The Thirteenth Field Artillery Battalion was attached to the 24th Division on Oahu in Hawaii. The 13th participated in the defense on the north shore between Haleiwa and Wahiawa during the Japanese invasion beginning December 7, 1941. Unfortunately, the 13th was delayed by bomb-cratered roads and then decimated by Japanese planes. First Lieutenant Fletch Armitage was among the battalion that survived the carnage and led the few surviving remnants of the 13th in defending Oahu until the American surrender in February 1942.