Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1918-08-08
Henry Johnson, Colored Soldier,
Split a Lot of Hun Skulls
With the Weapon.
Was ADOPTED FROM MOROS
War Department Now Issues the Ter.
rible CIeaver to Some of Our
Troops, and the Germans
Don't Like 1t at All.

in contented obscurity. Today Henry
Johnson, a soldier of the United States,
is wearing the coveted French war
cross with palms, because he proved
himself brave man, and because at
the critical moment he got his hands
on bolo knife.
The cable has told of Henry's ex-
ploit-how on night duty with COM
panion in an American listening post
he ''took on" "a marauding Germans
in a swift rough-and-tumble, killed
some of them with his rifle, bombed
others from his basket of grenades,
and then, even after he had been
wounded, split SO many skulls with his
bolo that all the enemy left on their
feet after meeting Henry became sud-
denly and violently homesick.
The bolo knife which Henry welded
so we'll weighs one pound and three
ounces without it's scabbard, and has
a broad 14-inch blade. 1t is sharpened
to a razor edge, and near the end
runs abruptly to thrusting point. But
one of it's chief virtues as a smallarm
is it's cleaving power. Most of the
weight of the knife is distributed along
the back of the blade.
Americans first ran up against the
bolO in the Philippines. Over there it
was originally an agricultural tool, just
as the machete was in Cuba, and
blacksmiths at country crossroads ham,
mered it out infinitely and in all sorts
of forms. The "kris" with it's curly
blade is a form Of bolo, and the "cam-
plan" is bigger bolo.
Was Weapon of the Moros.
It was up among the MOros that it
was developed for war purposes. In
the underbrush it proved a very ter
rible weapon, as many trooper found
to his cost. A stroke in the tropical
night-juSt One-cOunted for major
American casualty. After a while our
soldiers found there was no particu-
lar knack in the Malay use of the bolo
they could not master. Then they be-
gan to capture bolOs. And SO, after
the war ended, bolos kept coming back
to the United States as souvenirs.
But it was not until 1910 that the
war department tried the experiment
of issuing the bOl0 knife as a regular
part Of the American equipment. 1t
was used and tested by our men in
Mexico, but there it was employed
chiefly as a tool rather than weapon.
It was not until our khaki-garbed boys
went down into the French trenches
that the bolo knife proved it's right to
be considered "the last line Of defense"
and a life-saver to the man who I'M
Sheathed it.
Our colored troops display a special
aptitude and affection for this weapon.
The white fighter is inclined to rely
upon his automatic pistol in an emer-
gency at close quarters, but the col
Ored man in uniform takes as natural
ly to the bOlo knife as he does to-
well, as he does to the name of 'Mr.
Johnson"
Issued to U. S. Troops.
The bolO knife is issued to our
troops in two sizes-the smaller size
of the type which Henry Johnson used,
and larger knife employed exclusive
ly by field artillery batteries. This
latter is practically short sword,
comparable to the principal weapon
of the old Roman DICTIONARIES. It is
two feet long and weighs between
three and four pounds. Of course, be-
ing issued only to artillerymen who
are not ordinarily actually at grips
with the enemy, it is intended mainly
as sort of underbrush cutter. But
in the hands Of a desperate man fight
ing for his life it is a terrible per-
suader.
The bolo is in no sense a trench
knife. That is issued to every man
in the ranks and is a special tool not
meant for fighting save at the last
gasp. But the 14-inch bolo knife is
essentially weapon. It is issued to
six per cent of our infantry forces
not regularly to every seventeenth
man, but as occasion may require or
the immediate commanding officer may
direct. Henry Johnson was given his
because he was assigned to particular
~ dangerous duty in a listening post.
Others may be equipped with bolo
knives-for instance, as members of
a special detachment to accompany
raiding forces within the enemy lines.
Their work must be quick, silent and
thorough. From Luneville to Cantigny
the Germans have found it so.
The small arms division of the Unit
ed States ordnance department be-
lieves that the bolo knife has points of
superiority over any knife in use on
the European battlefield, else it would
not have been adopted for our use.