talking to an old PI soldier

Bill · 21st August 2005, 04:27 PM

who served in the Southern Philippines from 1950-83. A few interesting things. The use of swords, spears, & bow/arrow against government soldiers was common untill 1970, then groups that opposed the gov. were funded & supplied from outside the PI, & the groups went from "primitive" weapons to superior weapons almost overnight. The interesting thing is that this fellow states it was easier to fight the better armed groups, as earlier ambushes were always well planned, & a quick retreat into boobytraps for the gov. soldiers. Better armed, opposition groups, became over confident, & stood thier ground; often to the avantage of the better trained soldiers. Typical of attacks, earlier in his career, were single archers hidding in trees, or groups that would have the high ground & shoot high into the air, so that the arrows would be coming staight down. Krismen often would wait in tall grass, & were quite feared, the wounds from the kris were always fatal, he states. He gave me many examples of the kris attacks & the damage done, as he said, the body never stops the blade. As to the barung, I was surprised, his opinion was that it was not as deadly as the kris. He stated he never saw a man survive a kris wound, but did see men survive barung wounds.

21st August 2005, 04:27 PM	#1
Bill Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Chicago area Posts: 327	talking to an old PI soldier who served in the Southern Philippines from 1950-83. A few interesting things. The use of swords, spears, & bow/arrow against government soldiers was common untill 1970, then groups that opposed the gov. were funded & supplied from outside the PI, & the groups went from "primitive" weapons to superior weapons almost overnight. The interesting thing is that this fellow states it was easier to fight the better armed groups, as earlier ambushes were always well planned, & a quick retreat into boobytraps for the gov. soldiers. Better armed, opposition groups, became over confident, & stood thier ground; often to the avantage of the better trained soldiers. Typical of attacks, earlier in his career, were single archers hidding in trees, or groups that would have the high ground & shoot high into the air, so that the arrows would be coming staight down. Krismen often would wait in tall grass, & were quite feared, the wounds from the kris were always fatal, he states. He gave me many examples of the kris attacks & the damage done, as he said, the body never stops the blade. As to the barung, I was surprised, his opinion was that it was not as deadly as the kris. He stated he never saw a man survive a kris wound, but did see men survive barung wounds.