THE MEKONG DELTA

WAR NOTES
The area south of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City was known as IV Corps; major units included the South Vietnamese Army 7th, 9th, and 21st Divisions. US Forces included 9th Infantry Division, 164th Aviation Group, 34th Englineer Bridage, a number of US Special Forces camps, and the US Navy; a joint force of US Navy and Army units, known as the Mobile Riverine Force, conducted operations on the inland waterways.
Major threats in the Delta were Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army guerrilla units which launched attacks from the Plain of Reeds, the U Minh Forest, and the SEven Mountains areas. Special Forces camps were set up to block infiltration from Cambodia. After US withdrawal in 1969-70, these camps were transferred to South Vietnamese ranger units.
IV Corps was the last to fall in 1975; the NVA had concentrated on entering Saigon and had bypassed Can Tho, the largest city in the Delta. South Vietnamese pilots from the Delta attacked NVA tanks entering Saigon, destroying several. After Minh declared the surrender of all of South Vietnamese forces that day, many of the pilots flew to Thailand rather than surrender, and both the commander (Lt. Gen. Nyugen Khoa Nam) and his deputy (Maj. Gen. Le Van Hung) committed suicide rather than surrender.