The capture of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975 was, of course, the greatest triumph of the Khmer Rouge in their entire history. On this day, they turned from partisans into the ruling organization and power in Cambodia, which they renamed Democratic Kampuchea.
However, the battles for Phnom Penh themselves (the Khmers pronounce this name a little differently: Pnompynh) were very sparingly reflected in the literature. So much so that the wrong impression may arise that the Khmer Rouge allegedly had no problems at all, they simply entered the city without resistance and began to rampage there.
My research on this topic also showed that the history of the last day of Phnom Penh (meaning the republican Phnom Penh) is more complex and interesting than is commonly believed. The sources were: the same Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times and a book by the former chief of the General Staff of the Khmer Republic, Lieutenant General Sat Sutsakan.
For Singapore, these were important events that took place very close to them, across the Gulf of Thailand. Reds were everywhere: in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and in Singapore itself, there were also enough Maoists. It was very important for them to know whether the "red tide" would be limited to southeastern Indochina or would go further to them, on which, in particular, depended on the important question of when to sell off property and escape to Europe.
General Sutsakan was Chief of the General Staff in the final days of the defense of Phnom Penh and fled the city at the very last moment. He is the most senior witness to these events. Memories from the Khmer Rouge are unknown to me, and it's hard to even say if they exist at all.
Environment
Lieutenant General Sat Sutsakan returned to Phnom Penh at the most appropriate time, February 20, 1975, and returned from New York, where he took part in the 29th UN General Assembly as part of the delegation of the Khmer Republic. Three weeks later, on March 12, 1975, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Khmer Republic.
At this time, the fighting was going on within a radius of about 15 km from Phnom Penh. In the north-west, in Khmer Krom, was the 7th division, in the west, 10 km from the Pochentong airfield, along the highway number 4 to Bek Chan, units of the 3rd division were located. In the south, in Takmau, along Highway 1 and along the Bassak River, the 1st Division defended itself. To the east of Phnom Penh was the Mekong, where positions were defended by a parachute brigade and local support units.
The Mekong, which for a long time was an important transport artery connecting Phnom Penh with South Vietnam, had already been lost by this time. The Khmer Rouge blocked the movement of ships on the river back in January 1975. On January 30, the last ship arrived in the city. In early February, the Khmer Rouge captured the left (eastern) bank of the Mekong directly opposite the capital, but were driven out of there by February 10. In mid-February 1975, the Khmer Marines tried to open a message on the Mekong, but they were unable to do so. Thus, since February 1975, the city was surrounded, and the only thread connecting it with the allies was the Pochentong airfield, where transport planes landed, delivering ammunition, rice, and fuel. In early February 1975, the Khmer Rouge attempted to storm the airfield, which was repulsed with great damage to them.
On March 9, 1975, the Khmer Rouge attacked the positions of the 7th Division in Prek Phneu, 19 km from Phnom Penh, but even then their attacks were repelled.
According to the most rough estimates, there were about 3 million people in the city, mostly refugees. The capital has come under rocket fire, and since January 20, water and electricity have been cut off in most of Phnom Penh. Military supplies of fuel were available for 30 days, ammunition for 40 days and rice for 50 days. True, the journalists mentioned that Lonnol's soldiers received almost no food and therefore ate human flesh from the corpses of the Khmer Rouge they killed.
The number of the opposing sides is now almost impossible to determine with any certainty. There were 25-30 thousand Khmer Rouge people. Lonnol's soldiers were in the capital of the order of 10-15 thousand, not counting the garrisons in other cities. But it is impossible to say for sure, the command of the Lonnol troops themselves did not have exact figures; the staff documentation, of course, was missing.
Crash defense
The Khmer Rouge, in anticipation of an imminent victory, attacked in different places, gradually undermining the defense of the capital. At the end of March, they managed to re-capture the left bank of the Mekong opposite Phnom Penh, from where rocket attacks began on March 27.
On the morning of April 2, 1975, Marshal Lon Nol and his family flew by helicopter to Pochentong airfield, where a plane was waiting for him. On it, the head of the Khmer Republic flew to Bali, formally making a visit to Indonesia. Then he moved to Hawaii, where he bought a villa with the money he had taken in Phnom Penh.
The Khmer Rouge gradually pushed the 7th Division on the northern flank of Phnom Penh's defenses; there was a threat of a breakthrough. According to a Singaporean newspaper, even the Khmer Rouge seemed to have made a breakthrough, but this information was inaccurate. On April 4, 1975, a counterattack was carried out, in which about 500 soldiers participated, M113 armored personnel carriers and aircraft, which managed to plug the gap in the defense. True, Sutsakan writes that the last reserves were thrown onto the northern flank, which were destroyed in several hours of intense fighting. Whether he was referring to this counterattack, mentioned in the newspaper, or some other battles, is unclear.
Apparently, Sutsakan was right that there were no more reserves, the defense was falling apart before our eyes. By April 11, 1975, the Khmer Rouge pushed parts of the 3rd divisions eastward so that the fighting was 350 meters from the Pochentong airfield. The northern flank collapsed, and already on April 12, the Khmer Rouge began shelling the city from 81-mm mortars.
On April 13, the President of the Khmer Republic Saukam Hoi, together with his entourage in 36 helicopters, fled from Phnom Penh. The US Embassy followed suit. The last plane to land at Pochentong was picked up by the embassy staff, and there were no more planes after it.
In the early morning of April 14, 1975, the Khmer Rouge took the airfield. The time can be set fairly accurately, as Sutsakan writes that at 10:45 am the government building was bombed; two 250-pound bombs went off 20 yards from the building he was in. This blow is also mentioned by the American journalist Sydney Shanberg. The bombs were dropped by a T-28 Trojan captured by the Khmer Rouge at Pochentong along with a pilot and ground personnel. It took some time for the pilot to persuade him to become the first pilot of Democratic Kampuchea, to prepare for the flight, and to take off. So we can assume that the Khmer Rouge took the airfield no later than 8 a.m. on April 14, 1975.
After lunch, as Sutsakan writes, news came that the Khmer Rouge had driven the 1st Division out of Takmau. Phnom Penh's defenses were completely destroyed.
Last battles
The rest of the day on April 14, night and all day on April 15, 1975, there were battles on the outskirts of the city. Apparently, the battles were very stubborn. Even on foot, you can walk from Pochentong to the center of Phnom Penh in 3-4 hours, and the Khmer Rouge in a day and a half reached only the outskirts of the capital. They were held back by defense and counterattacks, and every step towards the capital cost them blood. Only in the evening of April 15, 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered the western sector of Phnom Penh and started street fighting.
The shelling set fire to a large area of timber-framed houses along the banks of the Bassak River, near the Monirong Bridge. The night of April 16, 1975 was bright: residential areas were on fire, then an army warehouse with fuel and ammunition caught fire and exploded.
By the morning of April 16, the Khmer Rouge captured the entire western sector of Phnom Penh and laid siege to Queen's University, turned into a stronghold. Lonnol's troops occupied a sector of the capital about 5 km long from north to south and 3 km wide from west to east. They had nowhere to retreat. On three sides were the Khmer Rouge, and behind them was the Mekong, behind which were also the Khmer Rouge.
The main efforts of the Khmer Rouge on April 16 focused on the assault from the south. At night in the southern sector, on the outskirts, as follows from the last message from Sydney Shanberg, there was a continuous battle, mortar shelling. Lonnolovtsy threw their M113s in battle, and the Khmer Rouge hit with direct fire with rockets and set fire to houses. In the morning, the Khmer Rouge managed to break through the defenses and cross the Bassak River across the United Nations Bridge. After that, they began to make their way along Preah Norodom Boulevard towards the presidential palace. At noon on April 16, a C-46 aircraft circled over Phnom Penh, directed to evacuate foreign journalists still remaining in the city. The pilot negotiated with the journalists at the Le Phnom hotel by radio, but could not land. A photograph was taken from its side, which clearly shows the smoke over the areas of the fighting.
Yes, this was far from a triumphant entry into the city for the Khmer Rouge; they had to fight for every street and every house. The fighting went on all day and all night from April 16 to 17, 1975. There was virtually no control over Lonnol's troops; units and detachments fought at their own discretion. In any case, Sat Sutsakan did not write anything about these battles in his book. However, as can be seen from subsequent events, the fighting went on all night and even in the morning, breaking up into battles for separate positions and houses.
Around midnight, the Prime Minister of the Khmer Republic Long Boret, Sutsakan and several other leaders sent a telegram to Beijing to Sihanouk offering peace. They waited for an answer, conferred and decided what they would do next. They had plans to create a government in exile, to continue the resistance, but the circumstances were already stronger than them. Heavy night. At 5:30 am on April 17, they were still conferring at the prime minister's house, determined to fight. At 6 am, a response came from Beijing: Sihanouk rejected their proposals.
The war is lost. The Khmer Rouge are on their way, there will be no peace, there is no possibility of resistance. Sutsakan writes that he and Premier Long Boret were sitting at his house at about 8 am on April 17 and were silent, waiting for a denouement. She was unexpected. General Thach Reng appeared in the house and invited them to fly; he still had commandos and several helicopters. They immediately drove to the Phnom Penh Olympic Stadium, where there was a landing site. After some fiddling with the engine at 8:30, the helicopter with Sutsakan on board took off and arrived at Kompong Thom an hour later. There were troops still resisting the Khmer Rouge. In the afternoon, the helicopter flew into the Cambodian-Thai border area. The general flew away last; the prime minister, who wished to transfer to another helicopter, fly away to smog, and was later arrested by the Khmer Rouge.
At about 9 am on April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured the entire city. The captured Brigadier General Mei Xichan at 9.30 am on Radio Phnom Penh gave the order to surrender and lay down their arms. The Khmer Rouge command is located in the building of the Ministry of Information. A Singapore newspaper published the name of the city's first red commandant, Hem Ket Dar, calling him a general. However, it is unlikely that he was a major commander, because he is not mentioned in any other source.
Consequences of victory
The Khmer Rouge victory was, of course, triumphant. They did not deny themselves the pleasure of celebrating the victory, and already in the afternoon of April 17, they staged a rally with banners.
But the victory was inconclusive. In the capital, clashes still flared up with groups and detachments of fighters who did not want to surrender. Some of the Lonnol soldiers broke out of the city and joined the anti-communist detachments. You can imagine what kind of people they were: ready to fight the communists to the last patron and devour the meat from the corpses of the murdered communists. Already in June 1975, Sihanouk's uncle, Brigadier General Prince Norodom Chandrangsal, led the anti-communist detachments, numbering about 2 thousand people, who fought in the Phnom Penh region, in the Kompongspa and Svayrieng provinces. There were other anti-communist groups as well. It took the Khmer Rouge an entire dry season from October 1975 to May 1976 to crush these troops and basically end the resistance.
As for the well-known eviction of the inhabitants of Phnom Penh, it is explained by the fact that there was not enough rice and water for the entire mass of the population that had accumulated in it. On May 5, 1975, a Singaporean newspaper reported that the population was drinking water from air conditioners and eating leather goods: signs of acute thirst and acute hunger. This is not surprising given the long blockade of the city, the depletion and destruction of rice stocks, and the disruption of the water supply. The Khmer Rouge did not have vehicles to provide the city with food. Therefore, driving the population to rice and water was a very sensible decision. At the same time, the empty capital became more secure. Moreover, a ban on entry into Phnom Penh was imposed; only workers from the surrounding villages were brought to the city. But even with such security measures, it was far from always calm in the capital under the Khmer Rouge.
This information allows only in the most general outline to reconstruct the circumstances of the battle for Phnom Penh. However, they also show that the last day of Phnom Penh was not at all what it is often presented.
