The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the The Lost Battalion Association (1942-1945) - Jan. 13th, 2005

www.kwanah.com ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

.................................................................. .................... ...........................................

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2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery
and
USS Houston (CA-30) Survivors

This Organization is composed of the men of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery and those men who swam ashore from the Cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) when it was sunk, and who survived 42 months of "hell" as prisoners of the Japanese during World War II.

The 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, 36th Division (Texas National Guard), was mobilized in November 1940. One year later, this one Battalion was detached from the Division and sent to Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, to become part of a contingent of troops, who were all in route to a destination with the code name "PLUM." It was generally conjectured that the Philippine Islands was where the Battalion would finally be stationed.

In the photograph are some of the young men of Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery. Photograph was taken during late 1939. Kyle Thompson, author of A Thousand Cups of Rice: Surviving the Death Railway, stands in the second row at the far right.

The Unit sailed from the United States on November 21, 1941 aboard the Army Transport Ship, USS Republic, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on the 28th of the same month. A day or two prior to reaching Hawaii, it was announced that we were under a "black-out" and "radio silence" and that an attack by the Japanese was expected at any time. After refueling in Hawaii, the ship, accompanied by several other troopships, including the Chaumont, Hallmark, Holbrook, Admiral Halstead, Bloemfontein, Farmer and Gregg, a Corvette and the Cruiser USS Pensacola sailed south, rather than west, as we had expected. Little did we realize that within a week Pearl Harbor would be attacked by the Japanese!



On December 6, the convoy crossed the Equator, and the next morning the Unit was informed of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The USS Republic had been in dry-dock just prior to the Battalion"s boarding and had four 3-inch guns and one 5-inch gun (on the "fan-tail") mounted on her. The Battalion manned these guns from this time until their arrival in Australia.

The convoy made a short stop at Suva, Fiji Islands and then sailed on to Brisbane, Australia, crossing the International Dateline (180th Meridian) on December 13, 1941. This Unit 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 Netherland East Indies, via Darwin, Australia. Coincindentally, the escort vessel for part of the journey, was the Cruiser USS Houston.



On January 11, 1942, 35 days after the outbreak of War with Japan, the Battalion was on Java, the only U. S. ground combat Unit to reach the Netherland East Indies, before the Dutch capitulated to the Japanese.

A new heavy Cruiser (CA-30), was launched from Newport News, Virginia, on September 7, 1929. That she was christened, USS HOUSTON, came about largely through the efforts of William A. Burnrieder, an assistant to the Mayor of Houston, as well as many other citizens of Houston, including many hundreds of school children, who all wrote letters petitioning the Secretary of the Navy to name the ship for their City. From 1934 to 1939 she was frequently used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to take vacation cruises. During the four vacations taken aboard the USS Houston, more than 35,000 miles were traveled.

In 1940, she was in the Philippine Islands, serving as the "Flagship" of the Asiatic Fleet. On November 27, 1941, Admiral Hart, CIC of the Asiatic Fleet, had received a warning from the U. S. Navy Department that an attack on the fleet, by the Japanese, could be expected at any time. Admiral Hart immediately ordered the USS Houston to stop repairs that were underway and move from the Cavite Navy Yard (across the bay from Manila) to the Port of Ilo Ilo, on the Island of Panay, where she arrived on the 4th of December, four full days prior to the first air attacks on the City of Manila and the complete destruction of the Cavite Naval Installation.



At Ilo Ilo, the USS Houston fueled, victualed and made ready for action which was felt to be imminent by those in Command. The ship left Ilo Ilo at 6:30 PM on Pearl Harbor day, just before a Japanese bomber attack on that Port. That same evening, the USS Houston was joined by the light cruiser, USS Boise, and on the following day by destroyers USS Stewart and USS Edwards, the seaplane tender, USS Langley and the fleet oilers, USS Pecos and USS Trinity. The convoy, thus formed, turned south and steamed toward Borneo.

The convoy arrived at Balikpapan on the 15th of December. The next day, the USS Houston was ordered to leave the convoy and proceed directly to Soerabaja, Java to prepare for convoy escort duty. The next month was spent doing convoy escort duty between the Netherlands East Indies and Australia. The ship had also become part of an allied fleet operating out of Java.

On the 4th of February 1942, while searching for a Japanese force, consisting of three cruisers and 20 transports, they were attacked by 54 Japanese bombers. A direct hit knocked out the 8 inch gun turret, blew a 12 foot diameter hole in the main deck, killed 48 men and wounded 20 others.


Primary Camps confining Lost Battalion prisoners of war

Although the vessel had lost one-third of it's major firepower, it participated next in the "Battle of the Java Sea", where 12 Allied ships were lost. These were, Dutch: light cruisers, Java & De Ruyter, destroyers Kortenaer and Witte de With; British, heavy cruiser HMS Exeter, (of Graf Spre fame) destroyers, HMS Jupiter, HMS Encounter and HMS Electra, American destroyers USS John C. Ford, USS Alden, USS Paul Jones and USS John D. Edwards. The only vessels to survive the "Battle of the Java Sea" were the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth and the USS Houston.

On the night following the Java Sea Battle, these two ships attempted to sail to the south end of Java via the Sunda Strait, which Dutch Intelligence Officers reported to be free of enemy ships. The intelligence report was wrong!

A Japanese fleet, consisting of an aircraft carrier, five cruisers, 11 destroyers and several PT boats was in the Strait, covering the landing of Jap troops from 40 transports. When the HMAS Perth and the USS Houston reached the strait late that night (February 28, 1942) they found themselves surrounded by enemy ships. After putting up a tremendous battle, first the HMAS Perth and then the USS Houston were sent to the bottom.



Only 368 of the total complement of 1011 men of the USS Houston managed to reach shore. The remaining 643 shipmates, including their skipper, Captain Rooks, went down with the ship. Within a few days, all the survivors became prisoners of the Japanese.

Thanks to FReeper Colt45 for suggesting this Thread

[SAMWolf]

The 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery had been playing a lonely and hopeless role. A few days after their arrival in Java, the 19th Bombardment Group of the U. S. Army Air Corps, arrived under the Command of Col. (now Maj. General, USAF-Ret) Eubank. They had escaped the Philippines with a few B-170 bombers, pilots, co-pilots and whatever Crew members that managed to get aboard as the planes took off while under attack. Until this group evacuated to Australia on March 2, 1942, the 131st F. A. provided it with mechanics, ground crew, aerial gunners and a semblance of anti-aircraft weapons. Twenty-three men of the 131st F. A. transferred to the 19th Bomb Group and were evacuated with them. Two men were killed when they parachuted and were gunned down by Japanese fighters, from one of the B-17s on February 3, 1942.


"The theater on the middle parade grounds in the Allied POW camp at Tamarkan, which was near the north bank of the Kwae Noi River. Note the prisoner on stage dressed only in a g-string cloth, common apparel after nearly three years as prisoners of the Japanese Army. - AWM negative #157871"

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. With what the Aussies called "top-hole" artillery fire, 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 March 8, 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 January 11, 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 F. A. (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), sacrificed in a clearly hopeless effort to save the Netherland East Indies from overwhelming numbers of the enemy. Now began an unbelievable string of events which, for some, would last three and one-half years and was to weld the "Phantoms" of the USS Houston (CA-30) and the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery together in a Bond closer than blood. This Army and Navy group of POWs suffered together through 42 months of humiliation, degradation, physical and mental torture, starvation and horrible tropical diseases, with no medication. The hardest part was watching friends die slowly, day by day, with the survivors often thinking, fleetingly, that maybe they were the "lucky ones."



One of the toughest pills to swallow was not being able to communicate with families and loved ones at home. Sharing all this mental and physical anguish together built a special relationship among the survivors and each man knows how the other will react in almost any "chips-down" situation and most are pleased at what they have learned about their fellow survivors. Moving by ship from Java to Singapore and thence to Burma, Thailand or Japan, the men were packed like cattle in the lower holds, taking turns sitting, squatting, standing or laying down while suffering from sea sickness, dysentery, malaria or other tropical diseases, while standing in their own, or their neighbor's filth, because it was impossible, or not permitted to get to the ship side latrine on the main deck. Then, the men worked in the steaming jungles and the "monsoon" seasons of Burma chopping down jungle trees, hand building road beds and bridges and laying ties and rails with primitive tools in construction of the now infamous "Burma-Siam Death Railway". Some of the men were mining coal and/or working on the docks in Japan while living in sub-standard housing, without any heat or sufficient cover during two Japanese winters, where real starvation was a daily companion. Of the 902 men taken Prisoner, 668 were sent to Burma and Thailand and worked on the "Death Railway" (of Bridge on the River Kwaii fame). Of the total 163 men who died in Prisoner of War Camps, 133 died working on the railroad. After completion of the railroad, 236 of the men were disbursed to Japan and other Southeast Asian Countries to work in coal mines, shipyards, docks, etc. and a few remained at "Bicycle Camp" in Java.



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

The wives of some of the men of the 2nd Battalion 131st F. A. arranged to have a "Welcome Home" celebration in Wichita Falls, Texas on October 23, 1945. The idea "snow-balled" and all survivors that had returned to the U. S. (and could be located) were invited to attend. Such a good time was had at this Reunion, that it was decided to meet every year, on the weekend nearest August 15th. The first Reunion was designed to Honor the 2nd Battalion, 131st F. A. survivors, who had been nicknamed "TEXAS LOST BATTALION," by the news media of Texas, since that Battalion had disappeared when the Island of Java had surrendered. No one knew where they were, apparently including the War Department and nothing was heard from them for about three years. Of course, the people who arranged for the first reunion, did not know of the existence of the LISS Houston prisoners, but the oversight was put to right by Battalion personnel, who invited some of their "buddies" to the first Reunion and made them permanent members of the "Lost Battalion Association" at the next reunion and the Survivors of the USS Houston (CA-30) voted to become a part of the Association.

So, each year since 1945, the survivors of the POW "hell" along with their families, meet in August to keep their Bond of Brotherhood inviolate and to remember and pay honor to the 163 who died in Prison Camps and the 504 who have died since liberation and the 646 who died in action, in a futile effort to save Java. As of July 1, 1998, there were 236 of the men of the Lost Battalion Association left alive.

It may be of interest that, (1) the 2nd Battalion, 131st F. A., 36th Infantry Division (TNG) is the "Most Decorated Unit" in Texas of any War and (2) the Heavy Cruiser USS Houston (CA-30), is the "Most Decorated" vessel of it's class in the U. S. Fleet.

[SAMWolf]

SPEECH DELIVERED BY LT. COL. Y NAGATOMO TO ALLIED PRISONERS OF WAR AT THANBYUZAYAT, BURMA, ON 28 OCTOBER 1942

It is a great pleasure to me to see you at this place as I am appointed Chief of the war prisoners camp obedient to the Imperial Command issued by His Majesty the Emperor. The great East Asiatic war has broken out due to the rising of the East Asiatic Nations whose hearts were burnt with the desire to live and preserve their nations on account of the intrusion of the British and Americans for the past many years.



There is, therefore, no other reason for Japan to drive out the Anti-Asiatic powers of the arrogant and insolent British and Americans from East Asia in co-operation with our neighbors of China and other East Asiatic Nations and establish the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere for the benefit of all human beings and establish lasting great peace in the world. During the past few centuries, Nippon has made great sacrifices and extreme endeavors to become the leader of the East Asiatic Nations, who were mercilessly and pitifully treated by the outside forces of the British and Americans, and the Nippon Army, without disgracing anybody, has been doing her best until now for fostering Nippon's real power.



You are only a few remaining skeletons after the invasion of East Asia for the past few centuries, and are pitiful victims. It is not your fault, but until your governments do not [sic] wake up from their dreams and discontinue their resistance, all of you will not be released. However, I shall not treat you badly for the sake of humanity as you have no fighting power left at all.


A typical prisoner of war camp in Burma and Thailand on the Death Railway. This picture is of a camp in the Burma jungles and shows Allied POWS in various states of "jungle dress" outside their bamboo and grass barracks. -AWM negative #157870"

His Majesty the Emperor has been deeply anxious about all prisoners of war, and has ordered us to enable the operating of War Prisoner camps at almost all the places in the SW [southwest] countries.



The Imperial Thoughts are unestimable and the Imperial Favors are infinite and, as such, you should weep with gratitude at the greatness of them. I shall correct or mend the misleading and improper Anti Japanese ideas. I shall meet with you hereafter and at the beginning I shall require of you the four following points:



(1) 1 heard that you complain about the insufficiency of various items. Although there may be lack of materials it is difficult to meet your requirements. Just turn your eyes to the present conditions of the world. It is entirely different from the pre-war times. In all lands and countries materials are considerably short and it is not easy to obtain even a small piece of cigarette and the present position is such that it is not possible even for needy women and children to get sufficient food. Needless to say, therefore, at such inconvenient places even our respectable Imperial Army is also not able to get mosquito nets, foodstuffs, medicines and cigarettes. As conditions are such, how can you expect me to treat you better than the Imperial Army? I do not prosecute according to my own wishes and it is not due to the expense but due to the shortage of materials at such difficult places. In spite of our wishes to meet their requirements, I cannot do so with money. I shall supply you, however, if I can do so with my best efforts and I hope you will rely upon me and render your wishes before me. We will build the railroad if we have to built [sic] it over the white man's body. It gives me great pleasure to have a fast-moving defeated nation in my power. You are merely rubble but I will not feel bad because it is [the fault of] your rulers. If you want anything you will have to come through me for same and there will be many of you who will not see your homes again. Work cheerfully at my command.



(2) I shall strictly manage all of your going out, coming back, meeting with friends, communications. Possessions of money shall be limited, living manners, deportment, salutation, and attitude shall be strictly according to the rules of the Nippon Army, because it is only possible to manage you all, who are merely rabble, by the order of military regulations. By this time I shall issue separate pamphlets of house rules of War prisoners and you are required to act strictly in accordance with these rules and you shall not infringe on them by any means.



(3) My biggest requirement from you is escape. The rules of escape shall naturally be severe. This rule may be quite useless and only binding to some of the war prisoners, but it is most important for all of you in the management of the camp. You should, therefore, be contented accordingly. If there is a man here who has at least 1% of a chance of escape, we shall make him face the extreme penalty. If there is one foolish man who is trying to escape, he shall see big jungles toward the East which are impossible for communication. Towards the West he shall see boundless ocean and, above all, in the main points of the North, South, our Nippon Armies are guarding. You will easily understand the difficulty of complete escape. A few such cases of ill-omened matters which happened in Singapore [execution of over a thousand Chinese civilians] shall prove the above and you should not repeat such foolish things although it is a lost chance after great embarrassment.



(4) Hereafter, I shall require all of you to work as nobody is permitted to do nothing and eat at the present. In addition, the Imperial Japanese have great work to promote at the places newly occupied by them, and this is an essential and important matter. At the time of such shortness of materials your lives are preserved by the military, and all of you must award them with your labor. By the hand of the Nippon Army Railway Construction Corps to connect Thailand and Burma, the work has started to the great interest of the world. There are deep jungles where no man ever came to clear them by cutting the trees. There are also countless difficulties and suffering, but you shall have the honor to join in this great work which was never done before, and you shall also do your best effort. I shall investigate and check carefully about your coming back, attendance so that all of you except those who are unable to work shall be taken out for labor. At the same time I shall expect all of you to work earnestly and confidently henceforth you shall be guided by this motto.

Y. Nagatomo Lieutenant Colonel
Nippon Expeditionary Force
Chief No. 3 Branch Thailand POW Administration

Additional Sources:

www.fepow-community.org.uk
www.usmm.org
www.hellfirepass.co
www.spruso.com
www.history.navy.mil
www.nzetc.org

[SAMWolf]

KYLE THOMPSON'S ACCOUNT OF LT. COL. NAGATOMO'S SPEECH TO ALLIED PRISONERS OF WAR.

From "A Thousand Cups of Rice: Building the Death Railway"
Kyle Thompson © 1994



Our stay at Thanbyuzayat was not a long one, but several memorable events keep this, our first camp on the railroad, etched in my mind. Shortly after debarking from the train, we marched into camp. Leaving our gear in our assigned spaces, we assembled on the adjacent, dusty parade ground. Lieutenant Colonel Nagatomo, Japanese commander of Branches Three and Five work forces, strutted, samurai sword at his side, to a platform in a preview of things to come. After uttering a series of glowing praises for the Emperor, Nagatomo, in his high-pitched, sing-song voice, addressed the prisoners before him:



You are only a few remaining skeletons after the invasion of East Asia [by the Western civilizations] for the past few centuries, and are pitiful victims. It is not your fault, but until your governments wake up from their dreams and discontinue their resistance, all of you will not be released. However, I shall not treat you badly for the sake of humanity as you have no fighting power left at all.

His voice rose shrilly as he praised the "inestimable thoughts and infinite favors of His Imperial Majesty," telling us we should "weep with gratitude at the greatness of them." Then, stating his desire to correct our "misleading and improper anti Japanese ideas," he declared:



We will build the railroad if we have to build it over the white man's body. It gives me great pleasure to have a fast-moving defeated nation in my power. You are merely rubble but I will not feel bad because it is [the fault of ] your rulers. If you want anything, you will have to come through me . . . and there will be many of you who will not see your homes again. Work cheerfully at my command.

Then, after warning that any attempt to escape would be met with execution, the pint-sized colonel told us what an honor it was to be involved in the important task of linking Thailand and Burma by a rail line. He concluded by ordering us to work earnestly and confidently, swaggered to his nearby automobile and was driven away in a cloud of dust.



We stood on the hot, dry parade ground, silent and stunned by the words of this enemy officer. He had hurled a series of orders and threats at us, none designed to assure our well-being. His speech had rambled and carried some inconsistencies, but many of his threats proved prophetic.

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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[Diver Dave]

Thanks for the presentation of The Lost Battalion Association, SAM.

Totally unreal what these men endured and sacrificed.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks DD.

The sad part is that so little is known about it.

[snippy_about_it]

"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Thursday Morning Everyone.



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[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[GailA]

Good morning, woke up to a steady rain beating on the trailer roof.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Snippy.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.

[SAMWolf]

Morning GailA.

Nice looking knick-knack. :-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C.

Snippy and I get to leave rain and a high of the 40's to go to rain and a low of the 40's.

[E.G.C.]

Well, we had a severe t-storm move to our North. Didn't do much here thankfully. They had some flooding in the Dallas texas area. It's all cleared out and we're in the lower 30's.

Our Norton anti-virus detected something called "Trojan Helper" yesterday. We called Dell tech support. The person on the line insturcted me to remove the file which I did and everything went smoothly from there. It took 15 minutes before I finally got him. He e-mailed me with his number and e-mail address in case we had any more problems.

How's it going, Snippy?

[Tax-chick]

Good morning ... we watched "Bridge on the River Kwai" the other night. Those guys were way too healthy!

[alfa6]

Thursday Morning Bump for the Freeper Foxhole.

A good book on the Thailand prison camps is called "Through the alley of the Kwai" by Ernest Gordon. It is still in print if I read the Amazon link correctly. Link is to long to fit the window so I won't post it.

I read this book back when I was a kid in High School, ah those were the days. A very sobering book, the POWs that were captured by the Germans lived the life of Kings in comparison to the prisoners of the Japanese.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Darksheare]

Morning.

[The Mayor]

January 13, 2005

Raku

Read: James 1:2-4

Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. —Romans 12:12

Bible In One Year: Genesis 40-42

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Some friends gave us a piece of Raku pottery. "Each pot is hand-formed," the tag explained, "a process that allows the spirit of the artist to speak through the finished work with particular directness and intimacy."

Once the clay has been shaped by the potter it is fired in a kiln. Then, glowing red hot, it is thrust into a smoldering sawdust pile where it remains until finished. The result is a unique product—"one of a kind," the tag on our piece insists.

So it is with us. We bear the imprint of the Potter's hand. He too has spoken through His work "with particular directness and intimacy." Each of us is formed in a unique way for a unique work: "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).

But though we are created for good works, we're not yet finished. We must experience the kiln of affliction. Aching hearts, weary spirits, aging bodies are the processes God uses to finish the work He has begun.

Don't fear the furnace that surrounds you. Be "patient in tribulation" and await the finished product. "Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (James 1:4). —David Roper

We are here to be perfected,
Only God our needs can see;
Rarest gems bear hardest grinding,
God's own workmanship are we. —Anon.

He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. —Philippians 1:6

[alfa6]

"Through the alley of the Kwai" = Through the Valley of the Kwai"

Shheesh more coffee pleaseeee

Regards

alfa6 ;>}