History: The Battle of Koh Chang

The battle was fought off Koh Chang’s southern tip, an area where space to manoeuvre was severely restricted due to the Salakphet Islands and the islands to the south and south east of Koh Chang.

{timg title:=”Menu” thumb:=”images/stories/srv/blog/big/battle_kc.jpg” img:=”images/stories/srv/blog/big/battle_kc.jpg” gal:=”gallery-content”}

The Thai forces were numerically superior to the French and consisted of two modern 2,500 tonne coastal defence vessels with eight-inch guns, two older gunboats, 12 torpedo boats and four submarines. They also had over 140 aircraft at their disposal including Japanese-built Mitsubishi Ki-30 bombers, as well as coastal artillery batteries.

The French navy was smaller, but included the old but still formidable light cruiser, 8,000 tonne Dugay-Trouin class, La Motte Picquet with its eight six-inch guns (8x 155mm), two Bougainville class 1,700 tonne avisos (the Dumont d’Urville and Admiral Charner) and two smaller sloops (the Tahure and the Marne). The French had no air cover to speak of, but did have eight seaplanes that performed reconnaissance duties.

Despite being outnumbered, the French forces, commanded by Admiral Jean Decoux, received orders to ‘attack the Siamese coastal cities from Rayong to the Cambodian frontier to force Siamese government to withdraw its forces from the Cambodian frontier’. They were intent on weakening the Thai Naval presence and decided to attack the home fleet while it was at anchor in Salakphet Bay.

In the early hours of the morning of 17^th January, the French advanced on Thai positions using the island of Koh Khlum as cover. The fleet split into three; the La Motte Picquet heading east across the southern coast of Koh Bai Daeng, the Marne and the Tahure going through the gap between Bang Bao and Koh Khlum and the Dumont d’Urville and Admiral Charner heading through the middle between Koh Khlum and Koh Wai.

At 6.05am, lookouts on HMTS Thonburi spotted a French reconnaissance plane and ordered battle stations. They fought off an attempted attack with anti-aircraft fire. This lost the French the element of surprise.

Forty minutes later, while the situation was to still unclear to Thai commanders, the La Motte Picquet sank two Thai torpedo boats (the Chonburi and the Songkhla) and emerged from the east side of Koh Maisi Yai and began a sustained barrage at the Thonburi. The Thai ship was hit and its commander, Commander Luang Phrom Viraphan, killed.