Landing at Saidor - Air Operations

Air Operations

Saidor was soon in use by the Fifth Air Force. Its base at Nadzab was surrounded by mountains and was therefore unsuited for missions that had to take off after dark, but there was no such problem at Saidor. During March, B-24 Liberator bombers staged through Saidor for night attacks on Hollandia. A raid on Hollandia on 16 April 1944 encountered a weather front that closed Nadzab and the other fields in the Markham Valley. More than 30 aircraft made their way to Saidor. An F-5 Lightning and a B-25 Mitchell collided on the runway, and two aircraft cracked up on landing, but the other aircraft that made it to Saidor eventually returned to their bases.

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