20,000 Emus
20,000 Emus
To know the meme behind the design, scroll to the joke part below
The Emu War of 1932 is a truly unusual chapter in Australian history, where the military’s efforts to control an emu infestation became a comical and humbling failure. In late 1932, farmers in Western Australia were facing severe crop damage from an estimated 20,000 emus, who descended on the region during their annual migration.
To address the problem, the government sent in soldiers from the 7th Infantry Battalion, led by Major G.P.W. Meredith. The troops were armed with two Lewis machine guns and 10,000 rounds of ammunition. However, the emus proved far more elusive than expected. Despite facing only about 1,000 birds at any given time, the soldiers found it nearly impossible to hit the fast-moving emus, and the terrain, combined with the birds’ speed and agility, rendered the machine guns largely ineffective.
In the first major engagement, the soldiers expended 2,500 rounds of ammunition but only managed to kill around 1,000 emus, which suggests they spent roughly 2 to 3 rounds per bird. However, the troops were unable to sustain the effort. After several more weeks of unsuccessful attempts—during which the birds scattered in small groups, evaded gunfire, and continued to ravage crops—the military withdrew, and the operation was officially deemed a failure.
By the end of the Emu War, the soldiers had killed around 1,000 emus out of the estimated 20,000. In the face of this feathery onslaught, the emus emerged victorious, and the military conceded defeat. The aftermath of the war left behind a quirky but memorable tale, forever ingrained in Australian folklore as a reminder of the unpredictability of nature and the limits of human intervention.
The quote “An army with this ability to be hit by bullets, is an army that will win against the world” is attributed to Major G.P.W. Meredith, the officer in charge of the Australian troops during the Emu War of 1932. In the face of their repeated failures to eliminate the emus, this remark was likely meant to reflect the absurdity and frustration of the situation. Despite the soldiers being armed with machine guns, the emus’ speed and agility rendered the troops largely ineffective, highlighting how the birds’ seemingly unassailable resilience could almost be seen as an advantage. This ironic statement has since become part of the humorous legacy of the Emu War, underscoring the mismatch between the military’s technological might and the surprising tenacity of the emus.
M1A1 AIM
The M1A1 AIM (Abrams Integrated Management) is an Australian response to the Cold War threats, which was put into service in 2007. As the Australians recognized that their existing fleet of Centurions and Leopards which the RAAC (Royal Australian Armored Corp) was becoming obsolete in overcoming the new threats. The Aussies replaced their tanks with new 59 M1A1 AIMs from the US (United States). The M1A1 AIM is an export variant of the main Abrams series tanks, yet the AIMs were equipped with additional sensors and communication platforms for better integration with the new information space on the battlefield.
The joke
As the nation realized that the ("AIM") would provide protection and it is the nation's ONLY saver, they have forgotten “An army with this ability to be hit by bullets, is an army that will win against the world”