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Naval History and Heritage Command
(106.749E
10.721N) Located just north of the Mekong Delta, Saigon is located
in a rich rice
production area and it is a major river port.
It was the capital
of French Indochina in 1941, with a population in the ballpart of 400,000 persons.
The civilian airfield was at Tan Son Nhut and was taken over by the Japanese to base the 42 Ki-21 Sallys of 98 Heavy AIr Regiment, the 48 G3M Nells of Genzan Air Group, and the 36 G4M Bettys of Kanoya Air Group. The city was headquarters of Southern Expeditionary Army.
With the conquest of southeast Asia the city became a base for antisubmarine aircraft patrolling the sea lanes back to Japan. However, the Allied counteroffensive brought the city back within range of tactical bombers by 19 April 1945, when a strike by eight Liberators from 5 Air Force achieved little because of bad weather. The port was bombed repeatedly over the next few days, with both shipping and port facilities targeted.
Climate Information:
Elevation: 30'
Temperatures: Jan 89/70, Apr 95/76, Jul 88/75, Oct 88/74, record 104/57
Rainfall: Jan 2/0.6, Apr 4/1.7, Jul 23/12.4, Oct 20/10.6 == 77.8" per annum
References
Craven and Cate (1952; accessed 2011-4-1)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2011 by Kent G. Budge. Index
