For the most up-to-date version of this article, please visit 2nd Lieutenant Robert G. Allen (1923–1945) on Delaware's World War II Fallen.

Robert Gage Allen was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three children born to Clarence Boyden Allen (1897–1937) and Marjorie Gage Allen (née Marjorie Chase Gage, 1899–1957). As of April 2, 1930, the family was living at 619 Chestnut Street in Donora; Allen’s father was working as a foreman at a blast furnace. Robert was only 13 when his father died on February 20, 1937; the family subsequently moved to Delaware. He began attending Newark High School when he was in tenth grade.

Robert Allen was recorded on the census on April 10, 1940 as living at 24 Center Street in Newark, Delaware with his mother (now working as a science teacher), younger sister, and young brother. By the time he registered for the draft on June 30, 1942, Robert Allen had moved with his family to 215 Dallam Road in Newark, Delaware. He was working for William P. Short in Bethany Beach, Delaware at the time. Allen was described as standing six feet, four inches tall and weighing 165 lbs., with brown hair and brown eyes.

According to a notation on his draft card, he attended Officers Candidate Class 49 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Indeed, his name was roster for class 49-43 (November 5, 1942 through January 28, 1943). Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Field Artillery Branch. He married Ruth Dorothy McRae, a cashier living in Columbus, Georgia, in Phenix City, Alabama on September 10, 1943. He was undoubtedly stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia at the time, probably attending jump school. By early 1945, he was platoon leader in 2nd Machine Gun Platoon, Battery “D,” 462nd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, which was supporting 2nd Battalion, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment.

On February 16, 1945, he took part in an operation to retake the island of Corregidor, the fortified island in Manila Bay that had been America's last bastion in the Philippines some three years earlier. The Japanese defenders had anticipated a landing attempt on the least mountainous part of the island (known as Bottomside), but were caught off guard when American forces instead launched a combined airborne and amphibious assault. Paratroopers dropped on the high ground on the island, known as Topside. Although they achieved surprise and quickly eliminated the island's Japanese commander, the remaining defenders resisted tenaciously, and casualties were heavy.

There is contradictory information about whether 2nd Lieutenant Allen’s platoon was part of the first or second lift. Several letters to the family from officers in his battalion state that Allen jumped with the first lift. On the other hand, an entry on Corregidor.org recorded that 1240 hours, “Second jump commences[…]Allen lands short and is KIA.” General Edward M. Flanagan Jr. wrote in Corregidor: The Rock Force Assault (quoted on Corregidor.org): “2d Lt Robert Allen was killed after his chute carried him over a cliff, where he got hung up on a tree. He was an easy target for a Japanese sniper.” Lieutenant Allen was shot in the neck by enemy fire and killed. A memorandum in Allen’s Individual Deceased Personnel File (I.D.P.F.) quotes a letter from his battalion commander to his family as stating: “Robert was killed by enemy fire immediately after he had completed his parachute jump on Corregidor, Philippine Islands, 16 February 1945. He landed in the vicinity of Wheeler Battery, one of the points of greatest resistance at that time. He died immediately.”

According to documentation in the I.D.P.F., Allen’s “widow was remarried on May 31, 1946, in Phenix City, Alabama, to Thomas Edward Sweeney.” During the summer of 1948, Lieutenant Allen’s mother wrote the Department of the Army (correspondence preserved in his I.D.P.F) asking for her son to remain buried in the Philippines, explaining: “My son’s wishes both direct from him & reiterated by his buddies was that he remain there.” 2nd Lieutenant Allen was buried Section D, Row 4, Grave 125 of the Fort McKinley U.S. Military Cemetery (now the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial) in the Philippines. He is commemorated on Newark, Delaware’s World War II memorial at the Academy Building off of East Main Street.

Note about the photo below:

Signal Corps photo 200787 (Courtesy of Corregidor.org) illustrates several things discussed in this article very clearly. First, it demonstrates the sheer terrain of Corregidor, which was one of the reasons the Americans dropped paratroopers on Topside (despite anticipating heavy casualties) rather than simply launching an amphibious assault on the low ground, known as Bottomside. The photo also illustrates the two drop zones; Lieutenant Allen's was on the left. His parachute may be one of those visible along the cliffs. Also note the aircraft visible at upper right.

Bibliography:

Krawen 1942 (Newark High School yearbook). Courtesy of the Newark History Museum.

Robert Gage Allen Individual Deceased Personnel File, National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri (Courtesy of John Eakin, http://bataanmissing.com/)

Robert G. Allen entry at Corregidor.org https://corregidor.org/taps/htm/allen.htm.

Headstone Inscription and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942–1949. Series A1 43, NAI ID: 7408555. Records of the American Battle Monuments Commission, 1918–ca. 1995. Record Group 117. The National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/9170/images/42861_647350_0535-00924

S-3 Journal https://corregidor.org/BEA503/portal/Portal%20-%2016%20Feb.htm

United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4639499_00013

United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-00546-00187

U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947_ _[database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44003_05_00001-01400

World War II Army Enlistment Records. The National Archives. https://www.fold3.com/record/83525243-robert-g-allen

Last updated on September 7, 2022