Eighty years ago, the most obscure sub-conflict of the war fizzles and dies

Arguably the least known sub-conflict of the Second World War came to an end when Japan pressured the Thai government into ceasing hostilities with the Vichy French regime in Indochina which had just begun. The Thai army was equipped with British tanks including amphibious Vickers-Carden-Loyd light tanks, which were faced with antique French Renault tanks of First World War vintage. Vickers had been the best-selling tanks of the 1930s because of their low price; they had little else to recommend them. The Japanese calculated that a weak and biddable Vichy government was preferable to a powerful regional force with independent ambitions. Tokyo had little desire to see anything that might push the French authorities in Indochina into any kind of friendship with Britain. Thailand was awarded extensive territorial concessions and the conflict passed as a Thai victory. The House of Commons select committee into the conduct of MP Bob Boothby in what was known as the Czech assets affa