131ST FIELD ARTILLERY REGIMENT
TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WW2

visits since 12 December 2004

The 2nd battalion of the 131st Field Artillery Regiment was part of the Provisional Field Artillery Brigade that was ordered overseas to the Philippines as part of the Pensacola convoy in November 1941. The Brigade comprised:-

• 2nd Bn, 131st Field Artillery Regiment

• 1st Bn, 147th Field Artillery Regiment

• 2nd Bn, 147th Field Artillery Regiment

• 1st Bn, 148th Field Artillery Regiment

All four battalions were armed at the San Francisco wharves with the 75mm field gun, M1897A4 on the M2 carriage (essentially ye olde French 75 on a modern, split-trail field carriage), but after a few months in Australia, three of the battalions were re-armed with the new 105mm howitzer. 

They were diverted to Brisbane, Australia in late 1941 after the news of the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. They were one of the first US Units to land anywhere in Australia after Pearl Harbor. 

The 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery was then shipped to Java, to combat the soon-expected Japanese invasion, where it fought with the mostly Australian Blackforce which was built around a pioneer battalion and a machine gun battalion, with the addition of a British squadron of light tanks (3rd Hussars). The whole of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery was captured by the Japanese. In Texas, they became known as the "Lost Battalion".

The 1st Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment never made it to Australia and fought in north Africa, Italy and southern France. It was redesignated as 131st Field Artillery Battalion. The 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment was never redesignated.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Nelson Lawry for his assistance with this home page.

Heaps of WW2 books available at Amazon.com

"Australia @ War"

This page first produced 12 December 2004

This page last updated 15 December 2004