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RS Vietnam Walkabout 2017 (I Corps)

PsychoPigeon

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Mar 11, 2006
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Last month (June) I visited Vietnam again, having been in 2015 for my own research trip, I really wanted to get back and see more. In 2015 I visited II, III, and IV Corps. This time I primarily stayed in I Corps to see a lot of the places I'd read about for years now and I was not let down. Out of all the areas of Vietnam I Corps probably retains most of the intact history from the French and Americans and hasn't been totally destroyed by expanding cities and towns. Highway 1 between Da Nang and Hue there are numerous French watchtowers and bunkers that were used to guard bridges and old French forts. You get a good idea of the French tactics against the Viet Minh - defend the roads and railway at all costs while the Viet Minh control the countryside. Unlike the Americans, the French didn't rely on Helicopters that much as it was still an early concept, roads were the primary method of transporting men and supplies and that's why there's a build up of towers and bunkers along the highways.


Before I set off for Da Nang from Saigon, I took a little trip out into the ANZAC area of operations for some reference gathering, to get a real sense of the landscape. One thing that kinda surprised me was how hilly this area was; it's not extreme but it's not completely flat either as I originally thought. History here is very hard to find, an occasional sandbag but the Nui Dat Base Camp has been entirely removed and there's houses and roads built over the old airstrip and barrack areas. I did wander out into the rubber plantation and my guide showed me where the old strip used to be and we dug a little into the ground and found the asphalt. It was called the Luscombe Airfield. The only substantial relic of the camp was the New Zealand communication bunker and a rock that the troops painted their insignia on.

Map of South Vietnam split into 4 Corps.
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III Corps







Spoiler!


I Corps








Warning: loads of photos
Spoiler!
 
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A few other pics I didn't post before:

French outpost on the way down from Hai Van Pass
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Destroyed French bridge before you drive up through Hai Van Pass, you can see concrete bunkers are half way out of the water:
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Last Flight building in Saigon, you can pay a security guard to go up but I felt he was going to rip me off so didn't go:
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Very interesting and useful set of reference photos!
I see you were at the Presidental palace too, so was wondering if maybe you took a photo that shows the little art thingy on the balconies of the presidential palace?
I can't seem to find a single photo of those balconies...( looking from front side there are 3 small and 3 bigger ones from the left and right side, brown colored, hope you know which I mean )
I've set up a different material in my models UV for them, but since I couldn't find what they look like I just placed some brown material there...would love to have the true art from the building.
 
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I didn't take too many pictures of the Palace I'm afraid, I was just trying to burn time before a flight and it wasn't on my radar as I never planned to make a map out of it. It didn't occur to me someone else would!

Some pictures of the Cua Viet area, very white sand in Vietnam. This is whereabouts Ron Kovic who wrote Born on the Fourth of July fought.

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Cua Viet ingame from a map I'm working on
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