December 10, 1932

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 10, 1932, Australia conceded defeat in the Great Emu War. The giant, six-foot tall flightless birds were damaging the crops of the farmers of the Campion district in Western Australia and the government sent the army in to take care of the menace. Well, not the whole Australian army, just one major with two sergeants wielding machine guns with 10,000 rounds of ammunition. The 20,000 emu that had migrated to the area and were eating and destroying the wheat refused to bunch together to make their eradication easier and proved surprising resistant to the bullets.  After two months in the bush, the Major leading the expedition, claimed that approximately 1,000 birds had been killed using all 10,000 rounds of ammunition. He acknowledged that barely a dent was made in the population of the birds. He did say that the humans suffered no casualties. The army licked their wounds and went home. The emus told them “Next time, don’t send a boy to do a man’s job.”

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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