1000 Japanese soldiers vs saltwater crocodiles

This event is known to some as the worst crocodile attack in history, and a massive over exaggeration by others. During world war two the Allied forces were heavily involved throughout south-east Asia and one especially difficult country to capture was Burma, today known as Myanmar.

Operation Rangoon was about to start which would signal the end for the occupying forces, but before this could happen the Allies needed to capture Ramree island, a large spread out peninsular that would allow them to establish a landing site for their troops.

The section of Ramree island that connects to the mainland is covered in a series of saltwater rivers that have carved their way through the soil over time, leaving the banks covered in mangrove trees and thick tropical vegetation.

The local plant life was the main reason the attack went so slowly, since no one could see through the thick bushes which were all over the island, they constantly feared ambushes and traps left by the retreating Japanese forces. Eventually the Allied forces captured the centre of the island and forced the Japanese through the series of twisting saltwater marshes back towards their next defencive line.

The distance between the solid part of the island and the mainland is just over 16 miles of non-stop swamps, rivers and thick vegetation. The Japanese couldn’t leave the island by ship so they made their way through this green nightmare, but since the journey was so long and progress was slow, they were forced to camp right in the middle of it all on the first night of their retreat.

What happened next comes from some of the British soldiers who took part in the attack of the island and one in particular called Bruce Stanley Wright who wrote the following paragraph which was featured in “Wildlife sketches near and far” in 1962:

“That night [of the 19 February 1945] was the most horrible that any member of the M. L. [motor launch] crews ever experienced. The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of 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. 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.”

Most estimates put the Japanese at around 1,000 before the incident, with the most common loss total being around 600. There are claims that there was only a few hundred Japanese troops who went through the swamps, and some estimates like the one from the quote put the amount that came out the other side are as low as 20. The story has most likely been exaggerated over the years but whatever the actual death toll was, plenty of British soldiers heard the attack and claim to have seen the leftovers the next day.

There was definitely a large scale attack from saltwater crocodiles on that night, but the truth of the numbers will forever remain unknown. If true this incident would be the worst crocodile attack in human history.