Yep, it's Beedok with another crazy idea: Elephants in a WWI style war. Not just running around naked mind you, but armoured. As far as I can tell early tanks weighed about 30 tonnes, and a lot of that weight was in the engines, gear trains, treads, etc. Obviously even if that's half the weight an elephant couldn't carry that (African elephants can manage about 9 tonnes, Indian ones are probably somewhere down closer to a 7 tonne max load which is enough for a Renault FT), but they could carry a bit more than half that weight. So I was wondering, could armored war elephants have a place in a WWI type war on an African or Indian front? Or would they just be limited to logisitic support?
Elephants of the Great War?
- Thread starter Beedok
- Start date
Elephants need a lot of fodder, so anywhere they're of use becomes a lot more narrow just in terms of logistics.
Also, disease. Horses died in droves during the Great War, I can't see elephants faring much better.
The Japanese and British used elephants in India and Burma during World War II... poor critters...a lot of them died under air attack, but they were amazingly useful in bridge building apparently
I was figuring a machine gun.
The idea mostly came from seeing that tank armour of the era was like 1-1.5 cm thick and that medieval elephant armour looked at least that thick.
Return of Hannibal anyone?
I would not be surprised if elephants were used in Tanganyika during WW1.
I would, given neither side was exactly flush with resources. More generally, if you can afford an armored elephant, you can afford an armored car, which is probably more reliable.
Sorry I meant to refer to any use of elephants that might be used by British forces. Not armored. Hell putting armor on an elephant in the JUNGLE?!!!
As for what weapons they might use, maybe a duo of machine guns. One fore and one aft? I am not sure any type of cannon in the howdah would work due to recoil and noise near the elephants ear.
There are several problems with war elephants:
1. A single artillery shot can kill or disable an elephant, and since elephants are big targets they would be easy to hit.
2. The logistical problems of maintaining war elephants is immense. On average elephants eat 300-350 pounds of food, and drink 22-30 gallons of water a day. They can eat for up to 16 hours a day, and produce 220-250 pounds of feces (which needs to be disposed of, or else you have sanitation problems). By comparison a 1000-pound horse only eats 10-20 pounds of hay per day.
3. Elephants scare easily, and when they freak out they can run amok and kill anyone in their way, including men on their own side. In the chaos of a WWI battlefield you are almost guaranteed to have several incidents of elephants running amok.
1. A single artillery shot can kill or disable an elephant, and since elephants are big targets they would be easy to hit.
2. The logistical problems of maintaining war elephants is immense. On average elephants eat 300-350 pounds of food, and drink 22-30 gallons of water a day. They can eat for up to 16 hours a day, and produce 220-250 pounds of feces (which needs to be disposed of, or else you have sanitation problems). By comparison a 1000-pound horse only eats 10-20 pounds of hay per day.
3. Elephants scare easily, and when they freak out they can run amok and kill anyone in their way, including men on their own side. In the chaos of a WWI battlefield you are almost guaranteed to have several incidents of elephants running amok.
i'd think elephants would probably amount to troop carriers/weapons platforms, with a small squad of soldiers riding along armed with basic infantry weapons
Return of Hannibal anyone?
I would not be surprised if elephants were used in Tanganyika during WW1.
Only Britain and their allies would be able to, since African elephants are much harder to tame. They'd have to get them from India/Southeast Asia.
An armoured car isn't exactly very good in the mud of the trenches, or a monsoon flooded India. That issue is why tanks became a thing, cars sank in the mud. Horses also can't handle the mud as well (small feet), but elephants can handle mud and floods as that's something they've evolved to handle.
Easy then. "You Germans use poisonous gas? We are going to drown you in elephant's feces!!!!"