Ships
- USS Houston (CL-81) Captain from 20 December 1943 · Relieved on 30 July 1945
William Wohlsen Behrens had the light cruiser Houston (CL-81) from 20 December 1943 until 30 July 1945. He was in command when she was torpedoed twice off Formosa in October 1944, and he received the Navy Cross for that.
Uboat.net and an Arlington National Cemetery compilation both give his birth as 6 June 1898 at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The compilation names his parents as Henry Conrad Behrens and Anna Dorothy Wohlsen, and says he studied at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, and Franklin and Marshall College. It says he married Nellie Vasey on 22 October 1921.
The compilation says he was commissioned an ensign in the Naval Reserve in 1918 and transferred into the regular Navy. Uboat.net dates that transfer to July 1919 and lists him as ensign from 1 June 1919. The same compilation gives a long list of early ships and stations, including command of Submarine Chaser 26 in 1919–20 and command of the oiler Cimarron in 1939–40. Uboat.net agrees on Cimarron, from 20 March 1939 to 3 July 1940, and ranks him lieutenant commander then.
The Arlington compilation says he was executive officer of Concord from 1940 to 1942, including the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and that he then served in the Bureau of Naval Personnel before taking Houston. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships places Concord (CL-10) at San Diego, preparing for overhaul, on 7 December 1941, not in Pearl Harbor. That compilation is full of misspellings and is not used here for the morning of the attack. NavSource and uboat.net agree that he had Houston (CL-81) from 20 December 1943 to 30 July 1945. The Navy Cross citation, for 14 October 1944, calls the ship a heavy cruiser and still prints the hull CL-81. It says that when she was torpedoed, dead in the water, he supervised the evacuation of excess men, the damage control, and the tow, and that she was torpedoed again on 16 October. DANFS puts the evacuation of surplus hands on the afternoon of the 16th, with the second torpedo, and the request for a tow on the 14th.
Uboat.net ranks him commodore and then rear admiral, retired, on 1 July 1947. The Arlington compilation says he commanded the Naval Training Center at Bainbridge, Maryland, in 1945–48, then worked for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including as Secretary of Commerce, and retired to Harrisburg. Uboat.net gives his death as 27 January 1965. The compilation gives 27 June 1965 and burial in Section 2 at Arlington. Both dates are left standing. No death date is stored against his name until they can be reconciled.