Phnom-Penh, the last days
April 1975
The Khmer Rouges maintained a strong pressure against the Government
outposts but did not launch any offensive yet against Phnom Penh. With
the Government troops, at least a hundred thousand people were
armed
but the city was now overcrowded by refugees, some two millions;
fleeing fighting and the enemy terror carried out in the areas
they
occupied; the so-called “liberated areas”. The Communists rocketed
indiscriminately the congested town. The morale of the troops began to
flounder while the politicians thought only to “negotiate” with Prince
Sihanouk, allied himself with the Khmer Rouges. It was in this context
that a KAF pilot, Khiev Yoursawath, bombed the Government Headquarters
with his T-28.
Pochentong
Since weeks the air base was subjected to artillery and rocket firings.
Consequently great parts of the aircraft were redeployed to other
locations. Only a detachment of T-28s continued to operate there
regularly for most of the operations were now carried out from other
air bases. For Phnom-Penh, an improvised airstrip that used a nearby
road as a runway was also used.
It was the FAC pilots that first reported that our troops manning the
capital’s outlying lines of defences had begun to vacate their
positions. Carrying their weapons with them, they quietly withdrew back
towards Phnom Penh. The Communists immediately moved in and occupied
their outposts. They installed inside mortars that immediately shelled
the air base. The officers wondered about the future course of action.
Some rumours indicated that they must be prepared to evacuate their
aircraft to Thailand, to the U Tapao US Base. They were ordered to have
civilian clothes in addition to their flight gears that could help them
to extricate from the area by waiting the development of the military
and political situations. However, no instructions were given and the
shelling was increasing in intensity as the hours passed by, hitting
the installations as well as the living quarters. Personnel and their
families began to suffered casualties like Lt Men Kunthea. A mortar
shell also caught the T-28D of Lt Ros Saourn just after its landing,
killing the pilot.
Streams of refugees began to converge towards Psar-Pochentong, a
village outside the base. Suddenly, groups of Khmer Rouges, disguised
as civilians, took out their hidden rifles and began to open fire on
all the passing vehicles. That was an enemy typical tactic to wage
terror and using civilian as a shield. These kinds of incidents could
not be avoided for there were any checkpoints remaining to screen the
arrival of the new refugees. The road linking the airport to Phnom Penh
was now definitely cut. For many, the base could not resist any longer
and was considered as lost on April 15th. But the KAF Security Troops
fought on, resisting the enemy advance. Facing a stiff resistance, the
Khmer Rouge instead decided to press on toward the city rather to renew
a costly assault. The base Security Troops even contemplated a
counter-attack to clear the roadblock. However, it lacks enough
strength to succeed. They begged in vain for the sending by helicopters
of some crews to man the few Armoured Personnel Carriers that had been
regrouped there a few days earlier. It was however for nothing and the
road could not be reopened. Our pilots were also unwilling to support
the attack in order to avoid inflicting heavy casualties to the
refugees.
On 17 April, when the Government finally capitulated, most of the
personnel striped off of their military uniforms and tried to pass
though the enemy lines. However, groups of stubborn KAF Security Troops
continued to resist the advance of the Khmer Rouges, covering the
escape of the last aircraft fleeing to Thailand. At the request of the
Security Troops, they bombed their own base before leaving.
KAF Headquarters - Phnom Penh
In
addition to those in the KAF Headquarter, there were many more Air
Force personnel scattered elsewhere inside Phnom Penh. Many airmen were
stranded there for various reasons; those that operated the helicopters
from the Olympic Stadium turned into a Landing Zone; others in short
leaves for the funerals of a member of their families; or individuals
that were convalescing like Captain Su Chom Doeurn, who tried to
recover after being shot down with his T-28 and a stay at Pochentong
AB's Hospital.
For several days most of
the pilots had been left without clear instructions but thanks to
radios or talkie-walkies, they were in touch with each others. It was
known that the Government relied only on negotiations or a last minute
exile plan. By their own initiative, the airmen regrouped at the
Stadium, waiting clear orders by standing nearby the helicopters. The
fighter-bomber pilot wanted to be flown out to Pochentong to join their
squadrons’ mates while others would join other bases. No one at the
Headquarter was however able to give them an exact status of the T-28s’
availability and where they were needed the most. Finally, it was
decided to go to Kampong Chnang.
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The helicopters
left out Phnom Penh at 2:AM on April 17th. There were several other
left behind. Later in the next morning, the
Government surrendered. Even before the Khmer Rouges entered the city,
there were city hall loudspeakers asking the military and the civilians
alike to put down and bring their weapons at designated pickup points.
Inside the KAF Headquarters, Officer Ouk Hean ordered to the
administrative personnel to strip off of their uniforms and putted into
civilian clothes and leaved by the byways. No Khmer Rouges were then in
the vicinity even that it was learnt that the Navy Headquarters, some
one kilometer away, was being surrounded. With the Security Troops, Ouk
Hean decided to stay put. The leavings reported that they had taken
positions all around the perimeter but that they seemed sombre and
dejected. The radio transmissions continued to report that many
defections took place in the air bases, with some base commanders
“fleeing”. They were ordered to raise a white flag but apparently
nothing came out of this. Maybe they at last had surrendered but we did
not heard anymore from then on.
Four choppers were
booked for
government's members. Officer Kong Chhay Hong was designated to
evacuate them but no clear plan was given to him. See his historical testimony in
the KAF book.
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Kompong Chnang
There was much confusion at the base. Many aircraft had been regrouped
there while the flying personnel were discussing future course of
actions. Many suggested to retreat to the northern part of the country;
rumours then were heard saying that the Government was preparing there
a last resistance bastion. In the heat of the exchanges, no one really
to think about the other personnel, like the mechanics or the Security
troops. Those who decided to leave began to take off while others, like
Ok Sam Ath, who had evacuated his wife and his children, decided to
stay at the base to defend it. Nevertheless, while the aircraft began
to take off, some disgruntled ground personnel began to obstruct the
runway. By the own admittance of those who were departing, they
resented with shame that they were being “defecting”.
When it was learnt that some members of the Government had
landed on helicopters, their
helicopters were detained. The situation was such tense that the
Battambang’s base commander, Colonel Neang Lee, was obliged to
intervene. He had previously commanded the Kompong Chnang Air Base and
was well respected by his men. He succeeded to release the Government’s
members who had promised to go to Oudor Meanchey Area to organize there
“a resistance base”. After being refuelled, the helicopters could
finally depart with the VIPs on board.
Battambang
Battambang
was essentially an air school base, hosting the KAF Air Academy but
there were also some detachments of operational squadrons there. The
locally based T-28s continued their strike missions up to the 17 April
1975 and the day before, the AC-47s Gunships were on duties as usual.
There
were some artillery shelling of the Battambang city, but nothing of
serious. Furthermore, the airbase did not suffer any damages. On April
17th, 1975, the base commander was forced to go to
Kompong
Chnang to arrange there a tense situation. When the
Government surrender order was known, Battambang's
personnel base
also became
disgruntled and angry but contrary to the events happening at Kampong
Chnang, they remained at first disciplined and did not hamper the
evacuation of
the aircraft. However, when the last group of aircraft was to
take off, it ends up with only one
C-47 with several pilots as passengers! Those pilots were supposed to
take a few additional T-28s but they noticed that the battery
cables were cut! It was not the time and the circumstance to start any
investigation.
Kampong
Cham
In the past, the base had already beating up several severe enemy
attacks. The local KAF Security Guard troops, under the strong
leadership of the base commander, Colonel Meas Maroth, had repulsed
each time the Khmer Rouges. Now, Maroth was determined as ever to
protect his base. His deputy, Ma Kim Oeun, was in the same mood. He had
survived twice to shot downs in combat missions. Six months earlier he
had declared that in any case the Communists had a personal feud with
him. In fact one of the local Khmer Rouges commanders was a member of
his family who hated him particularly. Once more time, for the last
occasion, the Kampong Cham isolated airbase decided to face the enemy.
The airmen decided to follow their commanders until the end. The
defenders fought until running out of ammunitions. According to reports
transmitted to the Khmer Military Attaché in Washington, the close
quarter fighting precluded any air drops of the supplies for the
defenders by the CIA run transport aircraft. Anyway, these kinds of
dropping sorties ceased after the 17 April 1975 throughout Cambodia.
The defenders at Kampong Cham continued to resist several days after
the official capitulation, may be even one week later. All the
survivors were thereafter executed.
KAF Detachment in Thailand
A number of KAF personnel were in training in
foreign countries by
April 1975, most of them in Thailand. Those who were at Udorn were then
approached by US officers who proposed to them a bold scheme
to return to Cambodia to pick up as most as possible aircraft and flew
them back to Thailand. They planned to disembark them, as quickly as
possible, from their transport planes during briefs “touch and go”
landings on the various Cambodian airbases. Playing to the full the
surprise, these personnel were told that they could in the meantime
also fly out their families. However, our pilots were reluctant from
the start. They would not act without clear instructions and
furthermore, they didn’t have any guaranty about the security
conditions awaiting them. We could guess that the reasoning behind this
idea was two-fold; if they succeeded, then the American could recover
an aircraft; and if they failed, the “defecting” aircraft risked to be
destroyed in the fleeing action, that resulted in another aircraft that
would not fall into the hands of the Communists! None accepted to
implement the proposal. Finally, when the fall of Phnom Penh was near,
the American decided to repaint the US markings on all KAF aircraft
based at Udorn.
Lt Ung
Chun Sim (Christopher Sim) at Udorn, April 1975
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Kampong
Som (Ream)
Since 1971 it was planned that Ream Air Base would serve as a last
staging area for an eventual evacuation of Pochentong Air Base if Phnom
Penh was to fall. The project was approved by the Joint General Staff.
For this purpose, important stocks of ammunition, fuel and food had
been stored there. They would last for several months. The base would
accommodate part of the KAF aircraft and personnel, with their
families, as well as some members of the Government. The area was
deemed easier to defend if two main key hills (used for KAF Security
Troops training) could be hold. Opened to the sea, the area could be
served as an enclave that could be sustained and supported by the
Americans.
Knowing that the base had been prepared for this purpose, some military
had begun to bring their families there during the last weeks of the
war. Nevertheless, no firm decisions were taken by early April 1975 and
it was now too late to implement a coherent withdrawal. All the stored
supplies appeared then as worthless. The base did not suffer any
significant attack by the Communists until the end. When the Government
surrendered, the aircraft flew out to Thailand unopposed. Parts of the
stores were later destroyed by the US Navy aircraft that bombed the
airport in the aftermath of the Mayaguez Incident. They set on fire the
huge stocks of fuel.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
…Bunna
: I never forgot my last day of struggle to get out of
Phnom-Penh. On April 17th at 1 am, we left the Olympic stadium to
Kampong Chhnang. Once there, we got helps from Colonel Neang Lee and we
went to Siemreap aboard an AC-47 Gunship flew by Major Kong Lach and
Tes Chanthan. After transiting via Udor Meanchey, we landed safely at U
Tapao airbase one day later,
…Mony
: “Ngy Kheam (Class 10) was a T-28’s pilot operating from Ream.
On 17 April 1975, he was in the back seat of my aircraft. We had
decided to fly out to U Tapao. The engine had been started when he left
the plane at the last moment. He told me that he had changed his mind
and would not leave the country. I took off and never heard from him
since.”
…Chantha
: “When we heard the Khmer Rouge broadcast on the National
Radio on the morning of 17 April 1975, we decided to leave Kampong
Chnang for Siemreap, then Odor Meanchey. There, on the evening, we
attended a meeting held by the Khmer Armed Forces Commander in Chief,
General Sak Sutsakhan. He spoke of creating a last bastion there to
resist the Communists. Then, later in the night, it was told that all
is crumbling around and there was nothing we can do to reverse the
situation. No one explained the real reasons. I then decided, together
with three other helicopters, to fly out towards the Phnom Danrek
Range, before crossing into Thailand for Surin.
…Doeun :
For the trip to north of Cambodia, I was supposed to be at the
back seat of Col Tan Sam-Hong’s T-28. "Unfortunately", my helmet
disappeared. For safety reason, he sent me to the C-123 that was to
take off ahead. Colonel Hong crashed his T-28 just after
taking
off ! His wingman circled the site and returned back to land”…
Many other pilots left the country at the fall of Phnom Penh; sometimes
several days after the Khmer Rouges took over. There were several
aircraft lost in route, victims of enemy fire or from mechanical
malfunctions. In the haste of the moment, many airmen could not take
time to check properly their aircraft which were often not fit to fly.
Lieutenant Kim Heng crashed at sea with his whole family; there were no
survivors. Others arrived miraculously without harms in Thailand in
overloaded aircraft. That was the case of Lieutenant Riem Chean who
took an UH-1H a day after the surrendering of the Government. He took
off at night and had difficulty to fly his helicopter; at his firts
stop on the way to Thailand, he counted no less than 25 people aboard!
With the overweight, the landing was so rude that the windshield
cracked and the landing gear broke.
After the Khmer Rouges took control of Phnom-Penh, Chief Adjutant
Meas Sambat from the Headquarters went to Pochentong airbase searching
for his cousin;
Security Guard So Savath who was hospitalized there. In
civilian
clothes, Sambat managed to get into the airbase hospital. He
saw
many deaths and went to look for the injured; all had been killed.
Their bellies had been sliced open. Other KAF personnel who could not
escape by air tried their chance by literally walking out of the
country. It was the case of Sully. After leaving the KAF Headquarters
buildings, he began a long odyssey. Hiding from the Khmer Rouges search
cordons and walking only at night he succeeded to reach the Thailand
Border after a year of travelling and suffering!
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
At the fall of Cambodia, nearly two third of the KAF aircraft were
still operational. Of its main five airbases, three were still fully
operational. The two others were encircled by the enemy but could
deliver heavy blows if they were supported. The Communists did not have
enough strength to attack them simultaneously as well as launching
offensives against the besieged cities. The Unites States were
searching for a quick conclusion of their involvement in Cambodia. For
this purpose, they even now portrayed Prince Sihanouk as a respectable
figure who was worth to negotiate with and they made Marshal Lon Nol quit the power and the
country.
In parallel, the Americans continued to run until the end a limited
supporting program. The USAF had then transferred a group of C-130
transports to a “civilian airline”, in fact run by the CIA, and manned
by former military. They continued to bring in supplies to the besieged
Cambodian cities, alongside contracted DC-8s operating from Saigon. The
Hercules continued to drop their loads over the encircled places until
the official capitulation on 17 April 1975. They should continued to do
so if there was a government willing to resist for the allocated
budgetary funds had not been exhausted. The Khmer Embassy in Washington
was approached, particularly the Military Attaché Office, by
former US military and even some civilians who offered their
help. Some of them, for example, had fast boats that they
would put
at disposition to bring in supplies on eventual enclaves that could be
constituted along the Cambodian shoreline. Some of them even
volunteered to go inside Cambodia. They all knew that would be only a
symbolic gesture, with little material aid available. But they wanted a
lasting psychological impact to bolster the Cambodian morale and putted
the Congress in jeopardy, hoping to reverse the US will to support a
Khmer anti-communist government even weakened but committed alongside
the US since its beginning.
Washington had push Phnom Penh to come to terms with Prince Sihanouk,
hoping to conclude a “Peace Accord”. Sihanouk was then at the head of a
coalition dominated by the Khmer Rouges who did not want to negotiate
anything for they were on ascendancy militarily. Others contacts were
also taken with the pro-Soviet faction within the Communists, instead
of the more radical pro-Chinese, but to no avail. Finally Sihanouk
rejected any peace proposals and now the Government had not enough time
or military means to consider another course of action. The Khmer
Rouges were at the gates of Phnom Penh; its troops were streaming
unopposed towards the city’s centre. .
Until the end, despite the worsening living conditions due to a very
high inflation rate, the last KAF Commander, Ea Chhong, succeeded to
maintain a high operating standard for the service and the personnel
still kept the morale high (1).Nevertheless,
the last political developments
began to cripple any military plan. In the last constituted “government
of transition”, the commanders of the Khmer Navy and Air Force were
co-opted as members of a “Supreme Council”. This move and several other
hasty changes hampered the functioning of the KAF, dislocating its
chain of command. No clear military direction was given. However, at
the squadrons’ levels, the men and
officers fought on relentlessly. Some isolated individuals failed in
their sense of duty in these last moments, like this pilot who bombed
Phnom Penh on 14 April 1975. But, alone, they could not tarnish the
dedication of the ten thousand others KAF airmen who served loyally
their country until the bitter end. Remarkably, the KAF Security Guard
troops sacrificed themselves by defending their airbases, even when no
aircraft were operating anymore.
Testimonies
of NCOs and officers from Pochentong AB, Kampong-Chnang AB, Battambang
AB, Kampong Saom AB, the Headquarters at Phnom-Penh, the Military
Bureau at Washington DC and the Air detachment at the US AB at Udorn,
Thailand. Some transited via Siem Reap airport, Odor Meanchey airfield
and the Olympic stadium at Phnom-Penh :
Chhay Mony,
Christoper Sim, Hao Sok Chantha, Keo Vong Sully, Kong
Chhay Hong, Meach
Bunna (David B.
Em), Meas Sambat, Medh Patrick
Keo , Om Vannac, Riem Chean,
So Satto, Su Chhom Doeurn, Su Sampong,
Yorn Im ....
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