Artist rendering of an elephant battle in antiquity from the Picture Atlas by Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus. No date or location given. The elephant armored with a howdah wears a head plate with a spike. The trunk is protected with movable plates and the whole body is covered with a coat of mail in the style of a knight. A war elephant was an elephant trained and guided by humans for combat. Their main use was to charge the enemy, trampling them and breaking their ranks. A division of war elephants is known as elephantry. They were first employed in India, the practice spreading out across south-east Asia and westwards into the Mediterranean.