented political elite of the country who yearned for Siam to find it's place under the sun. The enforcement of a dress code examplified that. It had become mandatory that all people outside must wear shoes and a hat.
Of course the reforms did not end there. Tearing down the old regime, these Thai elites needed the backing of the military, and they did from a myriad of disenfranchised officers, most notably Luang Plaek Phibunsongkhram.



Colonel Luang Plaek Phibunsongkhram

An abitious junior officer, and Phraya Phahonphonphayuhasena who was the eldest of the group who had joined the Promoters to protest cuts to the military's budget during the reign of King Prajadhipok. He represented older military officers who where dissatified with the backwardsness of the current economic sitaution in their country. Phraya Manopakorn, a retired jurist was made Prime Minister.

After a myriad of constitutional reforms. in 1932 where passed. Most of the executive power was divided and given to the new National Assembly. Who half of, where voted in, through limited suffrage and the other half appointed by the ruling government. The Constitution also stated that all members of the legislature would be voted in. Lastly, the power of Royal Veto was retained but now could be over ruled by the National Assembly. This of course was just the beginning as the new government was now a coalition of Nationalists, Militarists, with leftists and rightist elements. The coming years, let alone weeks would be a turning point for Siam.

Thai Ambassador to Germany, Petra Yong

EDIT: More small things I noticed that where spelled wrong etc.

[CapnBiff]

Awesome!! A Thai AAR. Siam usually remains neutral in my games, so I don't have a feel for what they're capable of doing. Best of luck!

[Semi-Lobster]

I will be writing both AAR's! One non-serious on about Republican Spain and another about Siam. I wanted to do this because I want to write seriously and have some fun, so expect updates for both!

[Black_Rattler]

I usually bring siam to the axis once the japs get french indochina. THat way they only have india to deal with with japanese expeditionary forces.

[Dayvit781]

Oooh this sounds like a good one. Are you playing with C.O.R.E. ?

[Mr.G 24]

Phraya Phahonphonphayuhasena, Luang Plaek Phibunsongkhram,
Phraya Manopakorn My head hurts

[Semi-Lobster]

Yes, I'm using core .063, also I am using the 0411 pic pack. I chose not to edit any files myself (including events that would have made the game more historically accurate for Siam), because....I really, really suck at doing that sort of thing!

[vcarter707]

hey its a SL aar. have i ever said how much i like your name?

[Alikchi]

Originally posted by CapnBiff
I don't have a feel for what they're capable of doing.

Not much, I'm afraid. They have next to no ICs.

[Lord British]

A Siamese AAR, I don't think I've ever read one before. Brilliant!

Good start, keep it coming.

[Semi-Lobster]

Originally posted by Alikchi
Not much, I'm afraid. They have next to no ICs.

Actually I hope to prove you wrong! I already have around 33 IC in 1937, sure, with my tech I'm a bit behind but that's where strategy comes in my friend! Sure I'm having problems sustaining it but there are ways of getting resources.....
(Also Siam get's a minister that add 15% IC and another that adds 5% so in total I get an additional 20% increase in my IC)

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The 'People's Party' became the Political party of the Promoters, but a rift was growing between the military officers and the Civilian technicians. During this time the idealistic new finance minister Pridi Phanomyong proposed a new, sweeping economic plan that would have Siam's natural resources nationalised. This idea was not taken well by the Prime Minster, Phraya Manopakorn and most of the military conservatives in cabinet.
Manopakorn then closed the National Assembly and ruled by decree and Pridi was forced to flee the country as he was accused of being a communist but military officers once again couped the government in 1933 to restore the National Assembly and the finance minister in-exile was allowed to return with all charges of being a communist where dropped. Phraya Phahonphonphayuhasena became the new Prime Minister.
In October of 1933 there was another revolt, but unlike the two proceeding ones.
Prince Boworadet, the King's cousin and the defence minister under the pre-1932 coup government led a Royalist revolt against the Promoters. Although this revolt was not supported by the king, relations between Rama VII and the People's Party grew even poorer.



Thai Troops with a Vickers-Armstrong Six Ton tank patrolling the streets of Bangkok after the Prince Boworadet Revolt

A month after the Royalist revolt Siam's first parliamentary election was held. Pridi won, even though only 10% of eligable voters went to the polls. Although this confirmed that Pridi and his economic reforms where very popular with the people of Siam there where those who would not like his growing influence. As Pridi and his civilian left wing group within the Promoters grew more popular, so did the military faction who rallied around Phibunsongkhram who was named defence minister within a year of the elections.
With his new power Phibunsongkhram as minister of Defence he used his influence to build up his political constituency within the military. He expanded the armed forces to keep colonial British and French interest out of Siam and took every opportunity to lecture on the superiority of a military administration over what he saw as a 'slow, weak, group of civilian bureacrats'. The civilians in the People's party then rallied to Pridi. Prime Minister Phahonphonphayuhasena was forced to walk a thin line between Pridi's civilian left faction and Phibunsongkhram's military right faction. During this time, a faction that was increasingly losing power was the Civilian right who supported the King. Many of these Royalists had lost office or any real power during Prince Boworadet's revolt. With the loss of any potential political allies, the King decieded to abdictate in March of 1935. After charging that the People's Party was abusing power with the ability to over rule the royal veto he spent the rest of his days in retirement in Britian.
Ananda Mahidol, the king's 10 year old nephew who was studying in Switzerland was named king. Since he needed to continue his studies overseas, a regency council would rule in his place. The Council included Pridi.



King Rama VIII

[Semi-Lobster]

Originally posted by Lord British
A Siamese AAR, I don't think I've ever read one before. Brilliant!

Good start, keep it coming.

Woah! Lord British! I love your Fascist France AAR! Thanks for the praise! I'm hoping for a VERY diffrent Pacific theatre!

[Semi-Lobster]

As animosity grew between the Promotors noboby seemed sure how long the coalition could last. Even though united under the banner of a nationalist movement there was no solid ideology for the party, as try as they may to look united it became evident that the two factions where working together, only for necessity. As more and more civil offices where taken up by military personnel.

Overview of the First Three Months of 1936

On January 1, 1936 Pridi Phanomyong rallied most of the civilian left faction of the People's party and managed to pass out legislation for the industrialization of the outlying provinces outside Bangkok which where slated for completetion by 1937. The military saw this as no real threat and let it pass, as they where busy with their own reforms.
Disbanding two out of three of Siam's infantry divisions was not taken very well with the older military staff but was pushed through by Phibunsongkhram. He saw the anti-air equiped infantry as a slow, wasteful endevour. Unable to properly participate in normal combat effectively due to the weight and bulk of their equipment, their task could easily be performed by Phra Vechayanrangsarit and the Royal Thai Airforce. Another major change in the increasing amount of reforms by the military was the disbanding of the militia which he saw, as poorly armed and lacking in training for the use of light artillery.
Two regular divisions, one at a time where to be assembled and trained. Most officers in the new divisions would be made up of military sypathizers and officers who would prove loyal to Phibunsongkhram in later years where their aid would be essential. Finally the last adjustment was the cancelation of some submarines for the Royal Thai Navy, but the construction of the two armoured cruiser Sri Ayuthia and Dhonburi continued as planned in Japan, whom many of the militarists saw as an example of how Asians could triumph and modernise into a superpower.



The Dhonburi

[Semi-Lobster]

Summary of 1936

During this year factional fighting had continued to plague the country. As the militarists continued to take more offices Pridi saw his power weaken once again, although he still had the trusts and repect of his peers he could not stop the tide of militant Thai nationalism.
Since late 1935 Italy had been at war with the small, under developed country of Ethiopia or as the Italians called it, Abyssinia. The Italians swatted away their brave but poorly armed opponents with burst of gun fire and mortar shells. The Italians attempted demonstrate their ability to wage war but it did not go as planned. It took months to beat the Ethiopians with heavier than expected losses for the Italians. During this time the League of Nations had put sanctions on the Mediterranean dictatorship, over the allegations of the use of poison gas, but the trade sanctions had just bonded Italy even closer to Germany, who had continued to trade with the Italians.



Italian troops in Gonder

In Spain there had been a long period of Civil unrest. Fascist rebels in Northern and Southern Spain had risen up to challenge the country's Leftist government who where being propped up by the Soviet Union. Starting in July, the war became a brutal campaign as militia with rifles where pitted against tanks and bombers. Initally the Nationalists troops under Generalissimo Franco had a string of stunning victoires but as Germany quickly withdrew support for the rebels it became obvious that the Nationalists would be crushed by the next year.



Republican Militia resting

Secretly in Siam on at least two occasions, Communists from China had inflitrated the country and had attempted to hand out the Das Kapital and other Communist literature, mostly in Bangkok to intice the Thai people to riseup and overthrow their Monarchy and government but both attempts where quickly subdued by local police with almost no harm done. Phibunsongkhram used these incidents as proof of Pridi's leftism was actually a concealed belief in Communism and used for an example the leniency on which Pridi's Civilian adminstration had given the communists once they where caught. These where merely more hot air by the militarist, who had recently been paying close attention to the ways Berlin and Rome controlled and inspired their people and attempted to emmulate this on several occasions with a great deal of success.
As 1936 ended Siam was heavily reinvesting into her military, as the two infantry divisions where completed and another on the way. The purchase of heavy machine guns and artillery from Japan, Britian and the US and the Thai military had a small scale re-evaluation of military doctorines which was well under way by the year's end.



Siamese tank crews stand for inspection

[Semi-Lobster]

Summary of 1937

1937 would have been an uneventful year for Siam if it was not for a seemingly innocent incident in Northern China at the Marco Polo Bridge on July 7th. Although the Chinese attempted to mediate the incident, this would not end up like the previous small border disputes that came with the Japanese presence in Inner Mongolia and Manchuria.



The Marco Polo Bridge

The Empire of Japan, soon captured the railway junction in Wanping, where fighting between the Chinese Kuomintang Army and the Japanese Kwantung Army exchanged fire. The Japanese army and Manchurian conscripts soon pushed forward into China, reaching the banks of the Huang He River before being slowed down by the first coherent Chinese action of the war. The sudden, but expected Second Sino-Japanese War quickly put the current Chinese Civil War on hold. Sinkiang and Mao Tse-tung's Communist in Yunnan set aside their diffrences to help repel the foreign invasion.
The Chinese Navy was soon brushed aside, letting the Imperial Japanese Navy attempt several lands on to the shores of Eastern China, but this only met with moderate success.
Foreign Policy strategist in Bangkok scrambled to get a better grasp of the situation. A Japanese delagation after all had been in the city only a few months ago and had greatly influenced the Thai people and had made an excellent impression on Phibunsongkhram himself. Calls where soon made between Siam's ambassador in Tokyo to Bangkok. Soon after, the military right in the kingdom pressed for closer ties to Japan and to support it in anyway it could, short of war (for the moment). Another project the right wing elements of the People's Party where considering was greater Thai autonomy, financially from China. For decades a few Chinese owned buisnesses in most of the country commanded the bulk of the Siamese economy but if new legislation where to be passed, a crack down on the Chinese presence within the Thai marketplace and with heavy tariffs on Chinese owned buisness would drive them out. This bill was gaining popularity among the middle-class who wanted to work for companies that where based within their country and reperesented the interests of their nation, and who where paying taxes to support Siam, rather than working for some buisnessmen in Beijing or Shanghai and the money going to Nanking. With these factors, war with China seemed increasingly inevitable, after all the Thai Army with the past year had expanded greatly, and with better equipment such as standardized rifles and heavier artillery. Most importantly, Siam had three new cavalry divisions and some new infantry divisions, all ready to fight for their country.



Some Japanese-built Siamese rifles

Secretly though, the more pressing issue for Siam was resources, sooner or later, the economy would collapse due to lack of raw resources, all the hard work of the People's Party and the Thai people themselves would go to waste, and heavy industry would grind to a halt, causing massive unemployment. Like Japan, Siam intended to get resources, one way or another, Siam would be able to maintain it's indpendance and nothing as simple a lack of steel or coal was going to stop Siam's dream of a reclaimation of past glory.



Japanese Troops celebrating their rapid victories over the Chinese in the North

[Exterous]

Oooo, building action. I love building action

[Semi-Lobster]

1938

1938 was one of the most momentous year in Thai history. Years of military planning and build up was about to be unleashed.
Prime Minister Phahonphonphayuhasena, who had been greatly disturbed by the increase of the militantness of the Siamese Legislature, stepped down as the head of government. This had actually come to a great surprise to both faction of the People's Party, who knew that the Prime Minister intended to step down but assumed it would happen in December. Campaigning was hasty, the now, heavily militaristic People's Party where expecting a landslide election, and they received what all had assumed. The election of the People's Party was unanimous; the left (mainly made up of disgruntled former members of the People's Party) hardly had an affect. Now Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Siam's most decorated Field Marshal, Luang Plaek Phibunsongkhram was now at a dizzying height of power. The now, tired, down-trodden but still brilliant Pridi Phanomyong became the Finance Minister, kept around, thanks to his massive industrialization programs which he initiated once every year. The Thai people had understood what they had gotten themselves into. This was NOT the People's Party of the 1932 Coup; this was a group of right wing army officers and militants as opposed to the idealist group of University Professors and students. The thousands of men trained in the previous years where now finally deployed and hundreds of officers where now finally assigned to their battalions, brigades, regiment and divisions.
Also, even more nationalistic policies where put into place. Thai Christians and Muslims, especially in government positions where soon sacked. Siam would be a nation under the Buddhist dharma, not under the cross or the crescent moon. More Chinese nationals and people of Chinese descent where forced to leave their homes in the Northern fringe and the cities of Siam and return to a country literally being raped by the ambitions of Japan.
The Japanese meanwhile had pushed even further south and had made what was once a trickle of Japanese divisions in the east, had become a flood as Nanking fell to the Japanese. The Japanese conduct in Nanking was terrible, and had greatly troubled Pridi but hardly phased Phibunsongkhram, who was reassured by the Japanese excuse of it's inability to control it's troops.
As Siamese divisions amassed on the Chinese border, Siamese diplomats where making secret last minute talks with the Japanese. Many, even his own party had believed Phibunsongkhram was about to send his country into war. In November the ambassadors of the two countries signed a mutual defence pact aboard the Dhonburi, which had been in a Japanese dock after it's completion in August, waiting for this specific day, the young Rama VII left Switzerland to attend the ceremony, and would finish his studies in Tokyo. Two hours later Siam declared war on China.



The Siamese Royal Army

1st Thai Army Group: Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram
- 3 Infantry Divisions
---- Royal Guards
---- 1st Tahan Division
---- 2nd Tahan Division

2nd Siamese Army Group: General Phromyothi
- 3 Cavalry Divisions
- 1 Mountain Division
---- 1st Tahan Mah Division
---- 2nd Tahan Mah Division
---- 3rd Tahan Mah Division
---- 1st Scout Division



Siamese Royal Airforce: Air General Yuthasatkoson
- 1 Fighter Squadron
- 1 Tactical Bomber Squardon
---- 1st Fighter Squadron
---- 1st Tactical Bomber Squadron



A Thai Watanabe WS-103 seaplane



Thai Royal Navy: Admiral Chalermarkiart
- 2 Fighting Sloops
- 2 Coastal Defence Ships (Armoured Cruisers)
- 1 Submarine Squadron
- 1 Destroyer Squadron
---- Sri Ayuthia
---- Dhonburi
---- Ratanosindra
---- Sukhothai
---- 1st Destroyer Squadron
---- 1st Submarine Squadron





The completed Dhonburi showing off her 8" Guns



Trad, a Siamese gunboat

[Alikchi]

Ooh. This should be interesting ..

[Semi-Lobster]

If you want screenshots, you’re going to have to tell me a good place to store them

-----------------------------------------

November 1938 - March 1939: Early Victories

With war declared upon the Chinese, Siam's Tahan Mah cavalry and the elite 1st Scout Ranger Division roared across the tiny border between the two countries. The Chinese, who where taken by surprise, quickly attempted to mobilize troops in a hasty effort to stem the tide of the new Sino-Siamese front but to no avail. Siamese troops where already in Southern China, having crossed the Lanchang Jiang River.
China was now in a very precarious position, it's new, temporary capital Kumming was now right beside the frontline. Siam then reorganized their forces and in late January, a massive force of cavalry and highly trained mountain infantry smashed into the Chinese defenders, who scattered after many months of fighting.
The capture of Kumming was a massive moral boost for the Siamese forces, which had been regulated to picking off poorly defended, militia held provinces.
The Thai Royal Airforce though had a much more glorious role, especially in the eyes of the Thai newspapers. Battle after battle, Air General Yuthasatkoson and his Thai made fighters had valiantly fought off China's vaunted Flying Tigers. Whom where villianized as a gang of white mercenaries. Japan meanwhile had now stalled in their advance, although they had managed to link up their beach head forces with their Northern forces. Siamese military planners, especially Luang Plaek Phibunsongkhram, had hoped they would be able to meet up with Japanese forces in Hainan but the Chinese defenders quickly repulsed a punitive Siamese force.
The capture of Kumming had much more obvious benefits to Siam though. They had managed to plunder tons of steel, coal and rubber from the Chinese capital. This ended Siam's need for importing coal and steel.
The encircled forces of Baoshan quickly capitulated to the 2nd Tahan Mah in February, annihilating four whole divisions. Siam sent thousands of captured Chinese troops into poorly constructed work camps where, although treated moderately well, would not see their homes for several more months.
Everyone though was shocked by two disturbing international events. Americans had overthrown their government in favour a Communist-style ultra left wing one.
Pridi was the only one in cabinet excited about this event though. Soviet meddling in Spain and now the United States had made most the world, an increasingly paranoid place to live. The other major event that would eventually affect every country on earth erupted in March 15th. Czechoslovakia, whom had ceded the Sudeten-region several months last year, had refused to finally be annexed by Germany. Germany had demanded that the Czechs, finally be fully integrated into 'A greater Germany', but the Czechs, realizing that Hitler had to be stopped, vowed to defend their country to the last man. Berlin was surprised by the sudden growth of a spine by the mountainous nation, and soon the 3rd Reich whom had swallowed up Austria and their lapdog Hungary went to war. Britain and France quickly promised aide to the Czechs but it was too late. Losing the Sudenten line had crippled the country and they had lost their biggest natural defense. Czechoslovakia once again disappeared from the face of the planet. Partitioned by the Germans and Magyars. Poland, after realizing it would be next soon joined the Allies but met with the same fate as the southern neighbour.
As the world descended into war, Siam trudged on, hoping to leave it's mark.

[Zanza]

Nice AAR. Never seen a Siam AAR before.