For a Greater Realm: The Royal Thai Army at War 1940–1945 Volume 2

The standard narrative of the Pacific War portrays Southeast Asia’s only independent nation as having submitted to Japanese occupation with few shots being fired. The reality was very different. Japanese forces landing in peninsular Thailand on their way to Malaya found themselves opposed by local garrisons, one of which held out well beyond the ceasefire that Bangkok eventually ordered. Yet the Thai army’s wartime role was not merely a footnote to the fall of Singapore, for the armistice quickly gave way to an alliance with the invader. Reviving ambitions for a greater Thai realm, Bangkok mounted an invasion of Burma’s eastern Shan States, beginning a campaign that would result in its troops arriving on the border of Yunnan.

This second volume of For a Greater Realm continues the first foreign-language study of Thai ground operations in the Second World War. It examines fighting against Japanese and Chinese forces, the occupation of northern Malaya, and preparations for a pro-Allied rising, ultimately rendered unnecessary by Tokyo’s surrender. It also includes in-depth overviews of the army’s unit organisation and weaponry.

For a Greater Realm: The Royal Thai Army at War 1940–1945, Volume 2 is extensively illustrated with original photographs, many never published before in an English-language work, and includes the @War series’ signature specially commissioned maps and colour artworks.