War elephants have been deployed during the course of history for different reasons, ranging from their psychological effect on soldiers to their immense strength and size. From India, Mesopotamia, the Roman Empire and Myanmar, the history of this weapon reaches far and wide. Armies initially deployed elephants to scare off adversaries and to serve as cavalry, storming the enemy’s troops and using their tusks as weapons. More recently, with their deadly role defeated by the modern technological advancements, they are deployed in war for logistics purposes, as transportation methods for supplies, especially where the terrain is unfavourable for cars.
Images Sourced From: Henri-Paul Motte, Gustave Doré, Alfred Grohs
1 History
“Grey as a mouse,
Big as a house,
Nose like a snake,
I make the earth shake,
As I tramp through the grass;
Trees crack as I pass.”
– JRR Tolkien on “oliphaunts” deployed in the War of the Ring. [source, source]
In the past, with no internet and no widespread globalisation, not all humanity knew what elephants are. Their appearance in the battlefield could startle even the bravest soldier, and the sound of their steps could echo from miles away. For this reason, their use in conflicts became common, especially in conflict between African and Asian populations against the West. [source]
1.1 War Elephants in India
4,000 years ago, in India, humans started using elephants for agricultural reasons. What they realised was that the animals were smart, powerful, and easy to train, which made them a perfect military weapon. As reported in Sanskrit texts, this military use started around 1100 BC. [source]
1.2 War Elephants in Mesopotamia
The first combat involving elephants were modest fights, unknown to most. However, the first big battle was in north Iraq, 331 BC, between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. The Persian side deployed 15 Asian elephants together with their 200,000 troops. Despite initial surprise and terror from the army of Alexander the Great, they won the battle, and the concept of war elephants grew familiar in the western world. [source]
A few years later, Alexander the Great moved his attention to India, where he battled more than 100 elephants in his war against King Porus. This time, however, he knew how to counter the beasts, and after winning the battle, he took 80 of the animals to use as his own weapons. After his death in 323 BC, with the division of his kingdom, his elephants were also divided and used in the following conflicts between the new leaders. [source]
1.3 War Elephants and the Romans
Another famous page in the history of war elephants is the battle of Hearclea of 280 BC. The Epirus king Pyrrhus deployed the animals. It was the first time that the Roman army encountered these creatures, but it wouldn’t be the last. Learning from this experience, the Romans developed war tools to deploy against the elephants that they would keep using in the following years. [source]
The most famous Roman enemy that used elephants is Hannibal, general of Carthage. The general, during the Second Punic War, brought 37 North African elephants over the Alps. Sources say that the Carthaginians took example from the Egyptians in the use of war elephants. However, Hannibal’s use of young specimens, wild and untrained, worked against his army. Furthemore, the animals suffered during this campaign due to wounds, fatigue, and adverse weather. With Hannibal’s capabilities hindered, the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus defeated him in 202 BC in the Battle of Zama. [source, source, source, source]
Juius Caesar later deployed elephants himself in 48 BC against the forces of Pompey in Hispania. King Boguda of Mauritania was the supplier of these beasts. However, the Romans seemed to believe that the troubles that deploying an elephant brought were not worth the efforts of obtaining and training them. The costs of buying an animal through trade, feeding it, and maintaining it were considerable. Furthermore, they required a contingent of individuals to care for them. [source, source, source, source]
1.4 War Elephants in the US Civil War
During the US Civil War, an event little known by most involved war elephants. Mongkut, King of Siam, wrote a letter to President James Buchanan (or, as he mentioned in the missive, to whoever would be the president) offering to send war elephants. The King even proposed logistical solutions, proposing the US government to send vessels to Siam to transport the elephants. However, the letter arrived one year later, Abraham Lincoln was the president. Lincoln, in a response in which he thanked Mongkut and addressed him as “Great and Good Friend”, rejected the offer, stating that the US is not the ideal habit for elephants to live in. [source]
1.5 War Elephants in Modern History
In the following centuries, the use of war elephants in Europe and Africa declined, especially due to the appealing nature of the ivory tusks, which gave the animals a new meaning. However, war elephants kept appearing in European history. For example, Charlemagne used them against the Danes in 804 AD. Later on, Frederick II deployed them to conquer the city of Cremona in 1214 AD. [source]
On the other side, Asia saw more continuity in the use of war elephants, such as in the Battle of Peshawar in 1009 AD, Pakistan, and in the Khmer-Champa Wars in Cambodia in 1177 AD. Finally, elephants were deployed during the Battle of Panipat in India in 1399 AD. [source]
A major war advancement in the 15th Century was the introduction of gunpowder. This diminished the role of elephants in war, but they did not completely disappear. They continued to serve mostly as transportation methods, such as in World War I. Similarly, the Japanese used the beasts to move supplies during the Second World War. Similarly, the British deployed elephants in their Asian strongholds. Later, the Viet Cong deployed elephants during the Vietnam war, once again mainly for transportation purposes. The Viet Cong used the elephants to move in the difficult territories in which cars and trucks had issues. However the sound of firing guns easily startled the beasts. Today, elephants continue to be deployed in combat situations in Myanmar, as is further documented below. [source, source]
2 Capabilities, Role, and Weaknesses
2.1 Capabilities and Roles
Elephants are not only a way to scare off the enemy, they also represent a valuable strategic asset. Firstly, they are an efficient and powerful method of transport, with the capability of carrying heavy weights for long distances, allowing the relocation of supplies. They can also serve as cavalry, being destructive and quicker that can be imagined for their size. Their tusks represent an added value: often adorned with spikes, they can become a mortal weapon especially in a fight between elephants. [source]
The elephant riders use a specific type of saddle, sometimes referred to as “howdahs,” to mount the animals, often carrying weapons such as bow and arrows or javelins. Finally, some elephants carry tower-looking seats to further keep the fighters away from the ground, for both protection and tactical advantage. In some cases, elephants were an execution method. In other circumstances, they represented a valuable weapon for sieges, especially due to their tusks and their height. [source]
2.2 Weaknesses
Those who faced elephants in war soon discovered that the beasts, even if they looked invincible, had their weak point. Firstly, elephants fear fire, becoming uncontrollable and self-disruptive when confronting it. Secondly, the Romans discovered that the animals fear the squealing of pigs. Thirdly, if the riders are killed, the elephant very easily loses control, becoming a threat for the army that deploys them. Some sources report that the favoured method for Romans to defeat elephants was simply to deploy infantry with light armour and weapons to be free to move and quick. Their main target would be the rider, also sometimes called “mahout.” They did not aim at killing the beast, but at confusing it. Finally, the foot pad is the weakest part of an elephant. For these reasons, their deployers often covered the animals with armour. [source, source]
3 Training
Despite what is commonly believed, the elephants were not raised, but they were captured and then trained. The most desired elephants were males, used in combat, because of their belligerence. A common way to trap the elephants in the Indus Valley was using females to attract males. [source]
As previously mentioned, it was soon discovered that elephants are extremely intelligent animals, ideal for training. However, especially because they were captured from the wild, they would sometimes revolt. This is why the riders carried a weapon to cause spinal injuries in rebellious elephants. [source]
4 War Elephant Species
The use of elephants is highly related to geography. This determines not only if elephants are -or were- used in combat, but also which species. Some examples of the most used are:
- Loxodonta cyclotis: this African species, commonly known as forest elephants, measure around 8 feet tall (around 2.4 meters).
- Loxodonta africana: another African animal, the savannah elephant is generally around 10 feet (3 meters) tall, but it can reach 13 feet (3.9 meters). They present the largest ear size between all the mentioned species.
- Loxodonta pharaoensis: the North African elephant was also used in the past, but it went extinct in the 2nd Century AD. They were smaller than the Loxodonta cyclotis.
- Elephas maximus: the Asian or Indian elephant usually measures between 7 and 12 feet tall (between 2.1 and 3.6 meters). [source]
5 The Future
Most recently, war elephants had a comeback. Despite never disappearing, the number of deployed beasts kept decreasing. Lately, however, Southeast Asia, and specifically Myanmar, have witnessed the return of big numbers of war elephants. It appears that the animals mainly transport supplies and soldiers from the unregular armies. Videos, in fact, show members of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) on the back of elephants, holding rifles and mortars. The Kachin State is not easy to move around with modern means, and the road system remains underdeveloped. Forests are a great hiding spot for the rebels, and the elephants can easily move through them. [source, source]
This shows how, even if the beasts are no longer weapons in battle due to the earlier mentioned technological developments, they can still represent valid logistical tools in warfare. This is further valid where the territories are impervious, and cars can not go. Therefore, it is improbable that war elephants will be deadly machine in the future, but their logistical support will always be exploited. [source, source]
6 Conclusion
In conclusion, war elephants have served in human’s conflicts in different roles, from psychological weapons, to mounts in battle assaults, to logistical methods for transporting provisions. Since their first known deployments in India in 1100 BC, they have become more familiar and less scary, entering the cultural fabric, with appearances in books and movies. However, war elephants are still in use. Despite the birth of gunfire leading them away from the battlefield, the animals are still useful logistical transportation, as the most recent case of irregular armies in Myanmar demonstrates. It is likely that we will continue to see elephants used in armed conflict, at least in Southeast Asia, for some time.