Mobilization Site of Lost Battalion
Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Battery F, 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, 36th Division, Texas National Guard mobilized here November 1940, for active duty. Sailed from San Francisco, November 1941, was at sea when Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Went to defend Java where unit was captured March 1942. Prisoners in many parts of Asia for three and one-half years. Performed forced labor for Japanese, suffering untold hardships and starvation. 8 of original 63 died. Most deaths occurred building Burma-Siam Railway. Survivors returned after Japanese surrender. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In November 1940, Battery F of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery — a Texas National Guard unit — mobilized here for active duty. Shipped out from San Francisco in late 1941, the men were still at sea when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and they were sent to defend Java, where the unit was captured in March 1942. For three and a half years they endured captivity across Asia, forced into brutal labor, much of it on the Burma–Siam Railway, where most of the deaths occurred; the survivors came home only after Japan's surrender.
Why it matters
This is the mustering ground of the "Lost Battalion," whose men vanished into Japanese captivity for years of forced labor and starvation — a searing local link to the Pacific war and the horrors of the Burma–Siam Railway.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1940, the United States was not yet at war, but the world was heading toward it. Europe was already fighting, and Japan had been at war in China for years. Washington began to prepare, and in the fall of 1940 National Guard units across the country were called into federal service. That included the Texas Guard's 36th Division.
Jacksboro was a small North Texas county seat, and its local National Guard battery was made up of hometown men. Many were young, and many knew each other from school, church, and work. When they mobilized here in November 1940, few could have imagined where the next five years would take them.
By late 1941 the Pacific was a powder keg. American planners were rushing reinforcements toward the Philippines and other outposts. The men of Battery F were sent west as part of that buildup, and they were on the ocean when everything changed.
People & events
Battery F of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, mustered here in November 1940. A year later, in November 1941, the unit sailed from San Francisco. They were still at sea on December 7, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Their convoy was rerouted, and the battalion was eventually sent to help defend Java, in what was then the Netherlands East Indies, against the advancing Japanese.
The defense of Java collapsed quickly, and in March 1942 the unit was captured. So began three and a half years of captivity. The men were moved to prison camps in many parts of Asia and forced to labor for their captors. They suffered starvation, disease, and brutal treatment. Many were put to work building the Burma–Siam Railway, the notorious "Death Railway" that cost the lives of huge numbers of Allied prisoners and Asian laborers.
Back home, families went for long stretches without knowing whether their sons and husbands were alive. That silence is why the 2nd Battalion became known as the "Lost Battalion." Of Battery F's original 63 men, 8 died in captivity, most of them on the railway. The survivors came home only after Japan surrendered in 1945, carrying memories that no marker can fully express.
Its place in the American story
The Lost Battalion's story is one of the most harrowing Texan chapters of World War II. It is a reminder that the war's early months in the Pacific were a string of Allied defeats. The men who were caught in that collapse paid for it with years of their lives.
The Burma–Siam Railway has become a worldwide symbol of the cruelty of wartime forced labor. It was built through jungle and mountains under brutal conditions, and the number of deaths along its route was enormous. Through this marker, a small courthouse town in North Texas is tied directly to that history.
The story also shows how the National Guard connected ordinary communities to global events. A unit raised from neighbors in Jacksboro ended up on the other side of the world. When war came, whole towns felt the loss and the waiting together. The survivors' endurance, and the courage of those who didn't return, belong to the larger American story of sacrifice in the Second World War.
If you visit
This is a place for quiet reflection. Stand here and try to picture the fall of 1940: young men from Jack County gathering, families saying goodbye, everyone expecting a year or so of training. Nobody could have foreseen Java, prison camps, or a railway through the jungle. That gap between expectation and reality is the heart of this marker.
Jacksboro is a small, historic North Texas town, and the landscape around it is open ranch country. Take your time. A marker like this often rewards a pause far more than a quick photo.
If you're following World War II history across Texas, this site is a meaningful stop. It also fits a broader North Texas road trip through the region's county seats and frontier-era sites. However you arrive, it's worth remembering the 63 men who mustered here and the eight who never came home.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related events
- · Attack on Pearl Harbor
- · Fall of Java (1942)
- · Burma–Siam Railway
Themes & tags
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