I have been told by two different RNZAF pilots who were attached to RAF fighter units in he Burma campaign that at a certain point they were ordered to shoot elephants that were being used by Japanese troops as transport. Alan Peart said he shot one and it is his biggest regret of the war. And Jim Cranstone said that he refused to obey the order because he saw the elephants as wonderful creatures who were innocents.
I wonder if others here have heard about the order to shoot ‘enemy’ elephants?
I am supposing that the British Army also used elephants, and possibly even the RAF and Fleet Air Arm in the India-Burma region. So did the Japanese also target ‘allied’ elephants?
By: paul178 - 26th June 2012 at 16:03
I truely believe that man is the most destructive animal to inhabit this planet.
I feel that our “superior intelligence” will bring about its eventual extinction.
By: hampden98 - 26th June 2012 at 14:25
The TV mini series `Generation Kill` based on a true story of a US Recon Team in Iraq.
Trombly the SAW gunner asks if he can `shoot those dogs` and the Sarge replies `Trombly, we are US Marines. We don’t shoot dogs only people, and then only when carrying a gun`.
An interesting aside. My dad served on HMS Anson during WW2. He was often asked to be part of a shore patrol and ordered to `shoot dogs on site` because of the risk of rabies. However, as he was issued a Thompson he probably would have taken out several people as well!
By: Creaking Door - 26th June 2012 at 10:35
Apparently, the equipment at that time was unable to descriminate between a U-Boat and a Whale.
This also happened during the Falklands War; British forces launched several anti-submarine homing-torpedoes against whales.
The, rather indiscriminate (land) minefields laid on the Falklands by Argentine forces also blew the hoofs off several of the island’s free-roaming horses. When the fighting was over the British sent snipers, in helicopters, to shoot these poor animals, to put them out of their misery.
I have read that, when asked, how the Argentines intended to clear the minefields if they had remained in control of the Falklands (because the minefields weren’t properly mapped and because the number of mines scattered wasn’t recorded); their answer was ‘with sheep’!
Returning to the subject of elephants I’ve read an account from a German serving in French Indochina with the French Foreign Legion; to ‘punish’ a village that had been ‘helping the enemy’ the Legion destroyed many of the village animals, including Water-Buffalo (Oxen?), but this (ex-SS) German couldn’t bring himself to shoot any of the village elephants (although, by his own account, he had no qualms about bayoneting prisoners in other incidents).
I’ve also seen harrowing footage, from Africa I think, of an elephant that had stepped on a landmine.
Also, it is worth mentioning, that, contrary to popular belief, many German divisions used horse-draw transport during WW2, even in Normandy; these were particularly vulnerable at Allied fighter-bombers. It had been said that US troops (particularly) were shocked more by the sight of dead horses along the roadsides, than by dead Germans. ‘War Horse’ did not end in 1918!
By: Dave Homewood - 26th June 2012 at 09:56
I’m looking forward to seeing the film of the play John.
There was actually a film I saw some years back one Saturday afternoon called ‘Hannibal Brooks’ starring Oliver Reed about a POW who escapes form the Germans with an elephant. It’s a good fun movie, as was the Vietnam era film operation Dumbo Drop. Your play could be a winner, haha
By: l.garey - 26th June 2012 at 06:33
I have it from a friend who flew Blenheims with 244 Squadron from Sharjah in 1942 that during an anti-submarine patrol he was positioned for an attack on a large dark object under the surface with bomb doors open, when it “blew”. It was a whale who lived to see another day.
Also, more recently, 8 Squadron was involved in the Jebel Akhdar “war” in Oman in 1958, and one of its Venoms which crashed on the Saiq Plateau at 2000m altitude is said to have been strafing goats. Its wreck is still there (https://sites.google.com/site/lgarey/jebel-akhdar). According to an Operations Record Book in the National Archives at Kew, in the Aden conflict 8 Squadron Venoms claimed “600 goats, 8 camels, 2 cows and one man”.
By: J Boyle - 26th June 2012 at 03:50
Years ago I recall watching a TV game show and the host said he was a former wartime PBY pilot. He was asked whether he sank any U-Boats.
No, he said, but he did accidently blow up a whale.
No doubt it happened on occasion, but I wonder if it wasn’t also somewhat of a self depricating joke as well?
BTW: Dave
I’m working on a new play…”War Elephants”. It will make me a fortune.
:D:diablo:
By: Snoopy7422 - 26th June 2012 at 01:05
Bigger Targets…
A friend of mine flew Coastal Command Liberators during the war. Their prime mission was of course as an anti U-Boat force, to plug the ‘Mid-Atlantic gap’. One of the tools they used, and I believe is still current in principle, – was to drop disposable Sonarbouys. These allowed triangulation onto a submerged sonar taget, whereupon suitable depthcharges would be dropped to destroy the target.
I, of course, had to ask the inevitable question – Had they managed to sink any U-Boats….? The answer was in the negative, ‘We did however kill quite a few Whales’. Apparently, the equipment at that time was unable to descriminate between a U-Boat and a Whale.
Nasty.
By: Bob - 25th June 2012 at 10:01
Not elephants I know but there is plenty of RAF gun camera footage of pilots shooting horse drawn wagons – I guess it was all part of the enemy supply line, so ‘fair game’. Also watching attacks on clearly marked ambulances is a bit unsettling – apparently the Germans used ambulances to move troops around covertly, and when this deception was discovered vehicles marked with a red cross became a ‘legitimate’ target…
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June 25, 2012 at 9:43 am