Following World War I, Australia offered land to thousands of returning veterans to establish wheat farms in Western Australia. However, the Great Depression struck, and by late 1932, a new enemy arrived: 20,000 native emus migrating inland after their breeding season. Finding the cultivated farmland ideal, the massive birds ruined crops and destroyed fences, allowing rabbits to further devastate the fields.
Desperate farmers called upon the military for aid. Minister of Defence Sir George Pearce dispatched Major G. P.
W. Meredith leading soldiers armed with two Lewis automatic machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. What seemed like a simple pest control operation quickly turned into a logistical nightmare.
The artillery unit mounted machine guns on trucks, but the emus proved remarkably resilient and fast, easily outrunning vehicles over rough terrain. Emus also employed effective guerrilla-like tactics: each flock appeared to assign a tall leader to keep watch while the others fed. When soldiers opened fire, the birds scattered in all directions, rendering the heavy weapons virtually ineffective.
Rain, mechanical breakdowns, and jam-prone guns plagued the troops. After several days, thousands of rounds had been fired, yet only a few hundred birds were killed. Major Meredith famously noted that if he had a military division with the bullet-stopping endurance of these birds, it could face any army in the world.
The military officially withdrew, leaving the farmers to rely on bounties instead. The Great Emu War remains one of history's most bizarre military misadventures.