At the end of the 1930s, an incredible battle broke out in Australia. Under the command of the officer, the Australian soldiers declared war aggressively on the "local indigenous" emu. As a result, after two "fierce" battles, these heavily armed Australian soldiers were defeated by the "Emu Army". The commander finally fled the "battlefield" in a desperate manner. Why did the Australians fight such a battle with the emu, and how did they lose in the end? Next, let us review this history and re-understand this bizarre battle.
After the end of World War I, a large number of Australian soldiers returned to their hometowns, and many of them chose to retire. Fortunately, many places in Australia have not yet been developed, so the Australian side allocated land to these soldiers and provided a lot of technical support. These veterans were actually quite moisturizing at the beginning, but a group of uninvited guests broke the good life just a few days after the good days. They are the second-largest bird in the world-the emu. These stupid big guys are very sturdy, and they will always rush into the farmland in droves. Those hard-grown grains are stolen by them, and the ones that are not eaten will be eaten by their big feet. The spoiling is over. And Australia was in the Great Depression at the time, and the prices of various crops also fell, again and again, coupled with the destruction of emu, undoubtedly worsened the situation, so many people began to find ways to deal with these big birds. After hunting emu, you can get a certain bounty. Although many people participated in this operation at that time, there was too many emu, so the situation did not change significantly.
In October 1932, it was reported that a huge "corps" composed of about 20,000 emu was approaching Valgoran and Kempion mightily. This frightened the local people, and he was no match for them anyway. After learning about this incident, the top Australian army believed that the “enemy” could no longer be allowed to continue to be arrogant, so they dispatched a company of Royal Artillery to prepare for an annihilation operation against this group of “army”. But in fact, at the very beginning, the commander only brought two soldiers, two machine guns, and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition. It might be that he thought that dealing with this emu would not be necessary to mobilize people like this. The commander also signed a contract with the locals, saying that "after the war" they would give them a hundred emu skins, which were made into leather caps and handed over to the troops as rewards, and then rushed to the battlefield with confidence.
On November 2, 1932, the commander and two soldiers came to Campion. They set up a barbed-wire fence on the route of the emu's path and wanted to wait for the big birds to gather in a bunch and fire. If it went well, the battle would be over soon. But what the three people didn't expect was that the emu army did not enter their encirclement at all, but flew in another direction. Seeing the "enemy" drifting away, the commander hurriedly asked two soldiers to shoot. As a result, after a fierce battle, only a dozen "emu soldiers" fell under the gun, and most of the others evacuated the "battlefield." The time came on November 4, when the unwilling commander set up an ambush again near a reservoir, preparing to completely defeat the enemy this time. The commander had good luck today. With the cooperation of the locals, he drove more than a thousand emu into the encirclement. This time the two soldiers opened fire when the "enemy" was close enough. It stands to reason that this would be a beautiful "annihilation war." But something magical happened again. After killing 12 "Emu Soldiers", the machine gun misfired for some reason. The people around had no choice but to take up rifles to fight, but unfortunately, this emu ran so fast, and they all escaped without killing a few in the end. So far, the Australian army has used about 2500 bullets, but only a few dozen emu have been killed. Faced with the defeat of the first "Human-Bird War", the commander really couldn't hold his own face, and finally left this cruel "battlefield."
After this battle, the "Emu Army" seemed to have become more unscrupulous, causing local people to complain. Australia has no choice but to launch a "second battle" against them. Since only the last commander in the army had relevant experience, on November 13, he was again "delivered in danger" and stepped onto the front line of the "crisis-ridden" battlefield. This time the commander learned the lesson of the "first battle" and directly led a company of soldiers to the target. It didn't take long for the two sides to start a "fierce confrontation." But soon the battle showed a one-sided situation. Since there was no combat vehicle at the time, soldiers could only rely on two legs to chase "Emu Soldiers", so they couldn't kill many enemies at that time because they were really running. It's too fast. After a month of arduous "battle", the commander once again reported his results: his soldiers used 9,860 rounds of bullets and killed 986 "emu soldiers", but faced more than 20,000 emu soldiers. The formed "super force", this "record" was obviously not satisfactory, and finally, the commander ordered the entire army to retreat.
In the second "Human-Bird War", the emu was still victorious. The Australian side felt that this was not enough, so they launched a nationwide "Emu Annihilation War." As long as you eliminate an emu, you can get a good bounty. More and more people took up their guns and "united together" against the "Emu Army." This time, the effect was particularly obvious, and the number of emu was also drastically reduced later. By 1988, the emu had been classified as a rare species. After research in Australia, it was found that the emu was not only harmless but would help protect the land and the environment. In order to protect these poor children, Australia finally promulgated a law to protect emu, and put their image on top of the national emblem, and eventually became Australia's national bird.
