If you've ever seen an emu up close, you'll know how big and scary they can be, I mean honestly, it's an enormous bird with a huge beak sharp claws and it can run up to 50 km/h (31 miles). Given the fastest man on earth (Usain Bolt)fastest speed is only 44 km/h(28 miles) at his top speed and only over 100m, we would be f*****d trying to outrun them.

Backstory

After WW1 many veterans returning home found themselves jobless and with nothing to do. In response the Australian government set out a "soldier settlement scheme" in which unemployed veterans were given plots of land to convert into profitable farming sites. Most of these were intended for growing wheat or raising sheep. Unfortunately for them Emu's love a good wheaty snack.

Up until 1922 Emus were considered a protected native species, unfortunately they became quite the pest, flattening crops and chewing them down to the base, essentially rendering most of these wheat farms useless. At this point they were reclassified as "vermin" and the farmers were given the all clear to shoot on site.
By 1932 there were over 20,000 of these huge flightless birds wreaking havoc on farms across western Australia.

Even though these farm owners were trained army veterans they were unable to do anything to reduce the numbers. It seemed as you shot one another 2 popped up. It was at this point the Army was called and so was born " The Great Emu War".
Kind of embarrassing that we needed to call in the military to deal with some flightless birds, unfortunately it was only downhill from there.

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The first battle

The great emu war began on the 2nd of November under the command of Major G.P.W. Meredith of the Seventh Heavy Battery of the Royal Australian Artillery. Armed with Lewis guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition the soldiers set off.

The first battle was to occur on the 2nd in a town called Campion where approximately 50 birds were residing and causing mayhem. Unfortunately for the soldiers the birds responded to the attack by scattering in all directions, minimizing casualties, whilst the battle was officially unsuccessful the army had managed to draw first blood and the war was on.

source(Lewis gun, WW1 era machine gun.)

The next battle occurred on the 4th of November when Intel noted over 1000 birds near a local dam. The soldiers set up an ambush and waited for the birds to come into close proximity. The aim was to essentially mow down large numbers of birds at once using the huge machine guns, this however backfired when the gun jammed after 12 shots and the emus fled. This was now the second fairly unsuccessful battle between man and emu.

By the fourth day of the campaign, army observers noted that "each pack seems to have its own leader now - a 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."
At this point Major Meredith decided to mount one of the machine guns onto a truck and attempt to defeat their foe whilst on the move, unfortunately this again proved to be ineffective due to rough terrain and the maneuverability the birds possess.
Emus whilst not faster than a car, have the ability to lift one wing in the air, and drop the other toward the ground, this helps them execute a 180 degree turn almost on the spot whilst keeping their momentum.
One of the army's adversaries even managed to take out one of the trucks with the mounted gun, getting tangled in the steering wheel whilst trying to flee and causing the vehicle to crash and destroy a fence.
The emus had begun fighting back.

By the 8th of November the Australian military had used over 2,500 rounds of ammunition, destroyed a truck and only managed to cull around 50 birds (some estimates go as high as 500 but these are considered blown out). The official report noted no human casualties.

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.

At this point the Government decided to withdraw their military presence in the are.
After the withdrawal, Major Meredith compared the emus to Zulus and commented on the striking manoeuvrability 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.

I believe this is what he was picturing

A cartoonist's impression of the war

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Subsequent engagements

Although military presence from the area was withdrawn and the army declared defeat continued complaints from farmers and James Mitchell, the Premier of Western Australia managed to convince another attempt to cull the birds.
Whilst these attempts were slightly more successful than the first by the 10th of December Meredith was recalled and in his report he claimed 986 kills with 9,860 rounds.

Requests were made for military assistance again in 1934,1943, and 1948 but denied by the government. Instead a bounty system was put in place which proved more effective.

Conclusion

The Australian armed forces lost a war against large flightless birds that didn't even know they were in a war.

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If you guys like what i post please dont forget to upvote comment or even resteem :)

Steem on Steemians.
Oh and here's a picture of me with one of my emus. I'm 6 ft 4 and she isn't fully grown yet so that should tell you how big they are.

Refernces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-emu-war-in-which-some-large-flightless-birds-unwittingly-foiled-the-australian-army/
http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/great-emu-war-1932-weird-sounds/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/in-1932-australia-declared-war-on-emus-and-lost