Personally I feel like Australia is one of the coolest countries out there. In fact, it is on my bucket list of places to visit. Like any other country out there, Australia has fought a few wars and in this post I will be talking about one such war, The Great Emu War of 1932.
Following World War 1, veterans were given land by the Australian government so that they could farm for wheat. Once the Great Depression started everything went downhill and wheat prices began to drop while the government was failing to deliver assistance. Everything was made worse when a flock of 20,000 emus arrived. The emus figured that living at the farms was better since water and food was readily availible. Soon the emus ravaged the farms and left holes in the fence from which rabbits and other pests could enter. The farmers went to the minister of defense, Sir George Pearce who deployed soldiers under the conditions that the current army will exterminate the emus and the farmers had to provide the army with food, money for ammunition and accomodation for the soldiers.
The war was conducted and commanded by Major G. P. W Meredith. The war was supposed to start in October 1932 but the rains caused the emus to scatter so they had to wait. On 2nd November the rain ceased and a small flock of about 50 emus were sighted. The birds were out of range so they tried to herd and ambush them but the emus ended up splitting up so only a few were killed. Another flock was encountered that day and they only killed a few. In the 4th of November a flock of 1000 emus were sighted and once they were in range the gunners opened fire but the guns jammed after killing only 12 birds. The emus were clearly winning since none of the tactics the military used were effective. They also had their own strategy which ensured that the soldiers wouldn’t be able to get them. By 8th November the government removed the troupes.
By 12 November the farmers were again asking for help since the emus continued to destroy the crops. Eventually the government sent the army again under Meredith because of the apparent lack of skilled machine gunners in the area. Soon the army was killing 100 emus per week. Towards the end of November the soldiers were shooting like it was a full blown war.
By 10th December, after nearly 40 days of fighting the soldiers were told to call off the war. Australia had lost the war with a crushing and humiliating defeat by the emus. To ensure that the farmers wouldn’t have problems the government gave them ammunition to kill or drive away the emus .
Moral of the story? I don’t know, maybe don’t fight with emus or else you’ll get you ass handed back to you.
