Maximum size of kris?

[kai]

there are the broad moro style (sundang) ones that were used for draw cuts like a katana, and could also be used for thrusts; the US Marines recorded instances where a moro actually cut a marine in two with one back in the early 20thC insurrection

As already noted, that was a barong AFAIK but there is no doubt that a Moro kris can be similarly devastating. In the same vein, there was another recent thread where a veteran of the Filipino army was cited as having stated that he never saw any victim of a kris attack survive due to the severe wounds (under the limited medical care options in remote jungles)!

it's why the army dropped their 'economic' .38 cal. pistols in favor of the .45.

Actually, that's a myth. It's true that the .38 usually didn't have enough stopping power to deal with juramentado attacks. But the limited stopping power (in different combat situations) was already well known before the Spanish-American war and I recall that the switch to the .45 had been already decided, too. However, it often seems to take ages to get equipment upgrades distributed to regular combat soldiers rather than to just a few elite units.

Regards,
Kai