The Great Emu War of 1932 — Australia Lost

In 1932, around 20,000 emus moved into wheat farms in Western Australia during the harvest. With farmers struggling in the Great Depression, the government sent soldiers. Major G.P.W. Meredith took two Lewis machine guns and 10,000 bullets to fight the birds. It was a failure. The emus split into small groups and ran at 50km/h, outmanoeuvring the guns. After weeks, only 986 were killed. Meredith famously said that if his soldiers had the emus' ability to take bullets, no army could beat them. The farmers solved the problem by building long fences instead.