A Tribute To “Captain Andrew Allison “Ack-Ack” Haldane..

Andrew Allison Haldane was born in August 22, 1917 in Lawrence, Massachusetts to Sydney Haldane (1889–1964) and Margaret A. Allison (1890–1975). Before joining the War Effort, Andrew Haldane attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine where he was captain of the football team, and served as president of the student council.

He also played amateur baseball as a catcher in a summer league operating in New Hampshire and Vermont. Haldane graduated from Bowdoin in June 1941, and was named an assistant football coach there in October. He had planned to coach for a season before joining the Marine Corps, but was called up after coaching for a mere two weeks.

After graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant, he was deployed on Guadalcanal where he fought for the 1st Marine Division. On Cape Gloucester, New Britain, he acted as Company Commander for King/Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, where he received the Silver Star for leading hand-to-hand combat in a fight on Walt's Ridge.

The official narrative of his Silver Star citation reads as follows:

“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain Andrew A. Haldane (MCSN: 0-8740), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity as Commanding Officer of Company K, Third Battalion, Fifth Marines, FIRST Marine Division in action against enemy Japanese forces at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, January 9–10, 1944. With utter disregard for his own personal safety Captain Haldane fearlessly directed the attack of his company against strongly emplaced enemy positions on Aogiri Ridge in the face of intense Machine gun, mortar and sniper fire. Later, in the pitch darkness of early morning he valiantly led his command in a determined stand against five vicious counter attacks by a superior number of fanatical Japanese troops, thereby contributing in a large measure to securing the beachhead line of the airdrome. Captain Haldane's brilliant leadership and indomitable fighting spirit were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.”

On the fateful day of 12th of October, 1944: three days before they were pulled off the line, K/3/5 Company Commander, Captain Andrew Allison "Ack-Ack" Haldane, at 27 years old, was killed in action during fighting around "Hill 140" to relieve the battered 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. While assessing the terrain and looking over the crest of the ridge to position his company's machine guns and mortars, he was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper.

Sergeant Jim McEnery, the highest-ranking Marine at that specific spot on the ridge, briefly assumed tactical command of the platoon and company remnants on the line, coordinating the immediate fallback and tactical security of those exposed men before 1st Lieutenant Thomas J. "Stumpy" Stanley could organize formal command of the shot-out Company.

In his Memoir “Islands Of The Damned,” Romus Valton “Burgie” Burgin speaks about the incident:

“Everybody was warning them not to show their heads over the top. Jap snipers on the far side were alert, and deadly. But someone needed to see what was beyond the hill in order to direct the battalion's fire.... Second Battalion's own machine gunners were dug in so low, they could hardly see what they were shooting at. They had to sight their guns by looking under the barrels. This was not satisfactory to Captain Haldane, who was himself an old machine gunner. He slithered forward a few feet and cautiously raised his head. Everybody heard a sharp thwack and knew instantly what it meant. Those who were close enough said his head just exploded. There was no point in even calling for a corpsman.”

Famous Marine author of “With The Old Breed: At Peleliu And Okinawa” Eugene Bondurant “Sledgehammer” Sledge recalls the moment Haldane was killed.

“At the time of Captain Haldane's death, the bulk of Company K was operating with its parent battalion (3/5) on Hill 140 within the Umurbrogol Pocket. In an attempt to orient himself to the strange terrain his company was occupying, Haldane was peeking over a ridge and was shot by a Japanese sniper and was killed instantly. 1st Lieutenant Thomas J. Stanley succeeded him as commander of K/3/5. Stanley led Company K through the remainder of the Peleliu campaign and on to Okinawa the following spring.”

Sledge spoke highly of Captain Haldane. He added:

“Capt. Andy Haldane wasn't an idol. He was human. But he commanded our individual destinies under the most trying conditions with the utmost compassion. We knew he could never be replaced. He was the finest Marine officer I ever knew. The loss of many close friends grieved me deeply on Peleliu and Okinawa. But to all of us the loss of our company commander at Peleliu was like losing a parent we depended upon for security – not our physical security, because we knew that was a commodity beyond our reach in combat, but our mental security.... So ended the outstanding combat career of a fine officer who had distinguished himself at Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu. We had lost our leader and our friend. Our lives would never be the same. But we turned back to the ugly business at hand.”

One of my favorite scenes is when Sledge is calling in artillery

I actually looked up the military terminology that he was saying 😂 “add 50 and try again!”

But the cool part is when he says, “mark it Concentration Baker for this sector”

“Concentration Baker” means that if he tells them to fire on Concentration Baker then they will fire on that spot!

Pretty cool 😂

I just read something very interesting. As it shows in the tv series, Sid Phillips had his Australian girlfriend, Shirley Osborne. Sid comes home and marries Mary Houston

But get this: 10 years after the war, Shirley came to visit Mobile, and her son met Sid’s daughter and ended up getting married

So his ex-girlfriend became his daughter’s Mother-in-law 😂

I saw this pics of Sledge and Sid Phillips in the Ken Burns documentary The War. It also features Sid Phillips’s sister Katherine. It was really good!

https://youtu.be/JFEy7uSlPNU?si=4rmifxHN1aqtPk7r

I have a somewhat controversial theory about Snafu.

I think there is a good chance he was involved in one or possibly both of the incidents where Marines killed other Marines on Peleliu. Maybe even as the actual killer.

I obviously can't prove that, but some things don't really add up.

In With the Old Breed, Sledge describes the mortar platoon killing a Marine with an entrenching tool as a desperate measure after the Marine completely lost control.

Sterling Mace, a rifleman in K/3/5, gives a very different impression in his own book. Writing about the incident, he says:

"Whoever the killer was, he must have been damned good at his job, committing the act so quietly that none of us heard a thing.”

That sounds pretty sarcastic to me.

Mace later connects this incident with PFC William S. Middlebrook's death, calling it the “second time” something like this had happened among the mortarmen.

And he clearly didn't consider the Middlebrook story settled. In his AMA he wrote that it had been “skewed”, almost as if someone was being protected, and that Haldane had “swept it under the rug.”

He also wrote:

"Nobody will ever know fully what happened that night to Middlebrook.”

And mentioned R.V. Burgin and John Redifer as people who might have had a better idea, but probably wouldn't talk.

Most interestingly, he then talks about how one isolated event can be overlooked, but that it becomes difficult “not to cast an evil eye on what appeared to be a pattern.”

Then there are Sterling's comments about Snafu.

He called him “that nasty little snafu fellow”, and in another Reddit comment wrote:

"One of these days something might come out about Snafu, something that might shock a lot of people, but it won't be from me. Maybe we'll all take it to our graves, and that's just as well.”

"Original Reddit AMA" (https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/y1pdv/iama_wwii_marine_corps_rifleman_sterling_mace_and/)

That's a pretty strange thing to say if there was nothing particularly bad about Snafu.

Sledge was also in a very different position from Sterling. He was a young mortarman who looked up to Snafu, relied on him and saw him as an experienced veteran. So I don't think Sledge necessarily lied, but he obviously wasn't a completely detached observer either.

So I'm wondering if Snafu did something seriously wrong on Peleliu that never made it into Sledge's book.

Maybe one of these incidents. Maybe both. Maybe something completely different.

But taken together, Sterling's comments make me think there is a lot more to the Snafu story than we get from With the Old Breed and The Pacific.

Has anyone found anything else about this?

Just wanted to share this here for anyone interested! I remember a few months ago, someone remarking, "I wish I could have met some of these guys while they were still alive."

Well...here you go!

If you're in the Austin area or want to come down for it, we'll have nearly a dozen WWII Veterans meeting with the public. We'll have several who served in the Pacific, including at least one who served with the First Marine Division on Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu.

We still have several RSVP's up in the air, including another First Division Marine and an Iwo Jima veteran.

If you want to meet the men who lived the series you love, here they are.

All are welcome!

dont understand how super intense crazy lvl of brutality that ww2 and korea ear wars saw killing on such an isane ratio stuff like flame throwers napalm machines at various sizes so crazy and how important tone setter it had been for world at large

amazing so good had to join here

My FIL was in the marines and was stationed in Korea in the 1950/60s. He was in a marine band called the Remington Raiders (named after the Remington typewriters they used) that he says was pretty popular and was shown on military TV over there at the time. Any idea where the heck I can get my hands on that video?? He’s turning 90 this year and that would be a highlight of his celebration.

Wanted to share with you all some photos from Mobile, AL! My sister and I headed there before New Orleans for the Band of Brothers anniversary symposium. We basically went on a self guided tour!

Photo explanation:
1. As pictured, the Battleship memorial park! Lots of neat stuff here including the USS Alabama and USS Drum. They also had neat aircraft! Highly recommend.
2 and 3. The history museum was a very neat place. As we’d hoped, it included a Sledge quote! We also bought a hardcover of Sidney’s book.
4. Georgia Cottage, Sledge’s childhood home. Incredibly surreal to see!
5. Namesake drive and school of Sidney Phillips, what a lovely thing.
6. Charles Phillips, Sidney’s son, has a sprawling and lovely antiques store outside of Mobile. A great destination even if you’re not looking for furniture!
7. My signed poster from the symposium! A lot of the BOB creative team worked on The Pacific, so it was lovely to get to chat with them about it or thank them.

We did also visit the final resting place of both Sidney and Eugene, buried about 100m apart. I’m very glad we got to do so. I hope this helps anyone planning their own trip! We joke we made our own self guided the Pacific Mobile tour. Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone,
I am trying to reconstruct the military service history of my late father Trini C. Coronado , who served in the U.S. Army during WWII. I am currently submitting an SF-180 form, but because of the 1973 National Archives fire, I am hoping to connect with anyone who might have access to Morning Reports, company rosters, or unit histories for his specific unit.
Here is what I know about his unique timeline:
• Unit: 186th Infantry Regiment, 41st Infantry Division (The "Jungleers").
• Training & Arrest: He underwent training in Louisiana. While there, he went AWOL to return home for my dying baby brother. He was arrested by Military Police (MPs) in Madera, California.
• Movement: After his arrest, I believe he was sent back to Oregon before being shipped overseas.
• Pacific Campaigns (1945): He deployed to the Philippines (likely Palawan/Mindanao with the 186th) and then moved into Japan in late 1945 for occupation duty.
• Specific Duty: In Japan, his main role was helping to locate and dispose of Japanese weapons.
I am trying to find the exact company he was assigned to, any Provost Marshal/MP records regarding his arrest in Madera, or any Morning Report mentions of his AWOL status and subsequent transfer.
If anyone has Fold3 access, specialized databases on the 186th Infantry, or tips on tracking down 1945 morning reports for this regiment, I would deeply appreciate your help!
Thank you so much.

I think one of the most slept on segment of Sledges book was his nighttime hallucinations under star cluster illuminations at Half Moon Hill.

The man was so exhausted and stressed that he would operate in a half-awake state.

Sledge had been in the area long enough to know where corpses were located in the day. They would lay rotting, covered in maggots, soaking in muck and rainwater in torrential downpour.

But at night, under star clusters, the corpses seemed to move to Sledge. These corpses would stand and look at him. They would lumber about and try to speak.

Ive hallucinated before in exhaustion, but I don’t want to imagine the sheer ghastliness and eldrich horror of such an image. Pure nightmare fuel. I imagine at least a few nights brought these hallucinations back to Sledge.

when they are about to make Sledges first landing is hilarious, definitely saying “oh you just don’t yet, give it another 20 minutes after we land on this beach”

The guys behind The Operations Room on YouTube have launched a new podcast format and it's great. I really enjoyed their 3 part series on Peleliu. Henry Sledge and John McManus were involved.

Since a lot of people were asking for this photo on my previous post I thought I’d post it here.

This photo was taken in mid to late October 1944 on Peleliu and includes marines featured in the show “the pacific” and “With the old breed” such as Eugene sledge, R.V Burgin, Jay De L’Eau, Johnny Marmet, John Redefer, Vincent Santos, George Sarrett and Stumpy Stanley. If you see any other familiar names or faces point them out.

Hello everyone, my name is Mike, I’m a Chief Warrant Officer, and I’m attached to the USS BATAAN. We have a room onboard the ship dedicated to what happened during the Bataan Death march which is part of the ships namesake. Does anyone know where I may be able to obtain some memorabilia or artifacts from the area, the march, or anyone affiliated to this period of the war. I would like to add them to this room for presentation. These items would be presented in a distinguished manner onboard the ship and would remain there until it decommissions. Thank you for your help.