ИНДИВИДУАЛЬНЫЙ УЧЕБНЫЙ ПРОЕКТ «ЗНАЧИМЫЕ СОБЫТИЯ В ИСТОРИИ АНГЛОГОВОРЯЩИХ СТРАН. WAR LOST TO THE BIRDS»

INTRODUCTION

If you were asked to recall one significant event in the history of English-speaking countries, what would you name? Maybe some state coups, revolutions or coronations. You will be right, but anyway I think it`s boring. I want to tell you about some entertaining and original story.

Well, this is my project about «Emu War» in Australia.

PREHISTORY

First of all, the soil in Australia cannot boast of its fertility and, accordingly, agriculture has not flourished. But «The Great Depression» also affected the Australian economy. The Australian government has asked farmers to noticeably increase grain supplies. Subsidies were promised for material interest. By the way, nothing has been paid to the farmers (:D). Wheat was chosen as the main crop, and many kilometers of fences were installed to protect the plants from wild rabbits. But instead of agricultural concerns, the settlers eventually found themselves involved "in an ongoing war against an enemy as ancient as Western Australia itself," local newspapers wrote.

THE WAR BEGINS

Emus paid close attention to the crops. Every year after the mating season, emus migrated from the central regions of the country to the coast. And then they ran into fences that prevented their movement. Breaking through the fence with a kick for an emu is a simple matter, soon a lot of birds (up to 20,000) turned out to be in farm fields near Campion and Valgulan. The birds liked the grain fields a lot and significant damage was done to the crops. The situation was aggravated by the invasion of wild rabbits. For a while, farmers were left to their own devices, saving their goods as needed. Farmers repeatedly appealed to the authorities for help, and in 1932 the Australian government responded to the threat.

The start of the operation was delayed due to October downpours, but in the early morning of November 2, 1932, the seventh heavy battery of the Royal Artillery under the leadership of Major Meridith landed at Campion. They brought with them two machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition.

Emus stayed out of the reach of the machine gun, so the locals tried to lure them into an ambush. However, the cunning birds split into small groups, becoming an ineffective target for shooting. It was not easy to shoot at the fleeing emus, so the first series of shootings was not crowned with success. The press now considered emus "elusive"

On November 4, the soldiers camped near the dam, where about a thousand emus came to drink. They started shooting at close range, but the machine gun jammed almost immediately. While it was being repaired, the rest of the birds managed to escape. This time, 12 emus were killed.

One day, the military installed a machine gun on a truck to be able to catch up with flocks of birds. However, the movement speed was still not enough to catch up with the fleeing emus, and it was absolutely impossible to aimlessly shoot while moving. According to the results of 6 days of fighting by the end of November 8, up to 2,500 shells were spent and only 50 were killed.

The newspapers were full of satirical reviews about this military operation and about the work of Major Meredith. To dilute the disappointing reports about the operation, Meredith reported that his unit had not suffered any losses. I think it's not worth saying how much it was ridiculous…

RESULTS

The military operation was terminated on December 10 by order of the Minister of Defense. Summing up the results of the fighting, Major Meredith noted that 9860 rounds of ammunition were spent during the war and 986 hooligan birds were destroyed. Emu raids continued from year to year. The farmers asked several times to send soldiers again, and in 1943 they even offered to bomb emus from small planes, but they were always refused. In conclusion, the reward for the destruction of the emu turned out to be the most effective way. From 1945 to 1960, almost 285,000 birds were killed in Western Australia.

What can I add in the end? «Emu War» — how to declare war on birds and lose it. During this gigantic military operation, only one fact was clarified — large-caliber machine guns are absolutely useless against birds.