The Great Emu War - une guerre oubliée du vingtième siècle
12 Nov 1932 - ATTACK ON EMUS. Minister Approves of Resumption.
▻http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/4508317
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Saturday 12 November 1932
CANBERRA, Friday.
The machine-gun attack on the emus which have been ravaging crops in Western Australia has been resumed. The Minister for Defence (Sir George Pearce) said today that, acting on press reports of the use of personnel of the military forces with machine-guns, which had been provided at the request of the State Government of Western Australia, and of farmers whose crops were being spoilt be the incursion of large numbers of emus into the outer fringe of the wheat belt, he had withdrawn the party. He had since received a report from the base commandant, Perth, which indicated that 300 emus had been killed, and strong representations had been made by the premier of Western Australia (Sir James Mitchell), and also by the farmers, that, owing to the hot weather and the absence of water in the interior, the emus were appearing in thousands.
Knowing, as he did, the tremendous damage that these birds could cause in a standing crop, and with a desire to save the loss to the farmers, he had approved of the party returning to the wheat belt.
Wikipedia contient un article très détaillé sur l’histoire de la Great Emu War .
▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Emu_War
Summarizing the culls, ornithologist Dominic Serventy commented:
The machine-gunners’ dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month.
...
After the withdrawal, Major Meredith compared the emus to Zulus, and commented on the striking maneuverability of the emus, even while badly wounded.
If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world... They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop.
Une carte des pertes subies par les oiseaux
▻http://thelandofmaps.tumblr.com/post/102265216740/emus-lost-in-the-great-emu-war-oc-1000x700
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