BIRDS FOR THE WIN — THE ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN

This strange event started in Australia in 1932!

Out of nowhere, thousands of emus invaded wheat fields, trampling crops and damaging fences beyond repair.

Emus are a type of large flightless bird, similar in build to an outrage…that means they are VERY FAST!

The Australian Outback is a rough land and, because of it, the emus were pulled into wheat fields seeking food and water. Unfortunately for farmers, this newfound paradise was also their livelihood!

The farmers, who were First World War veterans, urged the Australian government to help them out, and the government did…well, they tried to!

The farmers, desperate for a solution, urged the Australian government to intervene.

The government believed that this problem could be handled with minimal effort, so they decided to deploy military forces to deal with it. After all, how hard could it be to face down a bunch of birds?

Armed with two Lewis machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, Major G.P.W. Meredith and two soldiers,Sergeant S. McMurray and Gunner J. O'Halloran, launched the first “assault” against this brutal enemy.

The objective was eliminating the emus and save the crops.

The initial encounters were promising but quickly turned into a debacle. On the first day, Meredith and his unit faced a flock of about 50 emus and managed to kill a few before the birds scattered.

However, subsequent attempts were less successful.

A few days later, an ambush targeting over 1,000 emus ended in failure when a machine gun jammed after killing only 12 birds.

Somehow, the emus seemed to have special forces training, because they divided themselves into small groups, as if trained in guerrilla tactics, eluding the poor soldiers who could do nothing but stare in horror.

“In 1932 Australian troops were dumbfounded when they found themselves outmaneuvered by clever birds during the Emu Wars.” (3)

Maybe they were descendants of Stormtroopers, I don’t know, but not even gun power was effective. They mounted a machine gun on a truck and hilariously, almost every shot was lost to eternity.

In an attempt to keep up with the emus, Meredith mounted a machine gun on a truck.However, this tactic also failed.

The truck's jolting on the rough terrain made it impossible for the gunner to aim accurately, and the emus proved to be faster than the vehicle. By the end of the first six days, approximately 2,500 bullets had resulted in only about 50 dead emus.

The truck was very slow and the terrain rough, rendering aiming almost impossible and the emus proved to be faster and more maneuverable than the vehicle.

The army was unprepared for this chaotic enemy and after some glorious battles, the army stopped to reforge their tactics.

After a few weeks, they tried again but destiny was not on their side…the birds were unstoppable. Only a few hundred birds were lost, with thousands still strong, ready to teach how it’s done.

As you can imagine, it was a media frenzy. They were making fun of the army with headlines such as:

‘Invincible Emu Brigade’ facing off against Australian troops

The Australian media quickly picked up on the story, and the "Emu War" became a national and international sensation.

Everyone where baffled by the fact that the army could deal with some random birds…maybe I would too!

THE AFTERMATH

After about a month of operations, the military campaign was officially terminated on December 10, 1932.

Despite the efforts, only around 986 emus were confirmed killed, a minimal impact on the overall emu population. The operation was deemed a failure, and the emus continued to cause crop destruction.

CONCLUSION

After this humiliating loss, the government realized that brute force wouldn’t work and instead, they tried more practical solutions, such as improving fencing.

This serves as a testament to insanity and how far people will go to solve certain problems, with improvisation that deserves a Nobel for creativity, giving us comical spectacles like this one.

They call it “ The Emu War”

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REFERENCES

https://www.historyhit.com/the-great-emu-war (1)

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Emu-War (2)

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2016/10/australias-emu-wars (3)

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18516559 (4)