Of bolo rush & bolomen

[migueldiaz]

During the Philippine Revolution (vs. Spain, 1896-1898) and the subsequent Philippine-American War (1899-1913), the "bolomen" comprised a large portion of the fledgling Philippine army, because of the sheer lack of firearms.

A rough statistic can be found in the excerpt below, from an article The Legend of the Colt .45 Caliber Semi-Automatic Pistol and the Moros, from the same author (Robert Fulton) of the excellent book, MOROLAND 1899-1906: America's First Attempt to Transform an Islamic Society (2007).

Here's an extended quote, to put things in context:

In the late 19th century, the U.S. Army’s Bureau of Ordinance, the U.S. Navy, and the Marines adopted the Colt Model 1894 .38 caliber double-action (DA) revolver as the standard sidearm .... The first test of the Colt .38 came with Spanish-American War of April to August, 1898, whose single land battle was fought in Cuba. But that conflict, with only two-days of actual combat, was far too short to provide any reasonable conclusion. However, the far more deadly and extended conflict which came out of that war, the Philippine-American War (known then as the Philippine Insurrection) soon proved that the fears about the smaller caliber had been entirely justified. In contrast to the Spanish-American War, one of the shortest conflicts in this nation’s history, the Philippine-American War lasted almost as long as World War II, from February, 1899 to July 4, 1902. It began as a “conventional” war but before its first year ended had morphed into a guerrilla war; in fact being the first of its kind and setting the pattern for the many “wars of national liberation” that would become a hallmark of the mid-20th century. It was what we would term today an “asymmetric” contest. It was also the U.S. Army’s first experience with jungle warfare and fighting against a full-blown insurgency in a foreign land.

The Filipino “Army of Liberation” (solely drawn from the northern Christian provinces of the islands) was poorly armed, with only about one rifle for every three-to-four of its soldiers. An even bigger problem for the rebels was lack of ammunition; due to lack of funds and the efficiency of the U.S. Navy in catching and deterring gun-runners. The Army of Liberation generally had to rely on making its own bullets, using home-made black powder and brass curtain rods. Many U.S. historians have belittled the military ability and leadership of the Army of Liberation, comparing it unfavorably to the Viet Minh and Viet Cong of more than fifty years later. But the fact is the Filipinos were as motivated, tough, and potentially as deadly as the Vietnamese, but unlike the NVA and Viet Cong they did not have the relative luxury of an unlimited stream of modern weapons, abundant ammunition, and foreign trainers, all provided gratis by a friendly superpower (the USSR). Otherwise there might have been a far different outcome. Even then 4,234 Americans killed out of 126,468 “cycled through” gave that war the dubious distinction of having one of the higher “death rates” for American wars, that is troops committed to troops dying, half-again higher than the decade-long Vietnam War.

Now I've been looking for photos documenting the types of bolos used by Filipino soldiers then.

So far I've only found two (below), and I wonder if some of us can identify all or at least most them? I've put numbers in the pics, for easier referencing.

Unfortunately the source of the pics did not indicate where the photos were taken.

Admittedly, identifying the bolos will be hard as the pics are small. The only that I can readily recognize would be a Samar garab (number 3).