w What was the battle of Ramree?
Island how did two battalions of Japanese soldiers
lose this battle without ever engaging allied soldiers?
Why were those soldiers even there seemingly abandoned by their country?
Is this story a wartime myth or did it really happen? Hello i'm Colin Heaton
former soldier Marine Corps scout sniper history professor historian and book author
and we'll answer these questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History.
Most people know about the USS Indianapolis the United States heavy cruiser were sunk in 1945
where eleven hundred men went into the sea and only 316 survived nearly a week of relentless
shark attacks. But few people know about the man versus nature struggle in Burma
where another horro played out one that is almost beyond belief.
From January 26 to February 22 1945 an episode rivaling Stephen King played out in the mangrove
swamps of Ramree Island on the south coast of Burma today that country is called Myanmar.
Burma was a major part of the British Empire and it had been occupied by Japanese forces
since 1942 as they planned on invading India along the famous Burma Road among other locations.
But in 1945 the British returned to Burma to retake the country and tried to recapture
Ramree and its nearby island Cheduba. On January 21 the 26th Indian Division attacked Ramree as
Royal Marines from 3 Commando Brigade occupied neighboring Cheduba Island.
the Japanese garrison of Ramree consisted of the 2nd battalion 121st Infantry Regiment
under Colonel Kanechi Nagazawa part of the 54th Division with artillery and engineer attachments
as an independent force. These units had been cut off from the outside world for months and
basically left to fend for themselves. The British troops arrived on Ramree Island on January 26
1945 to construct a new air base but first they had to push the Japanese off the island that
had already claimed it. After a short bloody but victorious attack against the Japanese the British
troops were able to force nearly 1,000 enemy soldiers into the 10 mile long mangrove swamp.
Japanese soldiers retreated under Colonel Nagazawa to re-consolidate their force and
plan their counter-attack. Many were already dying of illnesses dehydration
dysentery and malnutrition even before they entered the swamp. During the retreat the wounded
and sick soldiers were the first to be attacked by the crocodiles as they fell behind the main force.
It appeared that the crocs stalked the trailing formation and would strike them at the rear
systematically removing a few at a time. Then after a few days the crocs suddenly appeared
in mass out of nowhere; estimates were several hundred ambushing their victims tearing into
the staggered trail formation and dragging the men under the water. From the stories of the Japanese
survivors a horror story that seemed totally unbelievable unfolded. Statements described
the surviving soldiers climbing into the trees strapping themselves in sometimes only 10 to 30
feet above the water. Soldiers who were less than 10 to 15 feet above the water were pulled down
as the crocodiles some measuring well over 20 feet in length leaped upward to grab them
pulling them down. Those soldiers too high in the trees for the crocs to reach still became victims.
The venomous snakes spiders malaria and starvation were also their enemies.
Then another terrifying reality presented itself.
Being intelligent creatures the crocodiles realized that they could not reach the men
higher in the trees. Night and day without respite for almost a month as the men starved and died
suspended in their harnesses the terror continued. The crocodiles then approached the trees in groups
and whether by design or just due to the feeding frenzy began using their tails with their weight
and strength to hammer the trees and several crocs taking turns according to statements.
Their objective was to shake the abundant food supply out of the trees and it was successful.
There are even after-action murmurings of Japanese soldiers cutting the flesh of their dead comrades
resorting to cannibalism to survive and this had been previously documented before this event.
The British who had driven the Japanese into the swamp listened; they heard the screams the
rifle shots grenades and the hammering noises that they learned later were the crocodiles
up against the trees with their massive tails and bodies which lasted night and day without
end. At times the noise was deafening. The terrified soldiers dripped blood and sweat into
the crowded confines of the mangrove swamp further exciting the crocodiles and possibly increasing
their numbers as other crocodiles joined in the feeding frenzy. Several British soldiers
said that they could even see the crocodiles preying upon the Japanese soldiers in the swamp.
Despite their hatred for the enemy many British soldiers openly prayed for the Japanese trapped
in the swamp. A loud speaker was brought forward and a Japanese speaking soldier
not sure if he was a British speaking Japanese soldier or if he was a captured Japanese who
spoke English did speak to the men quote, "If you come out we will help you surrender and live
we will help you," end quote. Their problem was that the only way out was by moving from
tree top to tree top never coming close to the water which was three to six feet deep
due to the rising and lowering tides. Coming out of the swamp this was not a possibility.
The estimate is that 500 Japanese soldiers are believed to have survived and fled the mangrove
swamps taking advantage of the mass of crocs congregating on one end to feed on the bodies
of those dead soldiers who either fell or were cut loose by their comrades to fall down into the
water. The best reports we had were that 20 of the Japanese soldiers who managed to navigate through
the trees and later come out were captured by the British soldiers who had set up a perimeter around
the dense jungle. It is reliably believed that at least another 500 of the men never made it out of
the swamp. One witness British soldier Bruce Stanley Wright wrote; "That night of February
19 1945 was the most horrible that any member of the motor launch crews ever experienced.
The crocodiles alerted by the den of warfare and smell of blood gathered among the mangroves lying
with their eyes above the water watchfully alert for their next meal. At the ebb of the tide the
crocodiles moved in on the dead wounded and uninjured men who became mired in the mud.
The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctuated by the screams of the wounded
men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles and the blurred whirling 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." A couple of months after the event following the
interrogations and investigation speaking with all participants involved the special
military tribunal was commissioned to conduct an investigation on the event. Japanese survivors
and British witnesses were questioned at length along with Indian soldiers.
It was confirmed that the victims of the crocodile attack were in fact
Japanese soldiers. Few remains were found but those that were had evidence of dismemberment.
In his memoir "An Odyssey in War and Peace" Lieutenant General Jack Jacob of the Indian Army
recounted his experiences during the battle and this particular event quote: "Over 1,000
soldiers of the Japanese garrison retreated into the crocodile infested mangrove swamps. We went
in with boats and interpreters using loudhailers asking them to come out. Not a single one did.
Saltwater crocodiles some of them well over 20 feet in length frequented these waters.
It is not difficult to imagine what happened to the Japanese who took refuge in the mangroves,"
end quote. The post-war inquiry included the statements of the British and Indian soldiers
who all heard the anguish and terror for almost a month. It would assume that the February 19th
event was the mass breakout attempt by probably a couple of hundred of the Japanese soldiers but
only 20 survived the attack. This incident is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records
as the deadliest crocodile attack ever recorded in history. Subsequent to this event and decades
after the facts there are many historians and scholars and they totally contradict some of the
testimony and they doubt the veracity of the recorded events from the investigation. This
program only provides what we know from the record taken at the time and we stand by this proceeding.
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