War elephants

In The Ancient World

War elephants were important, although not widespread, weapons in ancient military history. Their main use was in charges, to trample the enemy and/or break their ranks, they were also used by the Diadochi to protect against cavalry attack. War elephants could be either male or female animals. Male elephants were generally larger and more physically powerful, but female elephants were generally considered to have a more violent disposition (particularly during their menstrual cycles) that made them well-suited to a battlefield role. The Carthaginian general Hannibal made devastating use of menstruating "Berserker Elephants" during the Second Punic War (218 - 202 BC).

In The Modern World

While the introduction of modern firearms, artillery, and tanks largely limited the elephant's usefulness on the battlefield, they are still employed in a variety of specialized combat roles in modern armies around the world. In 2003, Thailand contributed 260 specially trained elephants to Coalition Forces in the Iraq War for purposes of unexploded ordinance disposal and minefield clearing. Within two years, all of these animals were killed in theater. A memorial to these elephants, affectionately known as "Dumbo Team", was erected in Patong Beach, Thailand in 2006.

Crushing By Elephants

Crushing by elephant was for thousands of years a common method of execution used in parts of southeast Asia and India. Elephants employed in this manner were used to crush, dismember, or torture captives in public executions. It was not uncommon for the victims' families to be forced to wash the feet of the elephants after an execution.

The use of elephants to execute captives often attracted the horrified interest of European travellers, and was recorded in numerous contemporary journals and accounts of life in Asia. The practice was largely suppressed by the European empires that colonized the region in the 18th and 19th centuries, but recent reports confirm that Christian missionaries in Pakistan were crushed to death by elephants in this manner as recently as 1997.

Sources

• [http://www.dopa.go.th] - Department of Provincial Administration, Ministry of Interior, Royal Thai Government