Virgil Bill Bevel, Jr
1920-1997
Virgil Bill Bevel, Jr was born May 3, 1920 in Fort Smith, Sebastian Co., Ar. to
Virgil Barney & Edna Futh Silvey Bevel.
Virgil, Jr enlisted in the US Navy Jan, 7, 1938 in Little Rock, Arkansas.
He served aboard the USS Lexington until June 13, 1940.
He had the rank of Coxswain.
June 13, 1940 he was received on board the USS Houston. December 31, 1940
he is still serving on the Houston and was until the events mentioned below....
From Howard Barnes
Warrant Officer Virgil Bill Bevel Jr., USN was an exceptional officer
and an incredibly interesting man. Bill entered the Navy as an enlisted man
months before the war.
A Japanese submarine sank his cruiser, the USS Houston (CA-30). For two days
and nights he floated helplessly off Indonesia. The surf eventually washed
him near the beach to a point he could put his feet on the sand, but suffering
from dehydration he did not have strength to walk ashore and the tide pulled him out to sea.
The following day he was picked up by a Japanese patrol boat and taken prisoner.
He served in a prison camp for months before being shipped to Thailand, where
he worked on the Burma-Thailand Railway, made famous in the movie Bridge on the
River Kwai. Near the end of the war Bevel was taken to Japan on a transport ship,
which was ironi-cally bombed by American planes. His destination in Japan was
Nagasaki, soon to be the second target of an atomic bomb. In Nagasaki he was
detained in the railroad jail within yards of the coming ground zero bombing.
A week before the nuclear attack he was removed to work in a coal mine miles
from the city where he was a slave laborer until the end of the war.
Below is the story of the last day for the USS Houston from Wikipedia.
Battle of Sunda Strait
........USS Houston and Perth reached Tanjong Priok on 28 February 1942,
where they attempted to resupply, but were met with fuel shortages and no
available ammunition. The two cruisers were ordered to sail to Tjilatjap with
Dutch destroyer Evertsen, but departed at 17:00 without Evertsen, which was
delayed. The Allies believed that Sunda Strait was free of enemy vessels,
with the last intelligence reports indicating that Japanese warships were
no closer than 50 miles (43 nmi; 80 km), but a large Japanese force had
assembled at Bantam Bay. At 23:06, the two cruisers were off St. Nicholas
Point when lookouts on Perth sighted an unidentified ship; when it was
realized that she was a Japanese destroyer, Perth engaged. However, as
this happened, multiple Japanese warships appeared and surrounded the two
Allied ships.
The two cruisers evaded the nine torpedoes launched by the destroyer Fubuki.
According to ABDA post-battle reports, the cruisers then reportedly sank one
transport and forced three others to beach, but were blocked from passing
through Sunda Strait by a destroyer squadron, and had to contend with the
heavy cruisers Mogami and Mikuma in close proximity. At midnight, Perth
attempted to force a way through the destroyers, but was hit by four torpedoes
in the space of a few minutes, then subject to close-range gunfire until sinking
at 00:25 on 1 March.
On board Houston, shells were in short supply in the forward turrets,
so the crew manhandled shells from the disabled number three turret to the
forward turrets. Houston was struck by a torpedo shortly after midnight,
and began to lose headway. Houston's gunners had scored hits on three
different destroyers and sunk a minesweeper, but she was struck by three
more torpedoes in quick succession. Captain Albert Rooks was killed by a
bursting shell at 00:30, and as the ship came to a stop, Japanese destroyers
moved in, machine-gunning the decks and men in the water. A few minutes later,
Houston rolled over and sank. Of the 1,061 aboard, 368 survived,
including 24 of the 74-man Marine Detachment, only to be captured by the
Japanese and interned in prison camps. Of 368 Navy and Marine Corps personnel
taken prisoner, 77 (21%) died in captivity.
After being a POW, when he was released he stayed with the US Navy and also
served in the Korean War. After serving with the US Navy for 20 years he retired on the
31 Mar 1958
World War II Prisoners of War Data File, 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946
| SERIAL NUMBER |
3466907 |
| NAME |
Bevel, Virgil B, Jr |
| GRADE |
Coxswain |
| ARM or SERVICE |
US Navy |
| DATE REPORT |
February 28, 1942 |
| STATE OF RESIDENCE |
Arkansas |
| AREA |
SW Pacific Theatre: Philippine Islands |
| LATEST REPORT |
Oct 15, 1945 |
| SOURCE OF REPORT |
Individual has been reported through sources considered official. |
| STATUS |
Returned to Military Control, Liberated or Repatriated |
| DETAINING POWER |
JAPAN |
| CAMP |
Fukuoka POW Camp #1 - Kashii (Pine Tree Camp) Kyushu Island 33-130 |
World War II Prisoners of the Japanese File, 2007 Update, ca. 1941 - ca. 1945
| NAME |
Bevel, Virgil Bill Jr |
| RANK |
Coxswain |
| SERVICE NUMBER |
3466907 |
| SOURCE |
USS Houston roster - http://www.usshouston.org/ |
| ASSIGNED UNIT |
USS Houston (CA-30) |
| PARENT Unit |
Asiatic Fleet |
| PARENT UNIT |
|
|
|
| |
