HTMS Dhon Buri

The Dhonburi is a small ship, in terms of tonnage, built by Japan for the Siamese navy in the late 1930s. Each ship had 203 mm guns for personal defense. and was heavily armed with anti-aircraft guns. At first the construction of it resembled the class of ship the Ratanakosindra .

Dhonburi in History

The Dhonburi and two torpedo boats were part of the naval battle at Koh Chang (Chang Islands) between the Thai fleet and the Vichy French navy on the night of January 16-17, 1941. The Dhonburi was badly damaged by the French forces, withdrawing towards the beach while the two accompanying torpedo boats were sunk. She was repaired in Thailand. In this conflict, the HTMS Sri Ayudhya did not enter the fight since it withdrew to the port of Satthip after being relieved by the Dhonburi days before the combat, although other information suggests that the Sri Ayudhya ran aground on a beach, being refloated and repaired in Japan until the end of 1941. This small naval battle was the most important that the Dhonburi experienced against France, which began in November 1940 until the armistice when 12 days later the Dhonburi sank.

The Sri Ayudhya was sunk in 1951, during the revolution in Thailand known as the Manhattan Rebellion.