6. The Bolo was hardly sophisticated, but it was highly lethal, used by Philippine guerrillas to kill occupying soldiers silently and efficiently
Throughout the Philippine-American War, the bolo was also widely used by Filipino guerrillas, many of whom lacked modern weaponry. They would sneak up on unsuspecting soldiers and use the short, tough blade to stab their enemies in the abdomen or the neck. Then, some 50 years later, Filipino fighters would again stop using their bolo knives for farming and instead use them for killing soldiers of the occupying Japanese Imperial Army. So important was the simple but effective weapon to the resistance that a Moro-Bolo Battalion was established and became one of the most-feared units in the jungles of the Philippines.
So effective was the bolo as a weapon for close-quarters combat that American soldiers took knives with them once the Philippine-American War had been lost. Famously, Henry Johnson was armed only with a bolo when he fought back against a German raid on the American trenches during the First World War. His heroism led him to be awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor and was all the more remarkable given that he was an African American soldier at a time when racism was rife in the armed forces.