Tuesday, 21 May 2019

Mitsubishi Ki-30 - Foreign users, part two - Thai users

Due to the American embargo, the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) switched to Japan for their new suppliers in October 1940. They sent a purchasing commision to Japan where they were shown both the Mitsubishi Ki-21 and the Mitsubishi Ki-30. They were greatly impressed by the performance of the Ki-30 so they ordered nine Ki-21s and 24 Ki-30s. Apparently an unknown number of fighters were ordered too, but were never delivered.
The Ki-30 filled the void that the North American NA-69 (a light attack plane) would've filled if it had been delivered. The Ki-30 was found to be easy to fly and maintain and it performed notably much better than the obsolete Vought O2U Corsair. It had a much better bombload and twice the range, compared to the Corsair and its fixed landing gear allowed the type to operate in the rough airfields located specially in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country. They received the nickname of Nagoya by their Thai pilots.
All 24 of them were delivered in November 1940 and, to operate them, two squadrons were formed at the city of Don Muang. Thai crews completed their training quickly and on 7th January 1941, in the context of Franco-Thai War, twenty-three Ki-30s attacked French targets in Cambodia. The next day, 9 Nagoyas, escorted by three Curtiss Hawk 75Ns attacked the airfield at the city of Siem Reap and two days later, they sustained their first casualty as one Ki-30 was shot down by a Morane-Saulnier M.S.406. The Ki-30s took part also in the last air raid of the conflict ,on 24th January, as nine Ki-30s and three Martin 139WS medium bombers, raided the same airfield of Siem Reap, hoping to destroy the M.S.406 fighters. During that raid, one Ki-30 was attacked by two M.S.406s but the Ki-30 managed to scape.
On 22nd December 1941, the RTAF underwent reforms and shortly later, in January 1942 they were rebased to Lampang, to become part of the Northern Air Wing. They were extensively used in the Burmese front, flying both attack and reconnaissance missions without, surprisingly, no Chinese fighter opposition at all. However, the occasional anti-air fire and hazardous weather and terrain conditions, made those missions dangerous.
One of those raids, took place on 29th January 1943 when a mixed force of Ki-21s and Ki-30s raided the Chinese base at Mong Sae, managing to inflict severe damage at the cost of just some damaged bombers. That was the last Thai raid of the Northern campaign because, technically, Thailand wasn't at war with China and a truce was arranged. Thailand had invaded the Burmese Shan States, following orders coming from Japan, and fought Chinese forces present there but, when Thailand signed the declaration of war against the Allies, China didn't respond.
In spite of the efforts to obatin more Japanese bombers, like the Ki-21 and the Ki-30, no more aircraft of either was supplied.
 In April 1945 there were still 21 Ki-30s in active service of which 14 of them were in flying conditions. The last Ki-30 was written off active service in 1950.









Sources:
1. http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/jan_forsgren/j-aircraft_royal_thai.htm
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Ki-30
3. https://www.valka.cz/Micubisi-Ki-30-Ann-t1289

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