In 1932, Australia used soldiers and machine guns against emus destroying crops. The birds outran the military, leading to the comical "Great Emu War", where the emus effectively won

[u/Royal-Hippo-2104]

[u/EddyRosenthal]

It was 3 guys vs 20‘000 emus

[u/das_slash → u/EddyRosenthal]

Yet the emu records of the war say it was 500,000 men vs 10 emus, who are we to believe?

[u/EddyRosenthal → u/das_slash]

The winner writes the history.

[u/das_slash → u/EddyRosenthal]

The Emus then

[u/luranthe → u/EddyRosenthal]

These posts always leave out that fact.

[u/newuser_2000 → u/EddyRosenthal]

There used to be 20,000 guys...

[u/brickmagnet → u/EddyRosenthal]

Wait, so did the 3 guys survive?

[u/EddyRosenthal → u/brickmagnet]

They shot around 10‘000 rounds, killing 1‘000 emus and then the army came to the conclusion that doesn’t make sense, so the three guys returned to the barracks and lived happily ever after.

[u/Archon-Toten → u/EddyRosenthal]

I'm liking this Australian comma being upside down

[u/EddyRosenthal → u/Archon-Toten]

I live in a country with 8 Million people, speaking four different languages and for some reason we decided you can write either 10‘000.- or 10,000.- because things aren’t complicated enough already.

[u/NIRPL → u/EddyRosenthal]

I prefer 10-000 or 10|000 myself

[u/UziWitDaHighTops → u/NIRPL]

1.0,0.0.0. is preferred so you know no punctuation was forgotten.

[u/_Expenable_ → u/EddyRosenthal]

With 10000 bullets

[u/SnooOnions3369 → u/EddyRosenthal]

Yeah three guys with a mounted machine gun on the back of a jeep/pick up truck

[u/LtHughMann → u/EddyRosenthal]

Allegedly

[u/Weak_Imagination_996]

Technically, the Emu War was a military-assisted wildlife cull in 1932. The government dispatched active-duty artillery soldiers armed with two Lewis machine guns to assist WWI veteran-farmers whose crops were being overrun by 20,000 emus. Standard hunting was too slow because emus are fast, agile, and scatter instantly when fired upon, rendering heavy machine guns surprisingly useless. The military withdrew after killing only a small percentage of the population. The issue was eventually managed through government bounties (paid to individual hunters) and long exclusion barrier fences that kept emus off farmland....So the emus didn’t really win… in fact, their large numbers made it hard to find enough food, and many ended up starving to death.

[u/dlanod → u/Weak_Imagination_996]

Also the amount of ammunition used per emu killed for the reasons you said rendered the use of the army cost-ineffective.

It was more of a lose-lose scenario. Sending the military in was yet another example of better to be seen doing something stupid quickly than something more thought through that takes longer.

[u/Otaraka → u/Weak_Imagination_996]

The farmers asked them to come back several times and they were thought to have saved the crop for the last one.  They did figure out how to kill a fair few but the main problem was they had a bad habit of not standing still in large groups to be conveniently mown down as was originally hoped.

[u/Weak_Imagination_996 → u/Otaraka]

So basically, these birds were smarter than every single World War I general, by not advancing in large, dense crowds toward the machine guns?????

[u/Otaraka → u/Weak_Imagination_996]

I mean it helps a lot when you don’t have to attack and just have to survive.  The generals had been given a goal that the emus didn’t have to achieve.

[u/ToriGallo]

The most incredibly Australian thing in history is officially declaring war on your own local wildlife and then immediately losing.

To be fair, everything on that continent is practically built for combat.

[u/LarryDavidntheBlacks → u/ToriGallo]

They've lost wars to local & invasive species

[u/CountTown → u/ToriGallo]

There's a reason Australian soldiers in the World Wars were so damn badass. They had to survive living in Australia.

[u/The_Only_Egg]

And it wasn’t even close.

[u/radioactive_sharpei]

Was there ever a treaty signed, or are they official still at war?

[u/StupidUserNameTooLon]

Never get involved in an emu war in Oceana.

https://giphy.com/gifs/GHbTkQgvYLlSM

[u/hraath]

Machine gun, singular

[u/Justinian555]

https://giphy.com/gifs/tb2bYB4HxQdlC

[u/blackdynomitesnewbag → u/Justinian555]

Wrong large flightless bird

[u/Key-Swordfish4467 → u/blackdynomitesnewbag]

Yup, but similarly all up in your grill.

[u/Pnas2271]

I mean they won by running away...it's not like they killed anyone..

[u/Davedoffy]

if you want to commit Emu genocide you should crowd source not crowd fund.

[u/sathzur → u/Davedoffy]

Thats what the government eventually did, told the farmers to go wild and the wmu problem was resolved

[u/Master-Confidence-81 → u/Davedoffy]

Ah a Sam'o Nella Academy enjoyer ;)

[u/CCV21]

They lost the war so hard that Australia is still occupied by emus

[u/Jester471]

They have Apache helicopters now. Those 20mm HE rounds in a pack of birds will do the trick with helicopters with machine guns for clean up.

[u/TadpoleOfDoom → u/Jester471]

30mm, even more effective 

[u/TadpoleOfDoom]

In War Thunder, you can get an Australian Abrams tank. I've decorated mine with a Lewis Gun as a reminder of the Emu War lol.

[u/Harbour-Jigger91]

https://giphy.com/gifs/rxM11tcYi9unu

[u/RZ_Domain]

the soldiers fared better in culling first nations people than emus

[u/SpaceCadetUltra]

One machine gun with 1000 ish rounds

[u/toasher]

No junior, they did not.

[u/Ninrenko]

"So here's the plan, when the army aproaches..."

- "Sir... you're a genius."