War is Hell—The Great Emu War of 1932,After World War I many Australian soldiers were encourag

War is Hell—The Great Emu War of 1932,After World War I many Australian soldiers were encouraged by the government to settle and farm lands in the west.  Much of these lands were very marginal and could not sustain 1930's era farming techniques.  The life of an Australian farmer in the west was hard and grim.  Then in 1932, things became much worse.  A heard of over 20,000 migrating emu (kind of like a small osterrrich) moved into the area, causing incredible crop damage. The beleaguard farmers had enough.  Forming armed militias, they banded together and started hunting the emus.  Furthermore, a representative convinced the Australian government to send military aid.  Major G.P.W. Meredith and a unit of soldiers armed with Lewis Machine Guns were dispatched to aid in the fighting.However, emus are not just simple flightless birds.  They can travel long distances with little food and water, and can sprint up to 30 MPH.  Whenever the men would set up an ambush the emus would scatter and disappear.  Soon the emus developed guerilla tactics in which they would swarm the fields like locusts, eating their fill and disappearing before the Australian army could respond.   On the fourth of November Meredith established an ambush that trapped 1,000 emus in a Lewis gun’s field of fire at point blank range.  After only twelve birds were killed the machine gun jammed.  By the time the jam could be cleared the flock had scattered and disappeared.In another tactic machine guns were mounted on trucks and soldiers attempted to chase and shoot down the emus.  However, the emus would respond by scattering in all directions, confusing the gunners and making it impossible to mow down whole flocks of birds.The Great Emu War was considered a major defeat, and Meredith and his men were recalled.  The emus suffered 300-500 loses during the war, the Australians suffered no casualties. -- source link

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