The Army That Lost To Birds

An army once lost to birds. Send this to the friend who says history is dull. In late nineteen thirty-two, wheat farmers in Western Australia were losing their crop to emus, tall flightless birds that had arrived in their thousands looking for water and found fields of grain instead.

Jeshi moja liliwahi kushindwa na ndege. Tuma hii kwa rafiki anayesema historia ni ya kuchosha. Mwishoni mwa mwaka wa elfu moja mia tisa thelathini na mbili, wakulima wa ngano huko Australia Magharibi walikuwa wakipoteza mazao yao kwa emu, ndege warefu wasioweza kuruka waliokuwa wamefika kwa maelfu wakitafuta maji na kukuta mashamba ya nafaka badala yake.

The farmers asked the government for help, and the government sent soldiers with two machine guns and ten thousand rounds of ammunition. On paper it was not a fair fight. In the fields it went rather differently. Emus run fast, turn sharply and take a great deal of stopping, and after the first bursts of fire the flocks broke into small scattered groups and simply kept moving. The guns jammed. A truck was tried, and the ground was far too rough to aim from.

Wakulima waliomba serikali msaada, na serikali ikatuma askari wenye bunduki mbili za mashine na risasi elfu kumi. Kwenye karatasi haikuwa vita sawa. Mashambani ilikwenda tofauti kabisa. Emu hukimbia kwa kasi, hugeuka haraka na huhitaji juhudi kubwa kuwazuia, na baada ya mifululizo ya kwanza ya risasi makundi yalivunjika na kuwa vikundi vidogo vilivyotawanyika ambavyo viliendelea kusonga tu. Bunduki zilikwama. Lori lilijaribiwa, na ardhi ilikuwa mbaya mno kuweza kulenga.

After about a month the soldiers went home. Fewer than one thousand birds had been killed out of a crowd many times that size, newspapers around the world had a wonderful time with the story, and the emus, who never knew that war had been declared, went back to eating the wheat.

Baada ya mwezi mmoja hivi askari walirudi nyumbani. Chini ya ndege elfu moja walikuwa wameuawa kati ya umati uliokuwa mara nyingi zaidi ya idadi hiyo, magazeti duniani kote yalifurahia sana hadithi hiyo, na emu, ambao hawakuwahi kujua kuwa vita ilikuwa imetangazwa, walirudi kula ngano.