Mangrove swamps crocodiles Japanese troops. Crocodiles against infantry: how the Japanese garrison died in the jungles of Burma

“Single shots in the swamp were interspersed with wild cries of the wounded who fell into the mouths of huge reptiles. (...) Of the thousand Japanese soldiers, we found only twenty,” Bruce Stanley Wright wrote about the fate of the retreating. What happened in the jungles of Burma in February 1945 and how did the Japanese garrison die? Now we'll tell you.

The Burmese campaign dragged on from the beginning of 1942 almost to the very end of the war. On the territory of Burma (modern Myanmar), which was then a British colony, Japanese troops planned to extract much-needed oil for the empire.

At first, the fighting went relatively well for them. At the peak of the Japanese offensive, even parts of India fell under occupation.

However, poor provision, lack of decent roads and the most severe weather could paralyze the troops at any moment. Without the constant participation of sappers and air supplies, active operations were out of the question. Famine and riots reigned in the rear of both sides. Nothing good could happen in such an environment.

Doomed Garrison

Skepticism

The sudden attack of bloodthirsty hordes looks good in pulp horror films, but almost does not withstand a collision with reality.

With the territorial instinct of combed crocodiles, in principle, it is not clear where so many of them could come from in one place. Any male is a much bigger enemy for them. He claims females and prey, and therefore must be immediately expelled.

An even more interesting question is: what did countless hordes of crocodiles eat under normal conditions? Such a pile of muscles and teeth (let's not forget about tons of bad temper) is required to feed the appropriate amount of prey. That is, a herd of crocodiles cannot form in one swamp, if only for this reason.

But if everything is so complicated, where did the Japanese garrison go?

Open secret

The P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber carries eight heavy machine guns. The weight of their volley can be safely measured in kilograms of lead per second. Powerful engine and hanging tanks guaranteed delivery to long distance not only traditional fragmentation bombs, but also hanging containers with napalm.

In Europe, such aircraft during an attack often laid their cargo exactly on the roof of a separate German tank. Don't leave without loss!

30 Squadron Royal armed forces back in January 1945, she broke the remnants of Japanese aviation resistance and organized a real death conveyor over Burma.

It is impossible to hide from bombs, napalm and bullets in chest-deep liquid mud. Lonely wounded and shell-shocked without the help of comrades will simply drown in it.

By nightfall, no more than half of the Japanese fugitives remained. IN documentary, taken by the pilots of the 30th squadron, the enemy's losses are estimated at up to four hundred killed and wounded. Well, the fact that thrifty crocodiles took away everyone they could is quite natural.

This is a Japanese soldier in Burma for us - an occupier. Crocodile is breakfast.

So no hundreds eaten alive. The usual episode of a great war: infantry in a disorderly retreat without air defense systems and the total superiority of the allied attack aircraft.

It is impossible to establish exactly how many victims fell to the share of predators, and how many to the share of machine guns, due to the prescription of years. But the case of Ramri is still one of the most famous episodes of the mass death of people in the war at the hands of mother nature. In full accordance with the natural, natural course of things, crocodiles rid the jungle of the wounded, sick and helpless.

On February 19, 1945, during the Second World War, an incredible and terrible event took place. During the fighting on the small island of Ramri, located southwest of Burma, the Japanese unit was attacked by combed crocodiles that live in local swamps. This case went down in history as one of the worst episodes in history regarding the relationship between man and these reptiles.

The battle for Ramri Island, which went down in history as Operation Matador, began on January 14, 1945. On this day, troops were landed on the island as part of the 26th British (Indian) division. The main goal of the landing was to capture the local airfield in the north of the island. The island's Japanese garrison consisted of the 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment and other units. Heavy fighting began. The British, supported by naval artillery and aircraft, pushed the Japanese deep into the island. On January 21, the 71st Indian Infantry Brigade was additionally landed on the island. It was then that the battle for the island came to a turning point. On February 17, hostilities ceased, the Japanese left their positions in the north of the island and began to move south in order to join the rest of the garrison. Their path ran through the local mangrove swamps.

The British land on about. Ramri.

The British units did not pursue the Japanese, the soldiers did not have uniforms for operations in the swampy terrain. The command limited itself to sending small reconnaissance groups in the wake of the retreating enemy. Although there is an opinion that the British specifically allowed the Japanese to go into the swamps.

The Japanese during the battles for Burma.

The Japanese unit entered the swampy area. In addition to problems with the water, which was undrinkable, snakes, insects, and difficult terrain plagued the Japanese. But the worst was yet to come. On the night of February 19, while on the move, the Japanese were attacked by local combed crocodiles, which lived in large numbers in the swamps. British intelligence officers noted in their reports about the panic that had arisen in the ranks of the enemy, indiscriminate gunfire. The next day, the British managed to find 20 Japanese people, very frightened. There was no information about the rest of the garrison, which entered the territory of the swamps. According to British information, about a thousand people went there.

The exact number of Japanese soldiers who died while crossing the swamps is still unknown. There is an opinion that several hundred Japanese still went to southern part islands. Well, this case itself was subsequently even included in the Guinness Book of Records as the case of the worst disaster in the attack of crocodiles on people. The very same operation "Matador" and the battles for this small Burmese island finally ended on February 22, 1945.

Ramri Island. Perhaps this name will not tell you anything. Or maybe when you hear this name, you imagine some exotic island on our planet. But few will remember the nightmare that happened here in February 1945.

It was the end of the Second World War, and at that time, deaths, as well as the mass death of soldiers, no longer surprised anyone. But now imagine tropical island with swamps and hundreds of crocodiles.

Ramri Island: when nearly 1,000 soldiers were eaten by crocodiles

We are in Myanmar (at that time Burma). Second World War has been going on for almost six years. But everyone feels that a little more effort and the enemy will be defeated.

In February 1945, the British send the Royal Navy to this part of the world to liberate Burma from Imperial Japanese forces. Japan occupied this strategically important territory back in 1942.

The British command planned to drive the Japanese off the island in just a few days, but the battle lasted 6 long weeks, from January to February 1945.

These were fierce and bloody skirmishes and the British had to ask for reinforcements to complete the operation.

At the end of January, the battleship Queen Elizabeth arrived with a detachment of landing troops and the liberation operation began. The British command planned this operation very well. B-24 and P-47 bombers cleared the beach area, and landing troops gradually landed to destroy the Japanese fortifications.

The further strategy was simple and clear - to seize and establish control over all the roads on the island, putting the enemy before the choice of either surrendering or trying to retreat. But to retreat, they had to cross the swampy part of the island, teeming with crocodiles.

And some Japanese soldiers tried to do it. They set out on a long journey, during which many suffered because of a large number mosquitoes and poisonous spiders living in these places. However, this was not the worst. The scariest thing was what none of these soldiers expected - crocodiles.

According to British soldiers, they did not understand who the Japanese were fighting and why they were screaming so terribly - after all, no one attacked them. Then they did a little reconnaissance and found something terrible. Japanese soldiers were devoured by crocodiles.

It seemed that there were dozens and hundreds of these creatures. They rose from the dark and muddy bog to seize and drag off a new victim. Due to the fog that hung over the swamp and hordes of insects, it was impossible to see the approaching creatures.

The British repeatedly offered the remaining Japanese soldiers to surrender, but they did not want to be captured.

Terrible screams, shots, the sound of jaws crushing bones, splashes of water...

As it was established later, about 1000 soldiers died. At least this information was given by the British troops. However, for the sake of history: this was probably the biggest massacre committed by animals.

Later, Bruce Stanley Wright, a well-known naturalist of the time, described this scene in one of his books published in 1962 ("Essays on Fauna"):

“The night of February 19, 1945 was one of the most terrible for any person or soldier. Between the sporadic sounds of gunshots, the cries of the wounded, crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, were heard in the thicket, and the blurry, unsettling sound of crocodiles circling in the waters created an infernal cacophony. At dawn, the vultures flew in to eat what the crocodiles had left... Of about 1,000 Japanese soldiers who entered the Ramri swamps, only about 20 were found alive.

For more than a month there was a battle for Ramri Island between the Anglo-Indian and Japanese troops. This piece of land, located off the coast of Burma, was captured by the soldiers of the Country rising sun as early as the beginning of 1942. But it was not until January 1945 that the British and the Indian Corps launched offensives. Suddenly, the Japanese had a new enemy, which they did not suspect. The natives of the mangrove swamps, combed crocodiles, intervened in the battle.

Operation Matador

In mid-January 1945, the Indian Corps was ordered to attack the Japanese positions on Ramri Island. English soldiers, after some time, attacked the enemy on another island - Chedub. And if the second managed to quickly occupy the territory, then the first were mired in a tense confrontation with the Japanese units.

Before the start of Operation Matador, intelligence reported that the main strategic targets - the port and airfield in the north of the island - were carefully guarded. The Japanese saturate the area with artillery. Therefore, several warships were sent to help the Indian Corps. They were required to carry out fire support for infantry from the water. And before the landing, the island was fired upon by guns from ships. And only after that the assault troops entered the battle. First, they entrenched themselves on the beaches of the island (January 21), and the next day they moved a little deeper into the territory.

When the British landed on neighboring island Cheduba, and this happened on January 26, the Japanese on Ramri still continued to resist the Indian Corps. Therefore, the command decided to transfer troops from the captured island to help the Indians.

When Japanese intelligence learned about the plans of the enemy, more than a thousand soldiers of the Land of the Rising Sun, who belonged to the sabotage corps, left their positions. They went to another, more numerous battalion, located on the island. Several days of travel were relatively calm. The British were in no hurry to get involved in the battle. However, the Japanese soon came across mangrove swamps that stretched for sixteen kilometers. You could, of course, try to get around them, but then you would have to make your way to your own, as they say, with a fight, since the British did not waste time in vain and managed to encircle this territory. And the Japanese command decided to go straight ahead.

The choice of this option was due not only to the shrinking ring of British soldiers. The fact is that the Japanese had special uniforms and weapons, which were necessary to overcome such difficult areas as mangrove swamps. The British, on the other hand, could not boast of such a reserve. And if so, it means that clashes with them could be postponed for some time.

An unexpected adversary

But the plan, which seemed promising, did not work. And although it was necessary to overcome a relatively small segment, the Japanese were bogged down. The British, of course, did not pursue them. But "for order" they allocated several reconnaissance detachments, which at a safe distance observed the actions of the enemy. Therefore, the British command was aware of all events. They knew that the Japanese had problems at first due to a lack of drinking water. It was impossible to use water from the swamps due to its unsuitability for consumption. However, this did not stop many Japanese soldiers suffering from thirst. So a second serious problem arose - infectious diseases and poisoning. The picture of torment was supplemented by frenzied insects and snakes. But, as it turned out, the worst was yet to come.

On the night of February 19, as exhausted soldiers continued to advance through the swamps, the British had an unexpected ally. The Japanese stumbled upon combed crocodiles. British naturalist Bruce Stanley Wright, who witnessed the clash between humans and predators, later wrote in Fauna Outline: “That night was the most terrible night that any of the fighters had ever experienced. Scattered in the black swampy slurry, bloody screaming Japanese, crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the strange disturbing sounds of spinning crocodiles made up a cacophony of hell. Such a spectacle, I think, few people could observe on earth. At dawn, the vultures flew in to clean up what the crocodiles had left behind... of the 1,000 Japanese soldiers who entered the Ramri swamps, only about 20 were found alive."

Wright did not exaggerate, twenty-two soldiers and three officers surrendered to the British in the morning. The rest of the Japanese died.

The events that unfolded on Ramri were included in the Guinness Book of Records and appear there as "the worst disaster associated with crocodiles in the whole world." It is also believed that the most people died that night due to the attack of crocodiles.

The bloody events of February 19 are not in doubt, since they were confirmed by both the Japanese and the British. The statements about the number of crocodiles raise doubts. Because both victims and witnesses spoke of "thousands". Therefore, the scientist Francis James MacLean wrote: “... If these same “thousands” of crocodiles were involved in the massacre, as in some kind of urban myth, how did these ferocious monsters survive here before, and how will they survive after this attack? The ecosystem of the mangrove swamps, sparse in large mammals, simply would not have allowed such a number of huge lizards to exist before the arrival of the Japanese.

But, one way or another, crocodiles played a decisive role in that confrontation. The British captured the island, and the Japanese were forced to retreat. By the way, there is a version that claims that the British deliberately lured the Japanese into the mangrove swamps. Like, their intelligence reported on crocodiles, after which this insidious plan was born at Commander Andrew Wyert.

Sergey Tikhonov "Expert Online", 18 Feb 2014

On February 19, 1945, up to a thousand Japanese soldiers were eaten by crocodiles trying to escape the British in the swamps.

This story took place in February 1945, when Hitler's Japanese allies were still conducting a counteroffensive at all strategic positions, including the so-called. Southwestern Front. Its key territorial link was the long-range artillery base on the Yuhan Hills, located on the Burmese island of Ramri. It was from there that the most successful attacks on British landing craft were made. When the object was discovered by the Anglo-American military intelligence, its destruction was designated among the top five priorities for the 7th operational airborne squadron of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. To protect the base, the Japanese command sent the best special forces of the army to the island - the sabotage corps No. 1, which is considered unsurpassed in repelling mobile infantry attacks.

The commander of the English landing battalion, Andrew Wyert, turned out to be a very cunning and resourceful officer. He sent a reconnaissance group deep into the island, where there were impenetrable mangrove swamps, and upon learning that they were simply teeming with huge combed crocodiles, he decided to lure the enemy detachment there at all costs. The major objected: “Our uniforms and weapons are not designed to go through swamps, unlike the Japanese, who are equipped with special suits and a decent arsenal of edged weapons. We will lose everything." To which the commander, in his trademark semi-joking style, replied: "Trust me and you will live ...".

The calculation was amazing in its tactical study. After the Japanese detachment was withdrawn into the very depths of the swamp through positional battles (which, by the way, the Japanese officers were only happy about, thinking that they would gain an advantage here), Wyert ordered a gradual retreat to coastline, eventually leaving only a small detachment at the forefront under artillery cover.

A few minutes later, British officers watching through binoculars witnessed a strange performance: despite a temporary lull in the attacks, Japanese soldiers, one after another, began to fall into the muddy swamp slurry. Soon, the Japanese detachment completely ceased to resist their military opponents: the soldiers who were still on their feet ran up to the fallen and tried to pull them out from somewhere, then also falling and falling into the same epileptic convulsions. Andrew ordered the vanguard detachment to retreat, although he met the objections of fellow officers - they say, it is necessary to finish off the bastards. For the next two hours, the British, sitting on the hill, calmly watched how the powerful, well-armed Japanese army was rapidly melting. As a result, the best sabotage regiment, consisting of 1215 selected experienced soldiers, who repeatedly defeated significantly superior enemy forces, for which at one time was nicknamed "Smerch" by the enemies, was devoured alive by crocodiles. The remaining 20 soldiers, who managed to escape from the deadly jaw trap, were safely captured by the British.

This case went down in history as "the largest number of human deaths from animals." The article is also named in the Guinness Book of Records. “About a thousand Japanese soldiers tried to repel an attack by the British Royal Navy landing ten miles from the coast, in mangrove swamps, where thousands of crocodiles live. Twenty soldiers were later captured alive, but most were eaten by crocodiles. The hellish situation of the retreating soldiers was aggravated by the huge number of scorpions and tropical mosquitoes that also attacked them, ”the Guinness book says. Naturalist Bruce Wright, participating in the battle on the side of the English battalion, claimed that the crocodiles ate most of the soldiers of the Japanese detachment: “This night was the most terrible of those that any of the soldiers had ever experienced. Scattered in the black swampy slurry, bloody screaming Japanese, crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the strange disturbing sounds of spinning crocodiles made up a cacophony of hell. Such a spectacle, I think, few people could observe on earth. At dawn, the vultures flew in to clean up what the crocodiles had left...of the 1,000 Japanese soldiers who entered the Rami swamps, only about 20 were found alive."

Salted crocodile is still considered the most dangerous and most aggressive predator on planet Earth. Off the coast of Australia, more people die from the attacks of combed crocodiles than from the attack of the great white shark, which is mistakenly considered the most dangerous animal by the people. This species of reptile has the strongest bite in the animal kingdom: large individuals can bite with a force of over 2500 kg. In one case recorded in Indonesia, a Suffolian stallion, weighing a ton and capable of pulling over 2,000 kg, was killed by a large male saltwater crocodile, which dragged the victim into the water and twisted the horse's neck. The strength of his jaws is such that he is able to crush the skull of a buffalo or the shell of a sea turtle in a few seconds.

Of the documented cases of mass human casualties from animal attacks, one should also note the incident of the Second World War associated with the attack of great white sharks, which ate about 800 helpless people. This happened after ships carrying civilians were bombed and scuttled.