Timeline

Lost Battalion and USS Houston survivors liberated after US drops nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Railway completed. American POWS were transported to POW labor camps in Thailand, or Singapore, or Japan.

Japanese “Speedo” period when the majority of railway building was conducted coincides with the relentless monsoon season.

Men transported by hellships to Changi prison in Singapore, then Burma (Thanbyuzyat via Moulmein) and Thailand (via Malaysia) to begin work on the Thai-Burma Railway

Dutch capitulate Javanese colony, U.S. Army unit taken prisoner; move to several camps before collection at Bicycle Camp in Batavia (May 1942).

Unit arrives at Soerabaja Java onboard the Dutch freighter MS Bloemfontein

Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, US declares war. USAT Republic diverted to Australia.

USAT Republic refuels at Pearl Harbor

Sail on the USAT Republic en route to PLUM assignment

‘Louisiana Maneuvers’ war games