After using artillery units carrying machine guns, 4 "encirclement and suppression" in a row and multiple group battles, and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition in 3 months, why did the "Battle of Emus" end in the defeat of mankind?
Speaking of Australia, it seems to be a country that likes to wage "war" against animals. In the past hundred years, they have launched many "wars" against animals, the more famous of which are "Rabbit War", "Emu War", "Camel War".
Regarding Australia's "rabbit war", Australia's 5 "encirclements" of rabbits, I have talked with friends before, and everyone has left messages saying that "they don't understand food".
Here, let's talk about Australia's "war of emus" against the emu (érmiáo), and talk about its causes, processes and results.
Unlike exotic species rabbits and camels, emu is not only a native species of Australia, but also a specialty of Australia, second only to the African ostrich, the second largest bird in the world, and one of the ancient birds, mainly feeding on grasses.
Adult emu are 30 to 45 kg tall, 1.5 to 1.9 m tall, and live for about 10 years. Due to the severe degradation of their wings, they are completely unable to fly, but they are good at running, and can run at speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour.
Although emu is a specialty of Australia, people there do not like it, especially in farms where emu are frequented, and the conflicts between farmers and emu have been constant. The reason is that emus, with their thick claws, often go to destroy farm fences and steal food.
Despite the contradictions between emus and farmers in the past, they did not become the number one enemy until 1932!
In 1932, after a summer drought in Australia, the more than 20,000 emus in the west had nowhere to go and had to migrate along water-rich areas where farms were dense.
During the migration, they found a herd of emus on the farm, attracted by the food and water sources on the farm, and instantly broke through the fence of the farm and began to "grab" food recklessly.
After eating and drinking, the emu herd not only did not continue to migrate, but "settled" near the farm, and went to the farm to "grab" it from three to five places.
This behavior of the emu herd brought great losses to the farm and completely angered the farmers, who began to hunt the emus.
However, due to the high vigilance and fast running speed of emus, and the limited strength of farmers, the killing of emus has little effect. In desperation, the farmers had to ask the state for help.
After hearing the call for help, Australia sent royal artillery, equipped with two machine guns and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, to wage a "war" against more than 20,000 emus.
In November 1932, the Royal Artillery began its first hunt of emus.
They first set up a large ambush circle in the place where the emus frequented, and then a part of the soldiers went to drive the emus away. When a large number of emus arrived, they immediately shot and killed.
However, the idea was good, but it was slapped in the face by reality, and this time they did not kill any of them. The reason is that the ambush circle is too large, and the emu is too cunning and runs too fast.
With the first experience, having learned from their defeat, they once again ambushed the emus, this time with a significantly smaller ambush circle. However, due to the bad marksmanship, after only knocking down a dozen of them, the emus escaped the encirclement.
After two defeats in two battles, the royal artillerymen found a new reason for their defeat. Believing that the number of emus in ambush circles is too small, giving them room to escape quickly, they need to find a larger herd of emus.
It didn't take long for the royal artillerymen to discover a flock of more than a thousand emus, which made them excited and determined to be humiliated! Therefore, they quickly set up an ambush point on the way of the emu flock.
However, when the large emu herd entered the ambush point, the two machine guns went off for only a few seconds before they muted the fire. It turned out that the machine gun jammed! When they repaired the machine gun, the emu would have fled long ago. This time, they wiped out a total of 12 emus.
Although this time it failed because of the machine gun, they discovered a new problem - when the large emu flock was fleeing, there would be several leading emus, leading the emu flock to scatter and escape.
So, they changed their strategy again and decided to "shoot the first bird". Knock down the lead bird, and the other emus should not know how to escape.
This time, however, they failed again! The machine gun fixed on the car, when chasing the lead bird, not only could not hit it accurately, but also accidentally crashed the car.
Here, after 4 consecutive defeats, they finally began to suspect their tactical problems, found that large-scale ambushes and interceptions would not work at all, and decided to change the way of group combat.
Don't say, after changing the group combat method, it finally has a certain effect! In a single day, multiple groups can also kill dozens of emus.
In this way, after three months before and after, after four "encirclement and suppression" and many group operations, and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition, Australia's "Emu War" was declared over.
After all, fighting emu also requires military expenses! What's more, their results were too disappointing, only 986 shots.
Although the three-month "Battle of the Emus" ended in the defeat of the Royal Artillery, the problem of the destruction of the farm by the Emu herd was not solved. As a result, Australia proposed the method of "heavy reward".
Finally, under the heavy reward, a large number of hunters began to hunt emus. After killing tens of thousands of emus in just half a year, the matter was solved.
By 1988, due to the dwindling population of emus, Australia began to legislate protection. And the failed "battle of the emus" has rarely been mentioned since then.
