Throughout the Second World War there were many different people who came from ordinary
background and ended up valiantly fighting for their country against the evils of their
enemies. For example there was Mad Jack Churchill, who would claim that any officer going into
battle without his sword is improperly dressed, and he would he seen during the Second World
War armed with his sword and also a longbow. But there were many others who rose to prominence
during the conflict, as their lives before the war would be normal but they were then
thrust into the heart of the deadliest war ever seen in history. But there was one Filipino
Schoolteacher who became a guerrilla leader and commander fighting against the Japanese
during World War 2, and she was known for silently killing her enemies, and it’s claimed
she managed to kill over 200 Japanese Soldiers silently. Join us today as we look at Nieves
Fernandez, the incredibly Female Guerrilla Fighter that slaughtered hundreds during the
Second World War, remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Nieves Fernandez was born aroundd 1906 in Leyte on the Philippine Islands. Before the
war she owned a wholesale business and following the Japanese Invasion of the Philippines she
ceased trading. The Japanese would commit large scale atrocities in the area, and it’s
believed that around 500,000 Filipino’s died during the Japanese occupation. Many
women were stolen and were forced to work as comfort women for the Japanese Army, and
were kidnapped on the streets. Also the Japanese ordered large scale executions and massacres,
and they committed scores of atrocities against Allied soldiers also. There were elements
of resistance and guerrilla activity that was successful, and as the war continued this
increased in it’s numbers and it’s believed over a quarter of a million people were part
of anti-japanese operations, and it continued to grow as the Japanese occupation continued.
These groups often gathered intelligence and smuggled it to the American forces, but often
they suffered from a lack of equipment and weapons. There wasn’t also much co-ordination
between different groups, but then more supplies were delivered to the guerrilla groups. Some
of the crimes committed were truly shocking, including prisoners of war being tortured
and they were forced into the open and were beaten by Japanese forces. Many also were
forced into medical experiements and surgery without anaesthetic which resulted in death.
Others were forced to drink excessive amounts of water, and then they were tied to the ground
and Japanese guards then jumped up and down on their stomachs.
But Nieves Fernandez was living dangerously, and as she was also a teacher she was concerned
that she and her students would be forcibly taken by the Japanese soldiers. She worried
that her female students would be kidnapped and forced into the comfort station, and Fernandez
then decided that enough was enough and she took up arms against the occupation. She gathered
a group of native men, and together they began to plan how to fight the occupying Japanese
soldiers and forces. They believed that stealth actions were more successful, and Nieves began
to train her men in how to fight and also how to use knives discreetly to kill an enemy.
They also would make clandestine weapons such as shotguns from gas pipes which would be
loaded with gunpowder and rusty nails, and she also with her group made grenades. They
did manage to steal some Japanese Weapons, but with this she became the only Female guerrilla
commander inside of the Philippines.
Nieves herself was considered a talented shot and markswoman but also a bolo fighter. She
used the bolo knife as it was easy to get hold of as it was used for clearing vegetation
in the difficult terrain. But she became a silent killer, and she developed a technique
which was deadly and terrifying. She was silent assassin, and she would wear a black dress
and would fight barefooted so people could not hear her. Her technique specifically was
to stab the enemy behind and below the earlobe which would sever the carotid artery and the
internal jugular. This led to the brain and immediately forced a soldier to lose consciousness.
The blade would be stabbed two inches, and she would twist it up to 90 degrees. This
made the victim unable to gasp for air or scream for help, and the only sound would
be the struggle from the victim but it was most probable that they were already out cold
before they succumbed to their death.
The Japanese forces began to fear her greatly, and she and her men carried out a number of
ambushes on the Japanese under the cover of darkness. They would walk through the jungle
and would ambush the soldiers, and her 110 men at they carried out attacks near to Tacloban,
and over the course of two and a half years they would kill more than 200 Japanese soldiers.
The Japanese were confused as to who was carrying out these killings in the jungle to begin
with, but then they heard about Nieves Fernandez, the woman leading a group of resistance fighters
in the jungle, and they then offered a reward of 10,000 Philippine Pesos on her head, and
placed a bounty on her. Some people did try to hunt for her, but she managed to evade
capture and survive the war.
It was also claimed that her guerilla’s also managed to save many young women who
had been assaulted, or were about to be assaulted by the Japanese. They managed to also save
some from being taken into slavery by the forces, and also in certain villages they
managed to completely liberate them of enemy soldiers wiping out the enemy presence completely
in them. At the end of the Second World War, the Americans arrived on Leyte, and Fernandez
and her forces had already liberated many villages and also freed some comfort women.
She was pictured showing some forces her method of killing, but the only article ever published
on her at the time of the war said, ‘A prim former school teacher, so far as known here
the only woman to fight two and a half years with Filipino guerrillas, told today how she
commanded 110 natives who killed 200 Japanese with shotguns made from sections of gas pipes. "That
was when they called me Captain Nieves Fernandez, she said. "Now I'm just Miss Fernandez." Paler
than most native women of this section (her first name, Nieves, is the Spanish word for
snows), Miss Fernandez was without shoes and was attired in a plain black frock as she
conferred with American officers. She is 38 years old "at present."
After teaching school at Tacloban. the Leyte capital recently occupied by American forces
invading the Japanese-held Philippines., Miss Fernandez said she developed a wholesale business
of her own. “But when the Japaneses came,” she related, "No one could keep anything.
They took everything they wanted. They had ways of persuading, like giving you scalding
hot baths and freezing cold baths alternately, with never a rest, never any food, never any
water except the soapy water in the baths.”Working with guerrillas south of Tacloban, Miss Fernandez
rounded up native men to resist the Japanese. These men, she said, had three American rifles.
The rest they made themselves out of gas pipe. They loaded them with gunpowder and old nails.
They also made grenades, and sometimes they got hold of Japanese weapons. U.S. Intelligence
officers said the Japanese offered 10,000 pesos for her head. She was wounded once.
There is a bullet scar on her right forearm.”
Nieves Fernandez was an ex school teacher who saw her role in the Second World War as
to take up arms against the Japanese occupation. She was a formidable and terrifying leader
who developed a fearsome method of killing that was incredibly effective. Today she is
considered the feared female guerrilla captain who slaughtered hundreds of Japanese forces
in the Philippines.
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