![]() His attention to detail was such that he even drove his new Dodge car off a pier and into Manila Bay. ![]() Among Fertig's duties during the retreat to Bataan and Corregidor was the destruction of supplies left behind by retreating American forces. On December 20, 1941, Japanese troops invaded the Philippines. It is estimated that at least one out of every 20 Filipinos died at the hands of the Japanese during the occupation. The native people of the Philippines, who could not leave, suffered under the Japanese occupation. American civilian families (men, women and children) were not evacuated, so as not to lessen the morale of the citizens of the Philippines. This action was taken to relieve the concerns of officers and enlisted men, called to duty, about the welfare of their families. ![]() Fertig's wife Mary and their two children Patricia and Jeanne left the Philippines in summer 1941. began evacuating the wives and children of military families. By November 1941, he was Chief of the Construction Section, General Headquarters, and spent most of his time overseeing preparation and improvement of airfields throughout the Philippines. Fertig's first assignments were as Assistant Engineer, Bataan Field Area, then as Engineer, North Luzon Area. analysts believed that the Philippines might be one of the first areas Japan would attack. As a result, he was called to duty on June 1, 1941, as a captain (reserve) in the Army Engineers as the United States prepared for war in the Pacific theater. Due to his military classes in college, he held a reserve commission in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Įarly in 1941, Fertig was on leave in Manila from his job on Samar. It was due primarily to his personal leadership qualities that the Mindanao resistance movement was unified under one leader and became the most successful of all the guerrilla units in the Philippines. and methods of attacking problems would serve him in the challenges he would face as the leader of the Mindanao guerrillas. Fertig was described as "tall, sandy-haired with an athletic build" and "being calm, genial, deliberate and possessing a remarkable memory and a great facility for remembering names." His experience as an engineer, In 1936, he and his family moved to the Philippines where he had a successful career as a civil engineer until the war broke out. After graduation from college, he married his wife Mary. He then studied engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. Wendell Fertig was born in La Junta, Colorado, where he lived until he completed high school. However, several of Fertig's subordinates and contemporaries were critical of his leadership and the literature extolling his wartime activities. One authority lists him among the top ten guerrilla leaders in history. During his post-war years he was regarded as a hero by the people of Mindanao, and was a respected figure among the U.S. ![]() Leaving active duty in the mid-1950s, he ran a Colorado mining company until his death. He spent four years as commander of the ROTC detachment at the Colorado School of Mines, his Alma mater, and served in a U.S.-based psychological warfare unit during the Korean War. This continued until American forces returned to the Philippines in late 19.Īfter the war, Fertig returned to his civilian engineering career, but retained his reserve commission. At those times, Fertig had his forces retreat and disperse before the Japanese advance and respond with pinprick attacks on small, isolated Japanese units. More than once, the Japanese made efforts to suppress and destroy elements of Fertig's guerrilla army, committing large numbers of troops for this purpose. forces in the Pacific, the guerrillas began to receive supplies, but never enough to stage large-scale attacks. ![]() įertig led the guerrillas against the Japanese and their collaborators, mostly in hit-and-run raids and vital coast watching activities. He also used his engineering knowledge to solve problems in supply and construction. Fertig used his knowledge of the Filipino people to organize them into a guerrilla army and civilian government. Army forces on Mindanao surrendered, but Fertig refused to do so. Ordered from Corregidor before its surrender to the Japanese, he was sent to Mindanao to assume command of engineer activities there. Army reserve commission and was called into military service before the war in the Pacific began. He faced about 50,000 Japanese soldiers, mostly garrison troops in towns and cities. Fertig's widely scattered guerrilla force numbered approximately 32,000. Wendell Fertig (Decem– March 24, 1975) was an American civil engineer, in the American-administered Commonwealth of the Philippines, who organized and commanded an American-Filipino guerrilla force on the Japanese-occupied, southern Philippine island of Mindanao during World War II. Commanding Officer, 10th Military District – Mindanao ![]()
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