[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by KuKulzA28

Just to liven up this topic once more (I like it very much), what was historically the most successful bolo-rush?

I am intrigued by these near-suicidal rushes being made by native people against colonial powers. Some of them were part of native war-doctrine. Others didn't usually engage in a wild rush unless circumstances necessitated it - the normal warfare was traditionally ambuscades, raids, counter-raids, and very few open engagements. How successful were they? Would it have been easier just to form small groups and ambush with traps and pits with bolo-men closing in afterwards? Or was it paramount to attack with masses of bolo-men? In some cases, maybe fewer bolos would've been better ratio-wise? Masses do inspire courage however...

Earlier we saw how the cover of vegetation and the cover of darkness yield successful bolo rushes.

The third "cover" and this time employed in urban warfare is the use of artifice and cunning.

And under this mode we see the most successful bolo rush ever. The incident was described as the United States Army's worst defeat since the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

It was the Balangiga massacre of 1901 during the Philippine-American War. "Balangiga" is pronounced BAH-lung-hee-gah (not sure where the accent is, and I just presumed it's in the first syllable).

Here's the rest of the bits of info from Wikipedia:

• more than forty American soldiers were killed in a surprise guerrilla attack and Filipinos regard the attack as one of their bravest acts in the war
  
• the attack was made between 6:20 and 6:45 am of September 28, 1901
  
• the leader of the attack was the Balangiga police chief, Valeriano Abanador (standing sixth from right, with Company C, 9th US Infantry Regiment, taken in Balangiga)
  
• the attack commenced when Abanador, who had been supervising the prisoners' communal labor in the town plaza, grabbed the rifle of Private Adolph Gamlin, one of the American sentries and stunned him with a blow to the head
  
• this served as the signal for the rest of the communal laborers in the plaza to rush the other sentries and soldiers of Company C, who were mostly having breakfast in the mess area
  
• Abanador then gave a shout, signaling the other Filipino men to the attack and fired Gamlin's rifle at the mess tent, hitting one of the soldiers
  
• the pealing of the church bells and the sounds from conch shells being blown followed seconds later
  
• to mask the disappearance of the women from the dawn service in the church, 34 men from Barrio Lawaan cross-dressed as women worshipers
  
• these "women", carrying small coffins, were earlier challenged by Sergeant Scharer of the sentry post about the town plaza near the church
  
• opening one of the coffins with his bayonet, he saw the body of a dead child, whom he was told, was a victim of a cholera epidemic
  
• unbeknownst to the sentries, the other coffins hid the bolos and other weapons of the attackers
  
• some of the Company C troopers were attacked and hacked to death before they could grab their rifles; the few who survived the initial onslaught fought almost bare-handed, using kitchen utensils, steak knives, and chairs
  
• one private used a baseball bat to fend off the attackers before being overwhelmed
  
• of the 74 men in Company C, 36 were killed in action, including all its commissioned officers; Captain Thomas W. Connell [USMA graduate], First Lieutenant Edward A. Bumpus and Major Richard S. Griswold
  
• twenty-two were wounded in action and four were missing in action; eight later died of wounds received in combat; only four escaped unscathed
  
• the 500 attackers suffered 28 dead and 22 wounded
  
• Company C had to flee the garrison immediately for fear of being wiped out
  
• in the process, they left about 100 rifles and 25,000 rounds of ammunition (which is another devastating loss, as these much needed firearms and ammo prolonged the struggle in Samar, first by the soldiers of the Philippine republic, and later by the Pulajanes and other groups)

The other photo shows Abanador in his old age, while the Balangiga memorial marker says in English:

BALANGIGA MASSACRE: In this town, on the 28th of September 1901, Filipinos armed with bolos attacked Company "C", Ninth Infantry of U.S. They killed almost all the American soldiers. In revenge the Americans launched a six-month "kill-and-burn" [campaign]. The town became like a "howling wilderness." Because of their cruelty, Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith and Major Littleton W.T. Waller were tried by court martial and cashiered.

Years ago, there were a lot of conflicting accounts about this encounter as a whole.

Much studies have been made since then. By this time almost all of the points have been harmonized (and as reflected in the Wikipedia article on the subject).