Talk:Lost Battalion (Pacific, World War II)

Relocated content
Content below has been relocated from the 36th Infantry Division (United States) page, which retains an extensive summary of the 2nd Battalion's role in World War II and a link to the main article here.

Whatever is not duplicated at this page should be integrated into it.

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The 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, long with the rest of the 36th Infantry Division, was mobilized for federal service on 20 November 1940. It was soon sent to Camp Bowie at Brownwood.

Earmarked as part of the reinforcements to U.S. Army troops in the Philippines, the battalion was detached from the 36th Infantry and sailed on the USS Republic (AP-33) on 21 November 1941. It arrived at Pearl Harbor on the 28th of the same month. After refueling in Hawaii, the ship sailed escorted by USS Pensacola (CA-24) in a convoy bound for the Philippines, later to be known as the Pensacola convoy, that was diverted at sea to Australia. The convoy's ships included the gunboat USS Niagara (PG-52); the U.S. Navy transports Republic and USS Chaumont; the U.S. Army transport ships USAT Willard A. Holbrook and USAT Meigs; the U.S. merchant ships SS Admiral Halstead (1921) and SS Coast Farmer; and the Dutch merchant ship MS Bloemfontein (1934).

On 6 December, the convoy crossed the Equator, and the next morning the unit was informed of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The battalion manned the Republic's four 3-inch guns and one 5-inch gun from this time until their arrival in Australia. After a short stop at Suva, Fiji Islands, the convoy sailed on to Brisbane, Australia, crossing the International Dateline (180th Meridian) on 13 December 1941.

The battalion was among the first American troops ever to land on Australian soil. The battalion spent Christmas 1941 in Brisbane, but before New Year's Day, it was again on the high seas, aboard the Dutch freighter Bloemfontein, bound for the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies, via Darwin, Australia, escorted part of the way by the cruiser USS Houston (CA-30), and escorted from Darwin by USS Boise (CL-47), flagship of Rear-Admiral Glassford, the light cruiser USS Marblehead (CL-12) and the destroyers USS Barker (DD-213), USS Parrott (DD-218), USS Bulmer (DD-222), USS Stewart (DD-224) and USS Pope (DD-225). It landed on Java on 11 January 1942 (35 days into the war). They were to be the only U.S. ground combat unit to reach the Dutch East Indies before the Dutch capitulated to the Japanese.

A few days after the battalion's arrival in Java, it moved to Singosari Airfield near Malang, Java to support the 19th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The 19th had escaped the Philippines on 29 December with a few B-17 bombers, pilots, co-pilots and whatever crew members that managed to get aboard as the planes took off while under attack. The 19th flew B-17s, B-24s, and LB-30s from Java against enemy airfields, shipping, and ground installations during the Japanese offensive against the Dutch East Indies during early 1942. Until this group withdrew to Australia on 2 March 1942, the battalion provided it with mechanics, ground crew, aerial gunners and a semblance of anti-aircraft weapons. Two men were killed on 3 February 1942 when they parachuted from one of the B-17s and were gunned down by Japanese fighters. 23 men of the battalion transferred to the 19th Bomb Group and were evacuated with them.

When the Japanese invaded Java, the battalion (less E Battery) used its artillery and .50 caliber machine guns (salvaged from wrecked B-17s) in support of an Australian "Pioneer Infantry" group which had arrived in Java just prior to the Japanese landing. They helped hold up the Japanese advance at Leuwilleng, near the Central Java City of Bandoeng.

Battery E remained on the eastern end of Java to guard the airfield at Malang and to support the Dutch troops in the Soerabaja area. Heavy ground action was experienced by Battery E prior to the surrender of the island by the Dutch to the invading Japanese, on 8 March 1942. The Japanese terms of surrender were unconditional and all troops were advised that any further resistance would be followed by instant reprisals against the civilian population, including women and children. Of the 558 men and officers who landed on Java on 11 January 1942, 534 became prisoners of war of the Japanese.

Within a few weeks, the Japanese had all of the American prisoners from the USS Houston and the 131st Field Artillery (less E Battery) together in the 10th Battalion Bicycle Camp, a former Dutch installation in Batavia (Jakarta), Java. Battery E remained in the Soerabaja area until moved to Nagasaki and other areas in Japan via Batavia and Singapore in November and December 1942. Thus, two units of the American armed forces, consisting of 902 men, seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth (and became one unit). As with crew members of the USS Houston, the U.S. government had no information on the fate of the battalion after the Dutch surrender, hence its nickname, "The Lost Battalion."

Of the 902 men taken prisoner, 668 were sent to Burma and Thailand to work as slave laborers on the Burma-Siam "Death Railway" of The Bridge on the River Kwai fame, building a railroad through the jungle. Of the total 163 men who died in prisoner of war camps, 133 died working on the railroad. The 235 men who didn't work on the Burma Railway were sent to the coal mines, docks and shipyards in Japan and other southeast Asian countries. Both groups of POWs suffered together through 42 months of humiliation, degradation, physical and mental torture, starvation and horrible tropical diseases, with no medication.

Quite a few of the men were killed by American submarines while en route to Singapore and Japan and more were killed by American bombers. Through the debrief of some survivors of the POW convoys who had been rescued by U.S. submarines, the U.S. government first found out that members of the battalion as well as of the crew of the USS Houston had survived.

When liberated, the men were scattered throughout locations in Southeast Asia: Java, Singapore, Burma, Thailand, French Indo China, Japan, China and Manchuria.

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Wikiuser100 (talk) 01:13, 24 March 2015 (UTC)