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.