The Great Emu War - Beaks vs. Bullets - Extra History - #2

western australia november 2nd 1932 for months the soldiers turned wheat farmers of campion and waguelan have suffered the depredations of the terrible emu after a vigorous mating season the gangly rambunctious birds had migrated west dashing their massive bodies against wire fences until they fell then trampling the precious crops under the ecstatic dance of their sharp claws with conventional methods of bird deterrence failing the farmers found themselves chasing down flocks of emus in their cars and on bicycles waving sticks at the birds who were so gleefully wiping out their livelihoods by spraying urine across hard grown rows of wheat but there were so many emu and they were so fast all seemed lost that is until a transport came over the horizon carrying three soldiers from the seventh heavy battery of the royal australian artillery and two mighty machine guns ah yes the farmers rejoiced perhaps they had lost the emu battle but today was the dawn of the emu war [Music] thanks so much to hellofresh for continuing to help us bring history to the table at 45 years old major gwyneth meredith had seen some action but not often against birds compared to the violence of the great war he considered this campaign more like a zoo visit and it's fairly easy though not pretty and you know let's be honest basically a dick move for a machine gun toning soldier to shoot animals at a zoo meredith's plan was to herd the emus together for quick killing because while his lewis guns were powerful they were cumbersome and not easily mobile so with the farmer's help he and his two soldiers attempted to shepherd a couple dozen emus into range of the guns but the birds were not so easily corralled chased by meredith the flock split into smaller groups and fled running away at 30 miles an hour hmm this might be harder than he thought but surely not harder than fighting an enemy battalion or an aircraft the targets these guns were designed to shoot these were birds and the bigger the bird the easier it should be to hit with a machine gun right well most folks thought so anyway in fact meredith superiors right up to the minister of defense had been so confident in the success of the mission that they'd sent a cameraman to capture propaganda footage of the culling and a request for 100 emu skins to make nice new hats for the boys back home thankfully the following two days brought better luck meredith's guns downed a couple of targets though this made no difference to emu morale and the birds continued their devastation of the fields seeing this meredith had an epiphany if he was going to deliver on expectations he needed to start making bigger moves so he planned an ambush at an emu watering hole and this time one thousand emus walked into his trap but when meredith gave the order to fire the machine guns jammed good thing the camera crew was there by the time they cleared the jam engaged the enemy and held their breath for the dust to settle the vaunted tools of modern war had killed only 12 emus more were wounded sure but undeterred by the bullets lodged in their surprisingly tough hides most managed to escape meredith couldn't believe how much punishment an emu could take without going down if we had a military division with the bullet carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world he said they can face machine gun fire with the invulnerability of tanks then the farmers shared their own hard-won wisdom there's only one way to kill an emu shoot him through the back of the head but meredith would have to catch them first giving up his ambush tactics he mounted a gun on a truck and chased the emus down but the birds were still faster and the ground too bumpy for the gunner to shoot with any accuracy also by now the birds were keeping to smaller groups almost strategically almost as though they had a leader in each pack the soldiers observed a quote big black plumed bird which stands fully six feet high and keeps watch while his mates carry out their work of destruction and warns them of our approach and it was at this moment of despair a moment in which one comes to believe in the existence of an emu commander and intelligence chief that meredith and his men were ordered back home immediately just as things were getting worse and the emus were descending in greater force upon champion had mighty australia surrendered meanwhile in parliament members had been asking the prime minister uncomfortable questions like was an emu war really the best way to deal with a pest control problem who was paying for it oh and also wasn't all of this just incredibly silly ah um yes yes it was in parliament the opposition called it a farce and the press reported that the eu's were more than holding their own in the war which i think we can all agree is a very bad look so george pearce the minister of defense officially declared the emu war over with only 300 birds dead turns out nobody in the army would be getting any new hats after all this decision while politically expedient was terrible news for the settlers of campion and wagolan whereas the emus now emboldened continued their ravages so once again the farmers begged for assistance dispatching urgent telegrams from the very much still active battlefront emu's beginning reappear large numbers wired one farmer in cambion and from wagolin we urgently desire lubus gun crew to assist here enormous number of emus doing untold damage alright back to square one then almost because what the farmers had now was an ally a convert in major gwyneth meredith for he had been transformed by what he'd seen in the west the damage done by these birds has to be seen to be believed meredith protested to his superiors sitting behind one's desk he said one could not imagine the horrors of the emu war the birds were nigh invulnerable and poised to bring australia to the brink of agricultural catastrophe they needed to be stopped he needed to stop them and so in the interest of agriculture pierce agreed to redeploy meredith and his men to the front lines in an attempt to bring an honorable end once and for all to the emu war november 13th 1932 many men fear emasculation but few know how it feels to be emasculated by an emu that is emulated meredith by contrast had been emusculated hard by the big birds in a theater of war so now his response was to drown the desert in blood his first day back meredith killed 40 emus and by december he and his men were putting down a hundred a week as he did george pierce was asked in parliament was there not a more humane method to call the troublesome emus poison perhaps maybe stronger fences to which pierce replied that he thought machine guns were pretty humane on december 10 1932 they declared their mission accomplished meredith and his soldiers returned home in triumph claiming to have killed 986 emus with a further 2 500 mortally wounded the emu war had been won by the humans australian humans i mean who's to say how any other nation would have done and yet once the belligerence and bloodlust had diminished with time people still did think you know that was very silly and george pierce's enemies never let him forget it calling him the minister for the emu war even as he specifically never brought it up again there are many officials and experts who can't bear to be reminded of some of their more ambitious efforts at emu destruction wrote sydney's sunday herald years later and sure it's embarrassing to be shown up by a bunch of emus but maybe it's more embarrassing to get so worked up about it that you try to drive an entire species to near extinction with high caliber automatic weapons or was the most embarrassing thing of all that it wasn't enough the emus returned time and time again to campion and wagolan their feathers laden with lead but figuratively unruffled and when the farmers petitioned the government for another emu war the answer this time was no not a problem the farmer said what if we just dropped bombs on them instead you know like from a plane again a hard no unwarranted was the word they used so in the end nobody got what they wanted by supporting the emu war george pierce had hoped to quell a secession movement in the state of western australia but in 1933 the state went ahead and voted for it anyway only to be told by the united kingdom that secession was illegal and shortly thereafter western australia voted pierce out of his senate seat and in just a few decades neglected by central government the towns of campion and wagolan withered up and died campion today is a ghost town no wheat no farmers no soldiers nothing we'll accept maybe you'll see an emu or two a little slower now you know a little grayer just pecking and peeing at the lone desert sands where there was once a town one can only imagine a single thought crossing their bird brains heck around and find out but don't worry fellow human just because the birds won the emu war doesn't mean we're any lower on the food chain which i was just reminded of when i took a look at the delectable dishes from our friends at hellofresh too soon you know i'm sorry if i sound like a broken record at this point but i love that hellofresh sponsors our shows because they've been saving me time and keeping me way less hangry for ages now all while eliminating tedious trips to the grocery store and stressful meal planning i get everything i need to prepare delicious meals all delivered to my door and i am eating in a half hour or less it's like the perfect effort to ease ratio this week i was pumped to cook and try their pork bulgogi bowls not just because that's fun to say and i gotta tell you they were awesome plus now that zoey and i basically have weaseled our way into a standing invite for second dinner over at jeff's we got him to permanently up his plan to include more servings which this time around was the special sauce house burgers that's a win you know technically i think it's thirds at this point but i digress tastiness aside another thing that keeps me feeling great about hello fresh is their continued work on the sustainability front ingredients are pre-portioned which means less food waste and the carbon footprint of their service is actually 25 smaller than that of meals made from store-bought groceries and now is a great time to try hellofresh for yourself with this delectable deal all you gotta do is go to hellofresh.com and use the code extra credits 14 to get 14 free meals including free shipping and you know what i'm just gonna say that again in case your stomach was growling too loud you can get free food while supporting the content you love the environment and most importantly your grumbly tummy again that's 14 free meals at hellofresh.com using the code extra credits 14. your time and taste buds will thank you and as always so will we thanks that's right zoe ahmed zion turk alicia bramble casey muestia dominic valenciana joseph blame kyle 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Channel: Extra History

Views: 392,101

Keywords: extra history, history lesson, extra credits, extra credits history, world history, learn history, study history, united kingdom, george pearce, rob rath, matt krol, Australia, emu war australia, emu war reaction, joseph lyons

Id: xxvtYx2CKAU

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 09 2021