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Armies and countries usually overcome their military defeats, but some defeats are difficult to forget, especially when the event in the country becomes an inexhaustible source of ridicule, such as the defeat of the Australian army in 1932, in a military operation against the ostrich-like emus, when it decided to carry out a military operation against them after they had destroyed Many wheat crops.
It all started – as the French magazine Le Point reported – in the early 1930s when it struck Great Depression Farming is severely affected in Western Australia, plunging farmers into a deep crisis after the collapse of the price of wheat. The situation is further deteriorated by the arrival of a wave of giant emus to the region.
More than 20 thousand emus, each of which reaches a length of one meter and 90 centimeters and can overtake a car traveling at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour, descended, trampling crops and eating everything in its path, which constituted a real blow to the Australians.
Declaring war on emo
In these circumstances, the Australian government, in search of popularity, chose to solve this problem radically, by sending the army, and deploying soldiers equipped with Lewis machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition to eliminate these destructive creatures, provided that the government finances the movement of the soldiers and leaves the farmers to provide them with food and housing, and enough to pay The price of ammunition.
The initiative was welcomed by the local residents, and the army thought that three soldiers would be enough to overthrow the enemy, especially since emus are birds that cannot fly, but the army made a mistake in underestimating the intelligence and speed of these beasts.
Brigadier General Gwynedd Purvis, who “fought” in this operation, says, “The emu proved that it was not as stupid as people thought. Each group has its leader who stands guard to take care of his peers’ wheat, and at the first suspicious signal he gives the signal and dozens of heads emerge from the crop.”
The organized and reactive emus caused a defeat for Australia, without any casualties in its army, making the operation widely ridiculed throughout the country, as much as it seemed a huge waste, as 2,500 rounds of ammunition were used in exchange for killing about 100 emus.
Australian ornithologist D. L. Servente summarized the Emu War well in the Encyclopedia Britannica, writing, “The emu leadership appears to have adopted a guerrilla tactic, and their army, which could not maneuver much, was soon divided into innumerable small units, making the use of military equipment inexpedient.” “Unprofitable, so the disgruntled field force withdrew from the combat zone after about a month,” marking a defeat for the Australian army in front of thousands of emus.
