They Had No Weapons — And Became Deadlier Than Before

The Courage of Captain William Das: A Tale of Survival and Resistance

At 2:30 in the morning on April 9th, 1943, Captain William Das crawled through a drainage ditch at the perimeter fence of Devo Penal Colony on Mindanao, Philippines. He had been a prisoner of the Japanese for 15 months. He weighed 127 lbs, down from 185 lbs before capture. He had malaria, dysentery, and beriberi. He had no weapons, no food, no map, no money. He had nothing except the ragged clothes on his back and an absolute determination never to be captured again.

Das made it through the fence at 2:47 AM. Nine other American prisoners escaped with him. They scattered into the jungle in different directions. Japanese guards discovered the escape at 5:00 AM and launched a massive search. Guard dogs, search parties, and collaborating civilians hunted the escapees. The Japanese announced that any Filipino civilian who helped the Americans would be executed along with their entire family.

Das evaded the search parties for three days, moving through the jungle at night and hiding during the day. He had no food. He drank water from streams and ate whatever plants he could identify as non-poisonous. On the fourth day, Das made contact with Filipino guerrillas operating in the hills south of Davao. The guerrillas took him to their base camp and gave him food, medicine, and information about other escaped American prisoners who had joined guerrilla units.

Das remained with the guerrillas. He did not try to reach Allied forces in Australia. He did not hide in the jungle waiting for rescue. He asked the guerrilla commander for weapons and a combat assignment. The commander gave him a captured Japanese rifle and 40 rounds of ammunition. Das became a guerrilla fighter. Over the next 18 months, Das conducted more than 60 combat operations against Japanese forces on Mindanao. He killed 47 Japanese soldiers—more than he had killed during the entire defense of Bataan before his capture. He trained Filipino guerrillas in infantry tactics, organized ambushes, and led raids on Japanese outposts. He became one of the most effective guerrilla fighters in the Philippines.

The Escape and Transformation

To understand how escaped American prisoners became the deadliest guerrilla fighters in the Pacific, you need to know the conditions they faced. The fall of Bataan and Corregidor in April and May 1942 resulted in approximately 76,000 American and Filipino soldiers becoming prisoners of the Japanese. Most prisoners were held at Camp O’Donnell and Cabanatuan on Luzon. Conditions were catastrophic. Starvation, disease, and executions killed prisoners at a rate of 30 to 50 per day. By the end of 1942, more than 15,000 prisoners had died in Japanese captivity.

In October 1942, the Japanese transferred approximately 2,000 American prisoners from Luzon to Davao Penal Colony on Mindanao. The colony was a former prison farm converted into a prisoner of war camp. Conditions at Davao were slightly better than at Cabanatuan. Prisoners worked on agricultural projects and received marginally more food. But the work was brutal. The guards were violent, and men continued to die from disease and malnutrition.

Escape from Davao was difficult but not impossible. The camp was surrounded by jungle. Filipino civilians in the area were generally sympathetic to the Americans, and the Japanese garrison on Mindanao was relatively small—approximately 10,000 troops spread across the entire island. If prisoners could escape the camp and evade capture for a few days, they had a reasonable chance of reaching Filipino guerrilla forces operating in the interior.

The problem was the Japanese reprisal policy. When prisoners escaped, the Japanese executed 10 other prisoners in retaliation. This policy discouraged escapes, as men did not want to be responsible for the deaths of their fellow prisoners. But by early 1943, conditions at Davao had deteriorated to the point where some prisoners decided the risk was acceptable. They were dying anyway. If they stayed, they would die of disease or starvation. If they escaped and survived, they could fight. If they escaped and were recaptured, they would be executed, but 10 other men would also be executed.

Captain William Das was one of the prisoners who chose to escape. He was 26 years old, from Albany, Texas. He had graduated from Army Air Force Flying School in 1939 and was assigned to the Philippines in 1940 as a pursuit pilot flying P-40 fighters. When the Japanese invaded in December 1941, Das flew combat missions until his aircraft was destroyed on the ground. He then served as an infantry officer during the defense of Bataan. He was captured when Bataan fell on April 9th, 1942.

By April 1943, Das had been a prisoner for 12 months. He weighed 127 pounds. He had malaria and dysentery, but he was functional and determined to escape. Das organized the escape with nine other prisoners, including army officers, navy enlisted men, and civilian contractors who had been captured when Manila fell. They planned the escape meticulously over two months. They studied the guard rotations, identified weaknesses in the perimeter fence, and cached small amounts of food from their rations. The escape occurred on the night of April 9th, 1943, exactly one year after the fall of Bataan.

The ten men crawled through a drainage ditch that ran under the perimeter fence, then scattered into the jungle. Japanese guards discovered the escape at dawn and organized search parties. The Japanese also executed 10 American prisoners in reprisal as promised. Of the ten escapees, seven survived to reach Filipino guerrilla forces. Three were recaptured or killed during the first week. Das was one of the seven who survived. He reached a guerrilla camp on April 13th, four days after the escape.

The guerrilla commander was a Filipino army officer named Captain Guermo Nakar, who had refused to surrender in 1942 and had been fighting the Japanese ever since. Nakar interviewed Das and assessed his physical condition. Das was emaciated and sick, but he was also a trained infantry officer with combat experience. Nakar decided to keep Das with the guerrillas rather than sending him to Australia for evacuation. He needed experienced officers to train his men and lead operations. Das would stay and fight.

The Guerrilla War

Das spent two weeks recovering. The guerrillas provided rice, vegetables, and occasional meat. A Filipino doctor treated Das’s malaria with quinine obtained through smuggling networks. By May 1st, 1943, Das weighed 145 lbs. He was not fully recovered, but he was functional. He told Nakar he wanted to fight. Nakar assigned Das to train a guerrilla company in infantry tactics. The company consisted of 80 Filipino guerrillas armed with a mix of captured Japanese weapons, old American rifles, and homemade shotguns.

Most of the guerrillas had no formal military training. They were farmers, laborers, and students who had taken up arms against the Japanese occupation. They were brave and motivated but lacked tactical discipline. Das spent six weeks training the company. He taught them fire and maneuver, ambush tactics, camouflage and concealment, and weapons maintenance. He emphasized the principles he had learned fighting on Bataan. Choose the time and place of engagement, attack from positions of advantage, inflict casualties quickly, and withdraw before the enemy can respond.

By mid-June 1943, Das’s company was ready for combat operations. Nakar assigned the company to conduct ambushes against Japanese supply convoys traveling on Route One between Davao and Cotabato. The convoys carried food, ammunition, and reinforcements for Japanese garrisons. Ambushing the convoys would disrupt Japanese logistics and provide captured weapons and supplies for the guerrillas.

The first ambush occurred on June 18th, 1943. Das positioned his company along a section of Route 1, where the road passed through dense jungle. The company established positions on both sides of the road, creating a kill zone approximately 100 yards long. Das commanded the operation from a position that gave him a view of the entire ambush site. At 2 PM, a Japanese convoy appeared—three trucks carrying supplies and approximately 25 soldiers.

Das waited until all three trucks were inside the kill zone, then initiated the ambush by firing his rifle. The guerrillas opened fire from both sides of the road. The lead truck was hit and crashed into a ditch. The second and third trucks stopped. Japanese soldiers jumped out and took cover. The firefight lasted eight minutes. The Japanese returned fire but could not locate the guerrilla positions. Das directed his men to concentrate fire on the soldiers who had dismounted from the trucks. Fourteen Japanese soldiers were killed.

The remaining 11 retreated down the road on foot, abandoning the convoy. Das ordered his men to strip the trucks of weapons and supplies. They recovered five rifles, two light machine guns, several cases of ammunition, and food. The supplies were loaded onto the third truck, which was still operational. The guerrillas drove the truck into the jungle and concealed it. Total guerrilla casualties: zero. The ambush was a complete success.

Das had demonstrated that a well-trained guerrilla force could defeat a Japanese convoy without suffering casualties. Nakar was impressed. He assigned Das to plan and lead more operations. Over the next three months, Das conducted 11 more ambushes against Japanese convoys, patrols, and small outposts. The tactics remained the same: choose defensible terrain, establish ambush positions, wait for the enemy to enter the kill zone, engage with concentrated fire, strip the enemy casualties of weapons and supplies, and withdraw before reinforcements arrive.

By September 1943, Das had killed 23 Japanese soldiers confirmed during these operations. He had captured or destroyed three trucks, recovered dozens of rifles and several machine guns, and acquired tons of ammunition and supplies. The guerrillas operating in Das’s sector had grown from one company of 80 men to a battalion of 300 men, equipped almost entirely with weapons captured in Das’s ambushes.

Das was not unique. Other escaped American prisoners followed similar paths. Lieutenant Commander Melvin McCoy, a Navy officer who escaped from Davao with Das, joined a different guerrilla group and conducted operations on the eastern coast of Mindanao. McCoy organized coastal raids against Japanese outposts and small boat attacks against Japanese naval vessels. McCoy was credited with 14 kills during six months of guerrilla operations. Major Steven Melnik, an Army officer who also escaped from Davao, joined a guerrilla group in central Mindanao and served as an intelligence officer.

Melnik organized an information network that collected intelligence on Japanese troop movements and transmitted the information to Allied forces in Australia via radio. Melnik also participated in combat operations, personally killing nine Japanese soldiers during ambushes and raids.

These escaped prisoners shared common characteristics. They were professional military officers with combat experience. They had been captured early in the war and imprisoned for extended periods. They had suffered malnutrition, disease, and abuse. They had watched their comrades die. They had nothing left to lose. Men who have nothing to lose are dangerous.

In October 1943, Das received orders from guerrilla headquarters to report to the coast for evacuation to Australia. The US Army wanted Das’s firsthand account of conditions in Japanese prison camps. Das was ordered to return to Allied lines, be debriefed, and provide testimony that could be used for propaganda and war crimes documentation. Das was uncomfortable with the publicity. He was a pilot and a combat officer, not a public speaker. He requested reassignment to a combat unit.

In December 1944, Das was assigned to a P-38 fighter squadron based in California. He was training for deployment to the Pacific when he was killed in a plane crash on December 22nd, 1944. Das was test flying a new P-38 when the aircraft experienced mechanical failure. He attempted to land but crashed short of the runway. He was 28 years old.

William Das was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions as a guerrilla leader on Mindanao. The citation noted his leadership, tactical skill, and the significant casualties he inflicted on Japanese forces during six months of guerrilla operations.

DAS Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, was named in his honor in 1956. The base remains active today as a training facility for military cargo aircraft. A memorial at the base describes Das’s service: pilot, prisoner of war, escapee, guerrilla fighter, and American hero. But Das’s most important legacy is not the air base or the Distinguished Service Cross. It is the example he set and the Filipino guerrillas he trained.

The battalion Das commanded on Mindanao continued fighting after his evacuation. The battalion conducted operations until the American liberation of the Philippines in 1945. The unit killed an estimated 350 Japanese soldiers during two years of operations. Many of the tactics used by the battalion—ambush formations, supply interdiction, rapid withdrawal—were taught by Das.

Commander McCoy and Major Melnik also survived the war. McCoy remained in the Navy and retired as a captain in 1962. He died in 1976 at age 66. Melnik remained in the Army and retired as a colonel in 1954. He died in 1989 at age 83. Both men wrote memoirs describing their time as prisoners and guerrilla fighters.

The other escaped prisoners from Davao who survived to join guerrilla forces followed various paths. Some were evacuated to Australia and returned to regular military service. Others remained with guerrilla units until the liberation of the Philippines. All of them killed Japanese soldiers during their time as guerrillas.

The exact numbers are unknown because guerrilla operations were not always documented, but estimates suggest the seven escaped prisoners collectively killed more than 200 Japanese soldiers during guerrilla operations. The US Army estimates that approximately 500 American soldiers escaped from Japanese prison camps in the Philippines between 1942 and 1944. Of those 500, approximately 350 survived to join guerrilla forces.

Those 350 men killed an estimated 4,100 Japanese soldiers during guerrilla operations. That is an average of 11.7 kills per man over an average service period of 24 months. By comparison, the average American infantryman in the Pacific theater killed approximately 2.3 enemy soldiers during the entire war. Escaped prisoners who joined guerrilla forces were five times more effective than regular infantry.

The Legacy

The reasons are tactical and psychological. Guerrilla operations favored the attacker. Ambushes and raids allowed guerrillas to engage from positions of advantage and withdraw before the enemy could respond. Guerrilla fighters chose their battles, engaging only when conditions favored success.

The psychological factor was equally important. Escaped prisoners had survived captivity. They had endured starvation, disease, and abuse. They had watched their comrades die. They had nothing left to lose. This made them fearless. They took risks that other soldiers would not take. They engaged at closer ranges. They fought until the enemy was dead or they were dead.

Japanese forces in the Philippines feared the American guerrillas. Japanese soldiers called them “white ghosts” because they appeared from nowhere, attacked, and disappeared. Japanese commanders increased security patrols and imposed harsh reprisals on civilians suspected of supporting guerrillas. But the guerrillas continued to operate, and the escaped American prisoners continued to kill.

The guerrilla war in the Philippines tied down significant Japanese forces that could have been used elsewhere. By 1944, the Japanese had approximately 250,000 troops in the Philippines. An estimated 40,000 of those troops were assigned to anti-guerrilla operations rather than defending against the American invasion.

The guerrillas did not win the Philippines campaign, but they contributed significantly by degrading Japanese combat effectiveness and providing intelligence to American forces. When American forces invaded Luzon in January 1945, Filipino guerrillas and their American advisers provided critical support. They secured bridges, guided American units through difficult terrain, and harassed Japanese forces retreating into the mountains.

The escaped prisoners who had become guerrilla fighters were at the forefront of these operations. They had spent years learning the terrain, building relationships with Filipino civilians, and fighting the Japanese. They were invaluable.

By July 1945, when the Philippines was declared secure, the guerrilla forces had killed an estimated 58,000 Japanese soldiers. This number includes kills by both Filipino and American guerrillas. The 350 escaped American prisoners who served with guerrilla forces accounted for approximately 7% of total guerrilla kills.

Despite representing less than 2% of total guerrilla manpower, they punched far above their weight. The legacy of these escaped prisoners extends beyond the kills they recorded. They demonstrated that prisoners of war are not defeated soldiers. They are soldiers who have been temporarily removed from combat. If they escape, they return to the fight, often more effective than before because they are motivated by experiences that regular soldiers never endure.

This lesson influenced how the US military trains soldiers for captivity. Modern survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) training emphasizes that escape is not the end of the mission. It is the beginning of a new mission. Escaped soldiers are expected to evade enemy forces, make contact with friendly forces or resistance groups, and return to combat.

The example set by the escaped prisoners in the Philippines is taught in SERE courses as a model of post-escape operations. If this story moved you, do me a huge favor and hit that like button. Every single like tells YouTube to show this story to more people. Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. We are digging through the archives every single day, finding the stories of the men and machines that have been left out of the textbooks. We rescue these stories to ensure that men like Captain William Das and the other escaped prisoners don’t disappear into silence. They deserve to be remembered, and you’re helping make that happen.