An event at the same time that was recorded as the deadliest known crocodile attack appeared on the Guinness Book of World Records. Crocodile Specialist Group Newsletter 28(1): 911. This disease seriously hindered both sides attempt to gain control of the island. Photoshopped image courtesy of opposingfronts.com. While the Ramree Island Massacre story may seem far-fetched, it is a true story. It was after this that one of the oddest incidents in the history of warfare occurred. The Imperial Japanese Army decided that a full retreat was in order after their defeat in Burma at the hands of British forces. However, the. The soldiers succumbed to the nightly menace, realizing that saltwater crocs were nocturnal and excelled at night hunting. Unfortunately for the Japanese troops, the swamps of Ramree were infested by countless, very large saltwater crocodiles, which can grow upwards of 20 feet long and over a ton in weight. The largest crocodile ever killed was a saltwater crocodile that measured 23 feet and weighed 2,370 pounds. [3] A plan was ready by 2 January, when it was clear that the advance of the Fourteenth Army (Lieutenant-General William Slim) would soon pass beyond the range of its airbases at Imphal and Agartala; replacements at Chittagong, Akyab and Ramree would be needed. About 400 Japanese soldiers escaped those mangrove swamps, and 20 of them were eventually recaptured by the British forces who had set up a perimeter around the thick wilderness. On mainland Burma, diseases such as malaria accounted for almost half the total death toll of Allied forces. Walking through the thick, sticky mud was slow and agonizing. These specimens could also live more than 70 years, meaning they had plenty of time to practice their hunting skills. [22] Likewise, vultures often appeared over areas [British] forces had never reached[22] Wright ultimately concluded the Japanese did not die from crocodiles alone but also from "thirst" and "wounds."[22]. Estimated to be around 6 metres (20ft) in length and to weigh more than 900 kilograms (2,000lb). At the time, British forces needed an airbase in the area of Ramree Island in order to launch more attacks against the Japanese. After a bloody campaign, British troops managed to drive nearly 1,000 enemy combatants off the island into the dense mangrove swamp that covered some 10 miles of Ramree. Perhaps the biggest question that the crocodile story doesnt sufficiently answer concerns the staggering death toll: How did only 20 Japanese soldiers survive? The croc was shot by a hunter in Queensland, Australia, in 1957. So, instead of accepting their fate, they chose to make an 8-mile journey through the mangrove swamps of Ramree Island. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. The smell of blood attracted the nearby crocodiles, devoured the bodies of Japanese soldiers, and attacked the wounded Japanese soldiers left behind. "[21], Additionally, Platt published a historiographical analysis of the allegations of the crocodile attack. (2014). 0 20 2 minutes read. Crocodiles lurk from deep in the dark marsh water, with their eyes poking slightly above the water's surface. As I am writing this police are still searching for the girl. Read Next: The Legend of Dick Bong: World War II Ace of Aces, Medal of Honor Recipient and Crocodile Killer? [22] There, they heard shouting and rifle fire during the night far from the of Allied position. Frank McLynn, a prominent British historian on the Burma campaign, effectively denounces the crocodile aggression account in his thorough analysis of the Allied effort to retake Burma from the Japanese, The Burma Campaign: Disaster into Triumph 1942-1945 (2011). Sideleau, B. Military officials decided to press on, and the Japanese continued their journey through the mangrove swamps. Required fields are marked *. Find out what happened when 900 Japanese soldiers, trapped by a British landing on Ramree Island, Burma in 1945, tried to retreat through 10 miles of mangrove swamps. Death came to them from many different sources, scorpions, disease, drowning and of course the crocodiles. However, first they had to drive off the Japanese invasion force which had already claimed the island. Unfortunately, these reptiles are some of the most territorial species on earth and arent afraid to show aggression toward people, especially biting. Many of the Japanese troops succumbed to tropical diseases carried by swarms of mosquitoes, as well as the various poisonous spiders, snakes and scorpions found in the marsh. Her boyfriend caught the attack on film; the camera was recovered two days later along with her remains. No Japanese survived . He writes for his micro-blog. Crocodile Specialist Group Newsletter 34(2): 21-22. British troops monitored the situation from afar at the edge of the swamp. The Ramree Island crocodile attack in January 1945, the deadliest attack of its kind recorded thus far, came just as World War II ended. With the ebb of the tide, the crocodiles moved in on the dead, wounded, and uninjured men who had become mired in the mud, The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of the wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles made a cacophony of hell that has rarely been duplicated on Earth. Unfortunately, it seems that the Japanese didnt know what awaited them in the swamp, or they were so desperate to escape that they didnt care. February 1945, Japanese forces on Ramree island attempt to withdraw from the British and link up with a larger force. While crocodiles are prolific killers, historians have long doubted that more than 800 Japanese soldiers were killed at Ramree Island in such a short period of time, and those doubts have only been affirmed by evidence uncovered in recent https://www.coffeeordie.com/crocodiles-eat-soldiers Trevor Pomfret These reptiles can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 2,000 pounds, with many being known to eat animals as big as Indian water buffalo. Soon after entering the slimy mudhole, Japanese soldiers began to succumb to diseases, dehydration, and starvation. Dont mess with mother nature. At dawn the vultures arrived to clean up what the crocodiles had left.Of about one thousand Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about twenty were found alive." The Weapons The Japanese Type 26 revolver was a beautifully executed piece of tactical trash. Nevertheless, some information does exist: for example, it was reported by CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe that in the first ten months of the year in 2005 crocodiles were the number one cause of death in humans where wildlife was involved with the number of deaths cited as 13. However, we must ask the question: did this event really occur? However, the veracity of the crocodile aggression has gradually grown throughout the years, despite there being no other references to it within historical writings relating to the Far Eastern theatre in WWII. Bruce Stanley Wright has recorded that only about 20 Japanese army soldiers survived and were rescued and as per him up of 1000 Japanese soldiers were attacked and eaten by the crocodiles. The Island had been captured by the Imperial Japanese Army in early 1942, during the invasion of Burma. Thats when things went from bad to worse and the Ramree Island massacre began. Finally, the British soldiers realized the Japaneses situation and urged them to surrender to avoid further bloodshed. [22] Interviewing other members of the S.R.U., Wright reported that two of the men abandoned their paddleboards during the battle and climbed up a mangrove tree to avoid a crocodile. There was a story that hundreds of people died getting slaughter by crocodiles in just one night. Crocodile Specialist Group Newsletter 33(2): 29-30. At dawn the vultures arrived to clean up what the crocodiles had left () Of about one thousand Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about twenty were found alive. Wildlife Sketches Near and Far, p. 275[13], Other writers, including Roger Caras in his 1964 Dangerous to Man, repeated Wright's version, with Caras stating "had the story come from a source other than Bruce Wright, I would be tempted to discount it. By doing this, allied forces split the remaining party in two, leaving a group of 1,000 soldiers isolated and trapped. 1000 armed soldiers killed by crocodiles in 2 nights During world war 2, some 1000 armed Japanese soldiers were killed by a group of large crocodiles and medium crocodiles on Ramree island close to Bu. Anyhow , Japanese withdrew into swamps when any other military in World War 2 would have surrendered at that point and allied forces heard shouting and gunshots throughout the night as huge salt water Crocs attacked. Galante elaborated that the crocodiles were hungry because the soldiers had already. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. It is estimated that each year hundreds of people die from crocodile attacks in Africa many of these attacks are never reported in the media. After all, these were soldiers who had offered upstubborn resistance to the British Fourteenth Army under the leadership of Lieutenant General William Slim. If 'thousands of crocodiles' were involved in the massacre, as in the urban (jungle) myth, how had these ravening monsters survived before and how were they to survive later? Wood, The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats. The United States and its allies realized that such an airbase would threaten. The Japanese didnt realize that these mangrove swamps were a death trap in disguise, but they wouldnt figure that out until later. Ultimately, he stated, "[t]he only crocodile-related deaths occurred when 10 to 15 soldiers were killed trying to ford Min Chaung, a tidal creek", and he therefore concluded that although the deaths of nearly 1000 Japanese soldiers during the Battle of Ramree Island are "well documented and undisputed", there is "little need to invoke crocodile predation. The island lies off the Burma coast, 70 miles south of Akyab, now known as Sittwe. The majority of attacks recorded below have occurred in Southeast Asia and Australia. In all, some 500 Japanese fled Ramree despite the blockade created to stop them. So instead of following the Japanese into the swamps, they decided to wait them out. 8. As part of his research, he visited the marshes of Ramree Island and interviewed locals. The battle was bloody and grueling, leaving the Japanese soldiers exhausted yet full of defiance. Salt-water crocodiles, some of them well over 20 ft (6.1 m) long frequented these waters. Kaori had been a kendo practitioner before the apocalypse, while Kyoko was a successor of the Tenshin-style sword arts. Rachmawan, D., and Brend, S. (2009). Two days later Mayin was occupied and the troops reached the Yanbauk Chaung the next day. [3] Crocodilians will defend not only themselves, but also their nest and young from anything they perceive as a threat. Nine hundred soldiers of an Imperial Japanese Army unit, in an attempt to retreat from the Royal Navy and rejoin a larger battalion of the Japanese infantry, crossed through sixteen kilometres (ten miles) of mangrove swamps that contained saltwater crocodiles. The mangrove swamp was thick with mud and it was slow-going. [1] Each year, hundreds of deadly attacks are attributed to the Nile crocodile in Sub-Saharan Africa. If you dont attempt the crossing, you must face the enemy troops closing in on you. Trapped in deep mud-filled land, tropical diseases soon started to afflict the soldiers, as did scorpions, tropical mosquitoes and saltwater crocodiles. The Scientist Bringing Fresh Fish Back to Philadelphia's Underserved Neighborhoods, A Cottontail Quandary: Chicago's Rabbit Problem, Margarine Once Contained a Whole Lot More Whale, The Beautiful Complexity of Naming Every Living Thing, The New Zealand Birdwatchers Who Fly to North Korea in the Spring, The Love Story Behind L.A.'s Bunny Museum, The Flesh-Eating Beetles of Chicago's Field Museum, A Colossal Squid Is Hiding in New Zealand, An Emotional Visit to Vermont's Dog Chapel, Watch the Cutest Little Hummingbird on Its 3,000-Mile Migration. Their hunting skills World War II Ace of Aces, Medal of Honor Recipient and crocodile Killer Army the... Are some of them well over 20 ft ( 6.1 m ) frequented... Their eyes poking slightly above the water & # x27 ; s.. 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