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War elephants were important, although not widespread, Weapon s in ancient Military History . Their main use was in Charge s, to trample the enemy and/or break their ranks. They were first employed in India , where the elephant corps served as one of the four classical wings of the Indian Army. In the Hellenistic period of Greece, they were also used by the Diadochi to protect against cavalry attack. Their most famous use in the West was by the armies of Carthage , especially Hannibal , who brought elephants with his army to Spain and transported them over the Pyrenee Mountains and Alps into Italy , where he campaigned against Rome for several years. Eventually improved tactics and weapons such as the axe mitigated the value of the elephant in battle, as did decreasing contact with the East at the start of the 1st Millennium AD. However, it was the cannon which brought the combat elephant to an end, war elephants being limited to engineer and labour roles. It is commonly thought that all war Elephant s were always male, as they would be more aggressive, but this is not always true.John M. Kistler, War Elephants (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006), xi. HISTORY Antiquity Elephant taming (not full Domestication , they were still captured in the wild) may have begun in the Indus Valley Civilization around 4,500 years ago. The oldest evidence of tamed elephants is in a Mesopotamian relief, also from around 4500 years ago. The ancient population of wild elephants in Shang China, north of the Yellow river has also led to China as a possibilty.The first species to be tamed was thus the Asian Elephant , for agricultural ends. As a result of these 3 ancient centres of elephant usage, we do not know where elephant warfare began. The earliest known military application of elephants dates from around 1100 BCE in Vedic India , which is mentioned in several Vedic hymns from this era. Nevertheless, Mesopotamia and Shang China may have primitively used elephants for military purposes around the same time,War Elephants in Ancient and Medieval China, Edward H. Schafer, Oriens, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Dec. 31, 1957), perhaps as early as 1500 BC. However, unlike India, Mesopotamia's and China's populations dramatically declined from deforestation and overpopulation; by c. 850BC the Mesopatamian elephants being extinct, and by c.500 BC the Chinese elephants being of somewhat ineffective numbers, and limited south of the Yellow river. From , AD 75. The successful military use of elephants spread across the world. The successors to Alexander's empire, the (particularly Those From Syria ), some 2.5-3.5 meters (8-10 ft) at the shoulder maybe. In particular the North Afrian ones of Carthage are not known to have carried a Howdah , and and were quite often too scared to engage them in combat. The favorite elephant of Hannibal , on the other hand, was described as an impressive animal named ''Sarus'' ("the Syrian") and it is likely that at least some Syrian elephants were traded abroads. The African Savanna Elephant , larger than the African forest elephant or the Asian elephant, proved difficult to tame for war purposes and was not used as extensively. Elephants used by the Egyptians at the Battle Of Raphia in 217 BC were smaller than their Asian counterparts, but that did not guarantee victory for Antiochus III The Great of Syria. was King Dutugamunu 's mount (200 BC) and "Maha Pabbata" the mount of King Elahara during their historic encounter in the battlefield. Pliny The Elder (AD 45) one of the great Roman historians, in Book 6 of his 37 volume history, states that Megastenes had recorded the opinion of one Onesicritus that the Sri Lanka n elephants are larger, fiercer and better for war than others. For this reason and the proximity of elephants close to sea ports inter alia made Sri Lanka 's elephants a lucrative trading commodity. Even in peacetime, Death By Elephant was reserved for traitors and other offenders against the state and royalty. s War elephants in the Battle Of Vartanantz .]] In the next centuries, further use of war elephants in Europe was mainly against the Roman Republic by Carthage. From the Battle Of Heraclea (280 BC in the Pyrrhic War ) to the famous march across the Alps by Hannibal during the Second Punic War , elephants terrified the Roman Legion s. Like Alexander, the Romans found a way to cope with the dangerous elephant charges. In Hannibal's last battle ( Zama , 202 BC), his elephant charge was ineffective because the Roman Maniple s simply made way for them to pass. More than a century later, in the Battle Of Thapsus ( February 6 46 BC), Julius Caesar armed his Fifth Legion (''Alaudae'') with axes and commanded his legionaries to strike at the elephant's legs. The legion withstood the charge and the elephant became its symbol. Thapsus was the last significant use of elephants in the West.The African Elephant in Warfare, William Gowers, ''African Affairs'', Vol. 46 No. 182
The Parthia n dynasty of Persia occasionally used war elephants in their battles against Roman empire, but they were of substantial importance in the army of the subsequent Sassanid Dynasty . The Sassanids used these giant beasts in many of their campaigns against their western enemies. One of the most memorable ones was Battle Of Vartanantz in which Sassanid elephants caused much fear and crushed Armenian rebels. Another example is the Battle Of Al-Qādisiyyah in which elephants were used in numbers in the Sassanid Army . Middle Ages In the s gave Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor the opportunity to capture an elephant in the Holy Land , later used in the capture of Cremona in 1214. army waged war with elephants against the Cham in the 12th century.]] It was the use of elephants, again by an Indian s before the charge. The smoke made the camels run forward and scared the elephants, who crushed their own troops in an attempt to retreat. Another account of the campaign (that of Ahmed Ibn Arabshah ) reports that Timur used oversized Caltrop s to halt the elephant charge. Later, the Timurid leader used the animals against the Ottoman Empire . It is recorded that King Rajasinghe the First, when he laid siege to the Portuguese fort at Colombo , Sri Lanka in 1558, had an elephant phalanx of 2,200 (Peris 1913). The officer-in-charge of the Royal stables was called the "Gaja Nayake Nilame". His off-sider was the "Kuruve Lekham" who controlled the Kuruwe or elephant men. The training of war elephants was the duty of the Kuruwe clan who came under their own Muhandiram. Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand also used elephants in all their wars. One famous battle took place in 1591 when the Burmese army attacked Thailand's Kingdom of Ayutthaya . The war ended when the Burmese crown prince Minchit Sra was killed by Thai King Naresuan in personal combat on elephant back in Nong Sarai (Suphanburi). With the advent of Gunpowder warfare in the late 15th century, war elephants became obsolete for charging because they could be easily knocked down by a cannon shot. Non-battle-trained elephants have been used for military purposes up to and during World War II War Veteran Elephant Dies , where the animals could perform tasks in regions that would be problematic for machinery. Modern era |
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