Royal Lao Army

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Royal Army of Laos Armée Royale du Laos
Royal Lao Army Service Banner (1952-1975)
Active	1 July 1949 - 2 December 1975
Country	Kingdom of Laos
Allegiance	Royal Lao Government
Branch	Ground Forces
Size	35,000 (at height)
Garrison/HQ	Vientiane
Nickname	RLA (ARL in French)
Anniversaries	1 July
Engagements	Laotian Civil War Vietnam War
Commanders
Notable commanders	Kong Le Vang Pao Thao Ty

The Royal Lao Army (French: Armée Royale du Laos – ARL), also designated by its Americanized title ‘RLA’, was the ground forces branch of the Royal Lao Armed Forces, the official military of the Kingdom of Laos during the Laotian Civil War between 1960 and 1975.

History

The ARL traced back its origins to World War II, when the first entirely Laotian military unit, the 1st Laotian Rifle Battalion (French: 1ér Battaillon de Chasseurs Laotiens – BCL), was raised early in 1941 by the Vichy French colonial authorities. Intended to be used on internal security operations to bolster the local colonial constabulary force, the ‘Indigenous Guard’ (French: Garde Indigène), the 1st BCL did not see much action until after March 9, 1945, when the Japanese Imperial Army forcibly seized control of French Indochina from France, including Laos. The battalion then retreated into the mountains, where they linked with the Laotian irregular guerrilla fighters (French: Maquis) operating there. These guerrillas were supplied, trained, and led by teams of Free French agents who had been trained in special jungle warfare by the British SOE in India and were subsequently parachuted into Indochina in December 1944 with the aim of creating a local anti-Japanese resistance network. Under the command of their Free French cadres, the battalion’s Laotian soldiers engaged in guerrilla actions alongside the irregular ‘Maquisards’ against the Japanese occupation forces in Laos until Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945. In November of that same year, the various Laotian guerrilla were consolidated into four regular light infantry battalions and, together with the 1st BCL, integrated into the newly-founded French Union Army.^[1][2]

Meanwhile, confronted in early May 1945 with the Allied Powers’ victory over Nazi Germany and sensing their own imminent defeat, the Japanese military authorities in Laos began stirring up local anti-French nationalistic sentiments. In October of that year, a group of supporters of Laotian independence led by Prince Phetsarath deposed King Sisavang Vong and announced the formation of a new government body, the Committee for Independent Laos (Lao Language: Khana Lao Issara) or Lao Issara for short.^[3] Taking advantage of the temporary absence of French authority in the country’s main cities, the Lao Issara promptly established an armed defense force to exercise its authority with the support of Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh Hanoi-based government in the Tonkin and the Nationalist Chinese. The Lao Issara ‘Army’ was essentially a lightly-armed militia force, provided with an mixed assortement of small-arms captured from the Japanese, looted from French colonial depots, or sold by the Chinese Nationalist Army troops who occupied northern Laos under the terms of the 1945 Potsdam Conference.

The National Laotian Army 1946-1955

In early March 1946, the French Union Army aligned some 4,000 Laotian troops organized into five light infantry battalions (Battaillons de Chasseurs Laotiens) – the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th BCLs – led by a cadre of French officers and senior NCOs, which participated actively in the French reoccupation of Laos. That month, the Laotian battalions provided infantry support to French Far East Expeditionary Corps (CEFEO) armoured units fighting Lao Issara troops at the Battle of Thakhek in Khammouan province. By the end of April, they had assisted the French in the recapture of Vientiane, followed in May by Luang Prabang which forced the Lao Issara leadership to flee to exile in Thailand. Upon the successful conclusion of the campaign, the Laotian battalions continued with small counter-insurgency operations against remnant bands of Lao Issara insurgents over the next three years, assuming responsibility for internal security duties in the areas located along the Thai border.

However, faced with the potential threat posed by the growing Viet Minh insurgency in neighbouring Vietnam the French instituted on July 1, 1949 a separated National Laotian Army – NLA (French: Armée Nationale Laotiènne – ANL) of the French Union to defend Laos.^[4] Its formation actually began earlier in 1947 as a gathering of several indigenous irregular (guerrilla) auxiliary units raised early by the French to reinforce their regular CEFEO units.

Structure

The chain of command of the Royal Lao Army was placed under the Ministry of Defense in Vientiane. The country was divided into five military regions.

To meet the threat represented by the Pathet Lao, the Royal Lao Army depended on a small French military training mission, headed by a general officer, an exceptional arrangement permitted under the Geneva conventions. Military organization and tactical training reflected French traditions. Most of the equipment was of United States origin, however, because early in the First Indochina War, the United States had been supplying the French with matériel ranging from guns to aircraft.

In 1970 the combat elements of the Royal Lao Army were organized into fifty-eight infantry battalions and one artillery regiment of four battalions. The largest tactical unit was the battalion, which was composed of a headquarters, a headquarters company, and three rifle companies. Royal Lao Army units were devoted primarily to static defense and were stationed near population centers, lines of communication, depots, and airfields. These units were complemented by military police and armored, engineer, and communications units. Between 1962 and 1971, the United States provided Laos with an estimated US$500 million in military assistance, not including the cost of equipping and training irregular and paramilitary forces.

List of Royal Lao Army commanders

• General Phoumi Nosavan (1958-1965)
• General Ouane Rattikone
• General Kouprasith Abhay (Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Lao Army, 1973-1975)
• Colonel Bounleuth Saycocie

Notable field commanders

• Brigadier-General Soutchay Vongsavanh
• Brigadier-General Thao Ty
• Major-General Vang Pao
• General Sengsouvanh Souvannarath
• General Amkha Soukhavong
• General Sing Ratanassamay
• Captain Kong Le

Weapons and equipment

Armoured vehicles

The armoured corps inventory consisted of M24 Chaffee light tanks and some M8 HMC 75mm self-propelled Howitzers whilst the reconnaissance armoured squadron was provided with M8 Greyhound light armoured cars and M20 Armoured Utility Cars. Mechanized infantry battalions were issued with M3 Half-Track and M3 Scout Car armoured personnel carriers (APCs)^[5]. An unknown number of tracked M-113 APCs were later provided by the Americans^[6].

Artillery

The artillery corps fielded M101A1 105mm towed field howitzers, whilst Air Defense units were equipped with British-made Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft guns.

RLA uniforms and insignia

ANL officers received a service peaked cap copied after the French M1927 pattern (French: Casquette d’officier Mle 1927) in both light khaki and white summer versions (the latter with gold embroidered flame decoration on the black cap band for general officers), to wear with the khaki service dress and the white high-collar full dress uniforms, respectively. These were worn with the standard gilt metal ANL cap device, a wreathed Airavata crest bearing the Laotian Royal Arms, a three-headed white elephant standing on a pedestal and surmounted by a pointed parasol set on a black teardrop-shaped backround patch. Upon the creation of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR) in September 1961, the Royal Lao Army (RLA) adopted a new service peaked cap with crown of ‘Germanic’ shape – very similar to that worn by Royal Thai Army or South Vietnamese ARVN officers – with the standard gilt metal FAR wreathed trident cap device, again set on a black backround^[7] though some field officers still wore the old ANL badge on their caps up until the mid-1960s.^[8]

The most common headgear for the ANL personnel during the 1950s was the French M1946 tropical beret (French: Bérét de toile kaki clair Mle 1946), made of light khaki cotton cloth,^[9] but later the RLA standartized on a beret pattern whose design was based on the French M1953/59 model (French: Bérét Mle 1953/59); it was made of wool in a single piece, attached to a black leather rim with two black tightening straps at the back. In the FAR, berets were still being worn pulled to the left in typical French fashion, with the colour sequence for the ground forces as follows: General Service – scarlet red (the Kingdom of Laos’ national colour); Paratroopers, Para-Commandos and Special Forces – cherry-red (maroon); Armoured Cavalry – black; Military Police – dark blue. Berets made of camouflage cloth in the “Duck hunter”, “Tigerstripe” and “Highland” patterns were also used in the field, particularly by elite units within the RLA and by the irregular SGU formations. According to the 1959 regulations, General Service and corps’ berets were worn with the standard RLA beret badge placed above the right eye. Issued in gilt metal for officers and in silver metal for the rank-and-file, it consisted of a trident, symbolizing the Hindu God Vishnu, superimposed on a spinning Buddhist ‘Wheel of Law’ (Chakra) whose design recalled a circular saw.^[10] There were however exceptions to this rule, such as the Laotian airborne battalions who retained the silver winged dagger metal airborne beret badge modelled after the French pattern previously adopted in the early 1950s,^[11] simply replacing the dagger by a Laotian trident after 1961.^[12]

Laotian troops in the field could be encountered wearing a wide variety of Khaki or OG jungle hats and patrol caps, ranging from French bush hats (French: Chapeau de brousse Mle 1949) and US M-1951 field caps, to baseball caps, US “Boonie hats”, and even South Vietnamese ARVN fatigue caps (similar in shape to the US Marines utility cap).^[13] Camouflage versions of these headpieces also found their way into the RLA from the United States, Thailand and South Vietnam, which were soon joined by Laotian-made copies.

Army ranks

Initially, ANL troops wore the same rank insignia as their French counterparts, whose sequence followed the French Army pattern defined by the 1956 regulations^[14] until 1959, when the Royal Lao Army adopted a new distintively Laotian-designed system of military ranks, which became in September 1961 the standard rank chart for all branches of service of the newly-created Royal Lao Armed Forces.

Under the new regulations, officers were intitled to wear on their service or dress uniforms stiffened red shoulder boards (French: pattes d’épaule) edged with gold braid and a gold wreathed trident at the inner end. Junior officers (French: Officiers subalternes) added an appropriate number of five-pointed gold stars to their boards whilst field grade officers (French: Officiers supérieures) had a single lotus leaf rosette, plus an appropriate number of five-pointed gold stars. Field Marshals and General officers (French: Marechaux et Officiers Géneraux) had a gold leaf design around the lower half of their shoulder boards plus two of more five-pointed silver stars. Senior and junior NCOs (French: Sous-officiers) – including Private 1st class – wore cloth chevrons on both upper sleeves; enlisted men (French: Hommes de troupe) wore no insignia.

In the field, officers’ shoulder boards were initially replaced by metal rank insignia pinned to simple rectangular red cloth tabs sewn over the right shirt or combat jacket pocket,^[15] but some senior officers kept the custom of wearing instead a single chest tab (French: patte de poitrine) buttoned to the shirt’s front fly following French Army pratice.^[16] By the late 1960s, an American-style system was adopted in which metal pin-on or embroidered cloth rank insignia – either in yellow-on-green full-colour or black-on-green subdued form – were worn on the right collar, though photographic evidence shows that officers on the field also had the habit of displaying their rank insignia on berets, baseball caps, bush hats and (more rarely) on steel helmets.^[17]

• Sip – Private (no insignia)
• Sip – Private 1st class (one red chevron pointed up)
• Sip Trii – Corporal (one white chevron pointed up)
• Sip Thó – Sergeant (two white chevrons pointed up)
• Sip Êek – Staff Sergeant (three white chevrons pointed up)
• Cãã Trii – Sergeant 1st class (one gold chevron edged red pointed down)
• Cãã Thó – Master Sergeant (two gold chevrons edged red pointed down)
• Cãã Êek – Sergent Major (three gold chevrons edged red pointed down)
• Cadet 1st class (one horizontal white bar)
• Cadet 2nd class (one horizontal white ‘ladder’ bar)
• Wáa Trii Loei Trii – Warrant Officer (one horizontal gold bar)
• Loei Trïï – 2nd Lieutenant (one five-pointed gold star)
• Loei Thö – 1st Lieutenant (two five-pointed gold stars)
• Loei Êek – Captain (three five-pointed gold stars)
• Phan Trïï – Major (one five-pointed star inserted on a gold disc)
• Phan Thö – Lieutenant-Colonel (two five-pointed stars, one inserted on a gold disc)
• Phan Êek – Colonel (three five-pointed stars, one inserted on a gold disc)
• Phoun Chatäävä – Brigadier-General (two five-pointed silver stars)
• Phoun Trïï – Major-General (three five-pointed silver stars)
• Phoun Thö – Lieutenant-General (four five-pointed silver stars)
• Phoun Êek – General (Five five-pointed silver stars)
• Choum Phoun – Field Marshal (six five-pointed silver stars)

Branch insignia

RLA skill and trade badges also came in gilt metal and/or ennamelled pin-on and cloth embroidered yellow or black-on-green subdued variants. On dress and service uniforms, they were worn on both collars by all-ranks if shoulder boards were worn, but in the field officers wore them on the left shirt collar only if worn alongside collar rank insignia; enlisted ranks usually wore branch insignia on both collars instead.^[18]

Unit insignia

Yellow and subdued nametapes were occasionally worn above the right shirt or jacket pocket on field dress; plastic nameplates were worn with the service and dress uniforms. Elite formations such as the Special Commando Company of the 2nd RLA Strike Division had their unit designation printed over their left pocket.

See also

• Laotian Civil War
• Vietnam War
• ARVN
• Air America
• Pathet Lao
• Royal Lao Police
• Khmer National Armed Forces
• Weapons of the Laotian Civil War

Notes

References

• Albert Grandolini, Armor of the Vietnam War (2): Asian Forces, Concord Publications, Hong Kong 1998. ISBN 978-962-361-622-5
• Brig. Gen. Soutchay Vongsavanh, RLG Military Operations and Activities in the Laotian Panhandle, United States Army Center of Military History, Washington DC 1980.
• Jarred James Breaux, The Laotian Civil War: The Intransigence of General Phoumi Nosavan and American Intervention in the Fall of 1960, Morrisville, N.C.:Lulu, 2008.
• Kenneth Conboy and Don Greer, War in Laos, 1954-1975, Squadron/Signal Publications, 1994. ISBN 0-89747-315-9
• Kenneth Conboy and Simon McCouaig, South-East Asia Special Forces, Elite series 33, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1991. ISBN 1-85532-106-8
• Kenneth Conboy with James Morrison, Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos, Boulder CO: Paladin Press, 1995.
• Kenneth Conboy and Simon McCouaig, The War in Laos 1960-75, Men-at-arms series 217, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London 1989. ISBN 978-0-85045-938-8
• Khambang Sibounheuang (edited by Edward Y. Hall), White Dragon Two: A Royal Laotian Commando's Escape from Laos, Spartanburg, SC: Honoribus Press, 2002. ISBN 978-1-885354-14-3
• Nina S. Adams and Alfred W. McCoy (eds.), Laos: War and Revolution, Harper & Row, New York 1970.
• Roger Warner, Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos, South Royalton VE: Steerforth Press, 1996.
• Timothy Castle, At War in the Shadow of Vietnam: United States Military Aid to the Royal Lao Government, 1955–1975, Columbia University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-231-07977-8

Secondary sources

• Arnold Issacs, Gordon Hardy, MacAlister Brown, et al., Pawns of War: Cambodia and Laos, Boston Publishing Company, Boston 1987.
• Christophe Dutrône and Michel Roques, L’Escadron Parachutiste de la Garde Sud-Vietnam, 1947-1951, in Armes Militaria Magazine n.º 188, March 2001. (in French)
• Christopher Robbins, Air America, Avon, New York 1985.
• Christopher F. Foss, Jane’s Tank & Combat Vehicle recognition guide, HarperCollins Publishers, London 2002. ISBN 0-00-712759-6
• Denis Lassus, Les marques de grade de l’armée française, 1945-1990 (1er partie-introduction), in Armes Militaria Magazine n.º 159, October 1998. (in French)
• Denis Lassus, Les marques de grade de l’armée française, 1945-1990 (2e partie-les differents types de galons), in Armes Militaria Magazine n.º 161, December 1998. (in French)
• Kenneth Conboy, Kenneth Bowra, and Simon McCouaig, The NVA and Viet Cong, Elite 38 series, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 1992. ISBN 978-1-85532-162-5
• Kenneth Conboy, FANK: A History of the Cambodian Armed Forces, 1970-1975, Equinox Publishing (Asia) Pte Ltd, Djakarta 2011. ISBN 9789793780863
• Military History Institute of Vietnam, Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975 (translated by Merle Pribbenow), Lawrence KS: University of Kansas Press, 2002.

External links

Asia portal

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