Pai Bridge

The Pai River bridge is often cited as the most visible evidence of the presence of Japan's Army in Northern Thailand during WWII.
But the bridge was actually built after the war. This website attempts to correct both that misconception and others about the period.

Lanna-ww2

Japan in Northwest Thailand during World War II

N18°17
E99°28[1]
Lampang (Th: ลำปาง / Jp: ランパーン )
Williams-Hunt (W-H) Aerial Photomosaic
Page 1 of 1

Major transport hub[2]

 

Text Notes

This page discusses World War II aerial photos taken by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and a US Army Air Force (USAAF) Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron (PR or PRS), and provided on-line by the Geo-spatial Digital Archive Project (GDAP) in its Williams-Hunt Aerial Photograph Digital Collection.[2a]


The Williams-Hunt collection has aerial photo coverage on two different dates for Lampang:[3]

Mosaic locations for Lampang

 

Photomosaic No. 1

A mosaic, outlined in red on the site map above, was assembled by Allied intelligence and published on 15 November 1943:[4]

Microphotomosaic

A higher resolution image is available for download here.

The following GDAP images were used in the above photomosaic:[5]

02541.jpg
02542.jpg
02543.jpg
02544.jpg
02545.jpg
02546.jpg
02547.jpg
02548.jpg
02549.jpg
02550.jpg
02551.jpg
02552.jpg
02553.jpg
02554.jpg

and assembled approximatey like this, using Microsoft ICE:[6]

Assembly of microphotomosaic of Lampang

 

Photomosaic No. 2

The area around Lampang outlined above in blue was recorded on three USAAF aerial photos taken late in 1945:[7]

macrophotomosaic

Lampang is located in the upper right quadrant of the mosaic. The airfield with crosswinds runway looks like a small dagger pointed downward. A higher resolution image is available for download here.

While undated the photos have recently been determined to have been taken late in 1945 (see discussion in footnote 6a below).

The following GDAP images were used in the above photomosaic:[8]

02556.jpg
02557.jpg
02558.jpg

and assembled approximately like this, using ICE:[9]

Macro photomosaic assembly

Note that almost all photos in the Williams-Hunt Collection were taken by the RAF. These three however are among a very few in the collection which were taken by the USAAF, specifically the 40th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron; hence, the "40PR". Annotations on the negatives read:[10]

annotation for photo 02556

annotation for photo 02557

   annotation for photo 02558


GDAP, the source of these photos, has asked that the following information be included regarding the aerial imagery shown above:

  • Williams-Hunt Aerial Photos Collection
  • Original from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
  • Digital Data from Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University
  • Digital Archive from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (CRMA), Thailand

 

 

Revision List
Rev
Date
Description
0
2012 Oct 05
First published on Internet
1
2013 Oct 13
Photo order reversed to fit chronology

 

 

 

See Key for interpreting page content.

Revision list. See bottom of Text column on this page.

Bibliography supports notes.

1.^ Source: Google Earth.

2.^ Stationing needed.

2a.^ The collection and its origin are described in detail in:

Lertlum, PhD, Col Surat, and Dr Elizabeth Moore, Williams-Hunt Aerial Photograph Collection, (undated); available as here linked.

Moore, Elizabeth, The Williams-Hunt Collection, Sari - International Journal of the Malay World and Civilisation, 27(2)(2009), pp 265-284.

Periasamy, Makeswary,
"A View from the Top",  biblioasia, 5(1) (Apr 2009), pp 38-42.

3.^ "Terrain" map from Nations Online Project: Searchable Map and Satellite View of Thailand using Google Earth Data. Annotation (red & blue colored items) placed with PhotoShop by author.

4.^ Photos were assembled using Microsoft ICE (Image Composition Editor).

Mosaic has been oriented so that its north is to the top of the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.^ The files used here are 1024 KB. Downloading the files which are designated
"[full size]" requires a special request form to be emailed to the Head, GDAP.

 

 

 

 

 

6.^ Drawn by author with Microsoft Publisher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.^ Photos were assembled using Microsoft ICE (Image Composition Editor).

Mosaic has been oriented so that its north is to the top of the page.

Photos were taken by the 40th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, Combat Squadrons of the Air Force World War II, p 188.

See note 10 below on how this mosaic was dated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.^ The files used here are 1024 KB. Downloading the files which are designated
"[full size]" requires a special request form to be emailed to the Head, GDAP.

9.^ Drawn by author with Microsoft Publisher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.^ Extracted from the images numbered 02556.jpg, 02557.jpg, 02558.jpg as linked above.

The 40th PRS is noted only briefly in Wikipedia's
8th Reconnaissance Group.

The characters, 5M135, in the annotations are assumed to indicate that the photos were taken in late 1945. The 5 is the year, 1945; the M seems to be a standard designator in aerial photo work; the 135 is the sequence of the order in the 1945 series, which, with that large number, is assumed to be very late in that year.