Philippines oldest Second World War vet dead at 111

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines says its oldest World War II veteran has died at age 111.

Alfonso Fabros was a private and then a guerrilla fighter against the Japanese invasion of the then-American colony.

The Philippines Veterans Affairs Office said Wednesday that Fabros died Aug. 9 in northern Nueva Ecija province. Ella Gandalera said her father died of pneumonia. He was a farmer after the war.

Fabros served with the U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in December 1942.

He escaped from Bataan province where the U.S.-led forces made a final stand before surrendering in April 1942. The Japanese later forced about 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers to hike about 100 kilometres to a POW camp in the brutal Bataan Death March.