Wendell Fertig 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. Fertig's widely scattered guerrilla force numbered approximately 32,000. He faced about 50,000 Japanese soldiers, mostly garrison troops in towns and cities.
The Battle of Mindanao was fought by the Americans and allied Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese forces on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines as part of Operation VICTOR V. It was part of the campaign to liberate the Philippines during World War II. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the southernmost portions of the archipelago from the Imperial Japanese Army.
Never Say Die is a memoir by Jack Hawkins, a lieutenant with the United States's 4th Marines in World War II. It was first published in 1961.
Ruperto Cadava Kangleón was a Filipino military officer and politician. He was a native of the municipality of Macrohon in the province now named Southern Leyte.
William Edwin Dyess was an officer of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He was captured after the Allied loss at the Battle of Bataan and endured the subsequent Bataan Death March. After a year in captivity, Dyess escaped and spent three months on the run before being evacuated from the Philippines by a U.S. submarine. Once back in the U.S., he recounted the story of his capture and imprisonment, providing the first widely published eye-witness account of the brutality of the death march. He returned to duty in the Army Air Forces, but was killed in a training accident months later.
The Bureau of Corrections is an agency of the Department of Justice which is charged with the custody and rehabilitation of national offenders, commonly known as Persons Deprived of Liberty or PDL, who have been sentenced to three years of imprisonment or more. The agency has its headquarters in the New Bilibid Prison Reservation in Muntinlupa.
Iliff David "Rich" Richardson was simultaneously a US Navy ensign and a US Army major while fighting with the Philippine resistance against Japan during World War II. He recounted his exploits to author Ira Wolfert, who published them in the book American Guerrilla in the Philippines in 1945. A character based on Richardson was played by Tyrone Power in the 1950 film of the same name.
Jack L. Hawkins was a United States Marines Corps colonel employed by the CIA for the military planning, training of Cuban exiles, and the effective military command of forces in the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in April 1961. Hawkins was known by the alias John Haskins.
The Battle of Maguindanao or Cotabato and Maguindanao Campaign was one of the final battles of the Philippines Campaign of World War II. The battle was fought in advance of U.S. landings by Philippine Commonwealth military forces and the recognized Christian and Muslim guerrilla fighters against Imperial Japanese Army troops.
Robert Kerr "Jock" McLaren MC & Bar was a decorated Australian Army officer, who rose from enlisted rank and was noted for his involvement in guerrilla operations against the Japanese during World War II.
Samuel Charles Grashio was a United States Army Air Forces pilot who was captured by the Japanese in World War II. He survived the Bataan Death March and participated in the only successful mass escape from a Japanese prison camp.
The Shin'yō Maru incident occurred in the Philippines on September 7, 1944, in the Pacific theater of World War II. In an attack on a Japanese convoy by the United States Navy submarine USS Paddle, 668 Allied prisoners of war were killed fighting their Japanese guards or killed when their ship, Shinyō Maru, was sunk. Only 82 Americans survived and were later rescued.
During the Japanese occupation of the islands in World War II, there was an extensive Philippine resistance movement, which opposed the Japanese and their collaborators with active underground and guerrilla activity that increased over the years. Fighting the guerrillas – apart from the Japanese regular forces – were a Japanese-formed Bureau of Constabulary, the Kenpeitai, and the Makapili. Postwar studies estimate that around 260,000 people were organized under guerrilla groups and that members of anti-Japanese underground organizations were more numerous. Such was their effectiveness that by the end of World War II, Japan controlled only twelve of the forty-eight provinces.
The Battle of Davao was a major battle in which American and Philippine Commonwealth troops including locally organized guerrillas fought the Japanese to liberate the city of Davao. The battle is part of Operation VICTOR V, an offensive operation against Japanese forces in Mindanao, and part of the campaign for the liberation of the Philippines during World War II. The battle was the decisive engagement of the Mindanao Campaign.
Escape From Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War, is a non-fiction, military history book written by John D. Lukacs. The book is the story of the only large-scale group of American prisoners of war to escape from a Japanese prison camp in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The ten escaped POWs were the first to break the news of the infamous Bataan Death March and other atrocities committed by the Japanese to the world.
William Fletcher Sharp was a United States Army major general.
The Free Philippine Government is an unofficial provisional government based in Mindanao which claims to jurisdiction over unoccupied territories in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during the World War II era.
Edward Ernest McClish (1909-1993) was an American military officer in the Philippines in World War II. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, Lt. Colonel McClish commanded a division of Filipino guerrillas on Mindanao island.
Claro L. Laureta, a military officer of the Philippine Army who commanded guerilla units within Davao Region area during World War II. He enlisted as a Private in the Philippine Scouts in 1926 and assigned 45th US Infantry Regiment until 1929. He attended Philippine Constabulary Academy in Baguio and graduated in 1934. He was commissioned as 3rd Lieutenant and assigned to Davao province in 1936. He was commanded 2nd Davao PC Company based in Camp Victa in Kapalong, Davao(now Davao del Norte) in 1941 before the war. He fought the Japanese until when it moved forward towards Monkayo.
John Hugh McGee, is a US Army officer who is known for his combat exploits in Mindanao and escape during World War II. His contribution in Korean War was also credited by his peers and superiors. He served with US Army for 30 years from 1931 to 1961.
