Elephants.

This is coolbert:

When the army of Alexander the Great invaded ancient India, they encountered war elephants used by the army of the Hindu King Porus.

Elephants have been used in war by the peoples of the Indian sub-continent probably for as long as war has been waged, and elephants have been domesticated.

A platform would be mounted on the back of the elephant for archers to shoot down at the opposition. Side curtains of heavy cloth material would hang down from the sides of the elephant, retarding the impact of arrows and spears [similar armored side curtains are used to protect the wheels and treads of modern tanks]. The huge bulk and great strength of the elephant could be counted upon for making your opposition break ranks rather than stand in the way of the beast and get run over!

This was the main battle tank of the era.

Now, the troops of Alexander were seasoned veterans who knew how to deal with strange and new ways of fighting employed by the forces of their enemies.

But elephants were a new phenomenon.

The army of Alexander did have a way of dealing with the beasts. Beating of drums, blowing of trumpets, and the firing of fire arrows all were used to spook the elephants and cause the mahout [rider in command of the elephant] to lose control of his charge. The elephant then would run amok, and be a danger to all around, friendly forces as well as enemy [sort of like an Abrams tank going out of control, and running around aimlessly on the battlefield, a danger to everyone!].

Now, this tactic of causing the elephant to go berserk, was anticipated by the Indian troops of Porus. Perhaps they had encountered such a thing before? The mahouts were prepared for this. Each mahout would be equipped with a mallet and a large stake. So that when the elephant went nuts and was a danger to friendlies as well as foe, the mahout would then hammer that stake into the brain of the elephant, killing it instantly and disabling the beast.

Damn, that is a rough way to go!

There is even in the Bible, Book of Maccabees, an account where Eleazar, the brother of Judas, encounters and kills in battle a war elephant being used by the King of Syria himself!!

"A great many elephants were in the army of Lysias, and one of them being larger than the others and having more gorgeous trappings, was supposed by Eleazar to carry the commander-in-chief, Lysias. So he dashed forward alone and got under the elephant and, stabbing upward, killed him. But the elephant in falling crushed Eleazar and killed him."




In killing the beast, Eleazar himself died.

Read this too:

"Ælfric follows the Latin closely for the episode of the slaying of the elephant, but he adds the detail that Eleazar struck the creature at the nauelan (l. 518). The implication is that this was its weakest point. This is possibly from Isidore again, where it is stated that a rhino kills the elephant by stabbing upwards into its stomach with its horns"

[in pre-historic times, the Asiatic elephant is known to have roamed up and down the river valleys of Mesapotamia!!].

coolbert.