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.
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-301, is the
"Most Decorated" vessel of it's class in the U. S. Fleet.
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