The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-05-17
Johnson, Colored Soldier,
hit a Lot of Hun Skulls
With the Weapon.
FROM MOROs
,rtment Now Issues the Ter
CIeaver to Some of Our
Troops, and the Germans
9oi1't Like II at All.

Washington.-A year ago Henry
johnson, a colored citizen of Albany,
~. u, was peddling ice, coal and wood
Id coDtented obscurity. Today Henry
Johnson, d soldier of the United States,
is wearing che coveted French war
cross with palms, because he proved
himself a 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-andtumble, 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 well weighs one pound and three
ounces without it's scabbard, and has
d broad 14-inch blade 1t is sharpened
to a razor edge, and near the end
runs abruptly to thrusting point. But
one Of its chief virtues as small-arm
| is its cleaving power. Most of the
weight of the knife is distributed along
the back of the blade.
| Americans first ran up against the
boIo in the Philippines. Over there 1T
Twas originally an agricultural tool, just
as the machete was in Cuba, and
bIackSmiths 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
pilanp is a bigger bolo.
Was Weapon of the Moros.
1t was up among the Moros that it
| was developed for war purposes. In
! the underbrush it proved very ter
rible weapon, as many a trooper found
| to his cost A stroke in the tropical
| night--just one-counted for a major
| American casualty. After while our
soldiers found there was no particu-
I tdr knack in the Malay use of the bol0
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 bolo 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 tool rather than weapon.
1t 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
Nv to the bolo knife as he does to-
we'll, as he does to the name of ''Mr
Johnson"
Issued to U. S. Troops.
The bolo knife is issued to oul
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 legiOnaries. 1t il
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. Blu
In the hands of a desperate man fight
| ing for his life Il is 3 terrible per
suader, =
The bolo is in no sense a trench
Iknife. That is issued to every maj
IN the ranks and is q special tool no