Naval battle monument

Naval battle monument

The naval Battle of Ko Chang took place on 17th January 1941 during the Franco-Thai war.
During the battle, a French fleet managed to gain the decisive victory over Thai navy.

Despite the French defeat in 1940, the Vichy regime maintained dominance over its overseas colonies. Among these belonged the French Indochina that included contemporary Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
The downfall of France resulted into weakening of its ability to defend its territories and Thailand which lost the territory of Indochina during colonial wars with France in 1867-1906 decided to take chance of this. Naval battle monument

The result of several hours lasting battle was severe damaging of Thai battle cruiser Thonburi (later during the WWII repaired and deployed in Japanese fleet as a training ship) and sinking of two torpedo boats Chang and Songhla.

The monument (with additional etched marble plates with description of the battle) is situated on lovely white sand beach in the very south-eastern corner of the Ko Chang island. You can access it both by car and by motorbike. When the tarmac road ends, take the paved dirt road, pass Treehouse Lodge and continue until the end of the road.