War Elephant
The war elephants were an important weapon, although not widespread in the military history of antiquity. They have been used in Asia and the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century.
The elephant is the largest land animal. Only males, stronger and more aggressive, were domesticated for war. Those of the African forest elephant and Asian elephant, main species, are on average 3 meters at the shoulder and weigh up to 5 tons. "They are the only animals that humans domesticated to make real "tanks alive '" History The taming of the elephant, which should not be understood as a synonym of domestication probably began in the Indus Valley to -2000. Domestic animals like cows or dogs, are born in captivity and are subjected to selective breeding. In contrast, elephants, probably because of their fickle nature, expenses incurred for food and grow pretty slow , have always been, with very few exceptions, the wild and tame. The purpose of the first catch is finding support in the agricultural tasks. Then came the military application of elephants, mentioned in several hymns in Sanskrit. Since the India , the use of war elephants began to migrate to the Persian Empire , perhaps from the reign of Cyrus the Great in - the sixth century , when the conquest of Gandhara (valley of the River Kabul and Punjab Western) allows Achaemenid control trade routes going to India. Subsequently, at the end - the sixth century , Darius I undertook an expedition into the valley of the Indus , which would have allowed the Persians to acquire war elephants. At the time of Darius III , the last Achaemenid king defeated by Alexander the Great , the Persians did not have territories inhabited by elephants in their natural state: Punjab has once again become independent and the remaining provinces is attached to the Indian satrapies of Bactria and Arachosia. We can therefore assume that at the time of Darius III, the Persians have acquired some elephants from Indian princes. The elephants of the Persians are so equipped as the Indian armed elephants, with one soldier mounted astride. The addition of towers on the backs of elephants, military revolution, according to Paul returns Goukowsky the Seleucids to the year -300 / -280. Neither the Indians nor the Persians, nor the armies of Alexander know so the use of the tower. The Battle of Gaugamela ( -331 ), which opposes Darius III to Alexander the Great , was the first encounter of Europeans with war elephants. The fifteen mastodons, placed at the center of the Persian lines, make a great impression on the Macedonian troops, Alexander feels the need to sacrifice before the battle to Nyx , the goddess of fear. For all the elephants play no significant role, or known, in the course of the battle, while the Persian center, including Darius, being routed by the onslaught of the Macedonian cavalry. After the conquest of Persia, Alexander understood the value of using elephants and has incorporated a number in his army, although they do not take part in battles in India. In -326 , at the Battle of the Hydaspes , the Macedonian troops are being opposed for the first time an impressive troupe of 200 caparisoned elephants. The battle is of great violence, the Macedonian cavalry horses, very nervous, unwilling to confront the elephant in the infantry but overcomes targeting mahouts , elephants lined up in 200 by King Porus , an estimated Only half survived. Alexander has been idealized as the winner of the "monsters" of India. On the "decadrachm of Porus" , struck under the reign of Alexander to -323 , we can see Porus perched on an elephant wielding a spear to Alexander, who continued on horseback. On a coin minted during the reign of Ptolemy I , Alexander is wearing the skin of an elephant, symbol of his victory in India. In continuation of Alexander, the Greek rulers of the Hellenistic adopt this weapon of war. In -301 the battle of Ipsos , considered the greatest battle of the ancient elephant , Seleucus I. aligns against Antigonus a troop of 400 elephants, obtained through a peace treaty with the Indian prince Chandragupta Maurya. It places the weight of his elephants in support of the infantry which enables it to prevent the enemy cavalry to take her back and won a great victory. At the battle of Raphia in -217 , Ptolemy IV has 73 African elephants and Antiochus III of 102 Asian elephants. It is the only battle where the ancient Asian elephants and African clashed in large numbers. The two rivals split their forces into two bodies of elephants on the wings willing to support the cavalry Asian elephants are larger and more aggressive than their African counterparts , the elephants of Antiochus III are in rout of the elephants Ptolemy IV, but not enough for him to overcome his opponent. Under the Seleucids and the Ptolemies , the elephants are dressed in armor and a tower is placed on the back of the animal for two to four sharpshooters. The rest of his mahout astride the animal's neck. The military use of elephants spread throughout the Hellenistic world from - the fourth century. At the same time the Carthaginians began to tame elephants African savannah in a military purpose, the Numidian do the same with the African forest elephant. To - third century , the use of war elephants in the West is mainly against the Roman Republic. The battle of Heraclea won by Pyrrhus ( -280 ) to the famous crossing of the Alps ( -218 ) by Hannibal during the Second Punic War , elephants terrified the Roman legions ( Battle of Trebia ). But first, most elephants die of cold, on the other hand, the Romans quickly found a way to cope with the dangerous elephant. When Hannibal's troops will be stationed in southern Italy, the Roman armies on several occasions to capture war elephants. Thus, during the last battle of Hannibal at Zama in ( -202 ), the load is inefficient because the Romans leave them just passing by opening their ranks. A century and a half later at the Battle of Thapsus in -46 , Julius Caesar weapon its fifth legion (Alaudae) with axes and ordered his legionnaires to hit the beast with the legs. The Legion supports the load and the elephant became his symbol. Elephants are used in wars between the Wu to Chu in the sixth centuryBC. AD but the disappearance of wild herds that causes abandonment military . However, there are still a medieval army of elephants Han in southern China, where they fight effectively against Chu. In the battle of 23 January 971, a massive attack by incendiary arrows of the archers of the Army Song decimating war elephants Han . This defeat marked not only the submission of the Han to the Southern Song Dynasty, but also the last occasion when the war elephants were used by a Chinese army on a battlefield . The Parthians , who dominate the Persia and Mesopotamia to the - second century in the third century , have occasionally used war elephants against the Roman Empire, but only with the Persian Sassanid from the third century that war elephants occupy a strategic place casting. The mastodons were almost always used in the struggles against the enemies and the West just to impress. Elephants became a real striking force, if not the first before the horse. The most memorable battle which was implemented this strategy is that of Vartanantz ( 451 ) during which the elephants of Yazdegerd II crushed the Armenian rebellion. Elephants allowed the Sassanid defeat the Muslim invaders in 634 at the battle of the bridge. Again effective against cavalry Arabic two years later at the Battle al-Qadisiyyah , they can not prevent the Persian defeat decisively. During the medieval period , these animals are no longer present on the European battlefields only on rare occasions. This was the case when Charlemagne used his elephant, Abul Abbas, offered by the Caliph Harun ar-Rashid , to fight the Danes in 804 , or when the Crusades give Frederick II the ability to capture an elephant in the holy land, elephant is later used during the making of Cremona in 1214. In 1398 , the army of Tamerlane is facing more than a hundred Indian elephants during the last major battle in which they are employed. It is said that Timur had been hanging straw burning in the rear of camels he would run against the elephants. The latter, frightened by the flames, would have returned and have crushed their own troops. Later, the Mongol leader uses these animals against the Ottoman Empire. The Indians used war elephants until the late eighteenth century. The Siam and Vietnam still used in French colonial conquests during the 1859 to 1893. The French reported that the elephants were able to charge under fire from rifles and artillery . Like the horse , the elephant was abandoned as a weapon in the twentieth century, made obsolete by mechanization and the increased power of firearms. However, it is still used by the army to carry loads in rough terrain, especially during the second world war. The elephants could be used in many military tasks. They could carry heavy loads and provide a useful means of transport. They could also be employed as executioners, overwriting the condemned. During battles, the war elephants were usually deployed in the center of the line of attack that they could be useful to stop a charge or to start their own. An elephant charge could reach about 30 km / h and it is difficult to stop with only the infantry. Its power is based on brute force and fear that an animal weighing several tons can inspire in the enemy lines. The mounted units were not safe either, because the horses were not accustomed to the smell of elephants panicked easily, breaking the effectiveness of the cavalry. It was also extremely difficult to kill or neutralize the elephants. The downside was their own tendency to panic after several injuries, when their keeper was killed, and to retreat in a manner so disorganized that it could inflict heavy casualties on their own troops, as was the case at the Battle of Zama. The mahouts had a knife or a mallet and chisel to hit between the ears of an elephant infuriated. During the Punic wars , the war elephants of Carthage were heavily protected by some form of armor on their backs and bore a tower housing a crew of three men, archers and / or men armed with long pikes ( sarissae ). The war elephants of the forest species, much smaller than their savannah cousins and India, were not strong enough to carry a tower and were overlapped by only two or three men, plus the driver of the animal which was generally the Numidian. During antiquity, incendiary pigs covered with a burning substance was sometimes used to frighten the elephants, and to counter their charges. According to Pliny the Elder : - Natural History, VIII, 1.27 India, the origins of war elephants
The Achaemenid Persia
Under Alexander and the Hellenistic monarchies
In the west, Epirus, Carthage and Rome
In China
In Iran, the Parthians to Tamerlane
In medieval times
In modern times
Training and Use
Capture and dressage
Tactical Use
References
Notes
References
See also
Bibliography
Articles
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