Ships
- USS Haddock (SS-231) Commanding officer from 7 February 1945 · Brought the eleventh patrol into Guam · Relieved on 27 March 1945
William Herman Brockman, Jr., was born in Baltimore on 18 November 1904. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1922, entered the Naval Academy the next year, and graduated with the class of 1927. The Lucky Bag calls him Bill. The face is that midshipman.
He specialized in submarines from 1929 and commanded the submarine rescue ship Mallard in 1938 and 1939. As a lieutenant commander he had Nautilus (SS-168) at Midway in June 1942 and on the Makin raid that August. The Navy Cross with two gold stars was his from that time, and Nautilus (SS-168) received a Presidential Unit Citation.
From September 1944 he commanded a submarine division. On 7 February 1945 he took Haddock (SS-231), already at sea on her eleventh patrol, and brought her into Guam in March. uboat.net dates the arrival 14 March. A patrol-report line puts it around 19 March. He turned her over to Albert Rowe Strow on 27 March 1945. He was promoted to captain in March 1945. He later commanded the oiler Cahaba until February 1946, and he retired in November 1947 as a rear admiral. He died at Boca Raton, Florida, on 2 January 1979.