Neil Beebe
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Neil D. Beebe
Mr. Beebe inducted into the Army on March 10, 1943, at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Home at entry: Hibbing, Minnesota.
He served as a Technician Fifth Grade. He helped organize the military railroad battalion; one of five in the 705th Grand Division. Received technical training in Van Buren, Arkansas, on the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
He served as a road foreman on engines and locomotives with Company C of the 748th RR Operating Battalion in India and Burma and the Coast Artillery.
Arrived in Hobart, Tasmania, on December 27. Sailed the next day for Bombay, India, and then by train to Tinsukia, Assam. The rail hauled freight, passengers, troops and ambulances. "We also developed the jeep line railroad for Burma after Merrill's Marauders chased the Japs out."
His story of the 748th RR Battalion's part in retaking of Mytkinia Airfield, Burma:
"Our battalion was at the end of the Bengal and Assam railroad at Tinsuki, Ledo and Lakapani, where the Ledo road began on its mountainous, winding way to Burma and Chunking, China. In 1944, the Japs had control of the airfield in Burma and controlled the railroad then. We hauled Merrill''s Marauders and the mules up to Lakeapani so they could advance down the Ledo road to Mytkinia airfield. After a tough fight, they took control of the Chindits airfield. Then the problem became ours as to how to operate the railroad. All the bridges and water towers were knocked out by U.S. and Japanese air forces.
"Sgts. Wayne Bannister, Neil Beebe and June Baldridge developed jeeps with pushcar wheels and a gravity feed sandbox on the front to provide added traction between wheels and rail. The engineers used bulldozers to slope the approaches of the bridges and ran the rails across on pontoons so the jeeps could handle four boxcars across and supply the troops while they kept pushing the Japs down to Rangoon on the southern tip of Burma. Wayne Bannister never got the credit for devising the means of locomotive power and all the trial and revising needed, for success."
He received the following: Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze star, World War II Victory Medal, and four overseas service bars.
Mr. Beebe was honorably discharged on November 30, 1945, at Fort Sheridan, Illinois.
Source: Hometown Heroes: The Saint Louis County World War II Project, page 34.
