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°34.6
E99°00.4[1]
Lamphun (Th: ลำพูน / Jp: ランプーン)
Williams-Hunt (W-H) Aerial Photomosaics
Page 1 of 1

Route 0106
Sta 00z[2]

 

Text Notes

 

This page discusses World War II aerial photos taken by the Royal Air Force (RAF) 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 covers Lamphun in three separate sets of aerial photos:[3]

Mosaic locations for Lamphun


Photomosaic No. 1

The area around Lamphun town outlined above in red was recorded in five RAF aerial photos taken on 26 March 1944:[4]

Photomosaic of Lamphun

A higher resolution image is available for download here.

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

02561.jpg
02562.jpg
02563.jpg
02564.jpg
02565.jpg

and assembled like this with Microsoft ICE:[6]

Lamphun photomosaic assembly

Note that 02562.jpg is superfluous in this particular arrangement.


Two photomosaics already assembled by Allied intelligence, but with less detail (lower resolution), and both undated, are also available via the same GDAP webpage:


Photomosaic No. 2

Enhanced, it looks like this:[7]

RAF composite of Lamphun 1

A higher resolution view is downloadable here.

The following GDAP image was used for the above photomosaic:

02559.jpg 


Photomosaic No. 3

Enhanced, it looks like this:[8]

RAF mosaic of Lamphun 2

A higher resolution view is downloadable here.

The following GDAP image was used for the above photomosaic:

02560.jpg


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 Aug 29
First published on Internet
1
2012 Oct 05
Changed mosaic to ICE-generated; added 2 RAF composites + downloadables; smoothed text

 

 

See Key for interpreting page content.

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

Bibliography supports notes.

1.^ Source: Google Earth fix on the center of the old town.

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. Annotations placed with PhotoShop by author.

4.^ Photos were assembled using Microsoft ICE (Image Composition Editor). 02562.jpg was excluded because it is substantially inferior in quality and there is sufficent overlapping of the two adjacent images to cover the area.

The mosaic is oriented so that its north is to the top of the page.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

6.^ Drawn with Microsoft Publisher by author.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.^ Mosaic has been reoriented so that its north is to the top of the page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.^ Mosaic has been reoriented so that its north is to the top of the page.