Wendell Fertig

Common card · No. 379890

Wendell Fertig (December 16, 1900 – 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. Fertig's widely scattered guerrilla force numbered approximately 32,000. He faced about 50,000 Japanese soldiers, mostly garrison troops in towns and cities. Fertig held a U.S. Army Reserve commission and was called into military service before the war in the Pacific began. Ordered from Corregidor before its surrender to the Japanese, he was sent to Mindanao to assume command of engineer activities there. Almost as soon as he arrived, the U.S. Army forces on Mindanao surrendered, but Fertig refused to do so. Fertig used his knowledge of the Filipino people to organize them into a guerrilla army and civilian government. He also used his engineering knowledge to solve problems in supply and construction...

Read on Wikipedia · Image The photograph is owned by the McGuire family, members of which are believed related to the Wendell Fertig family. The photograph was given to the McGuire family by Wendell Fertig in 1963. They later…, Public domain