In 1945, when soldiers were caught in the thick of the Second World War, a large troop of Japanese soldiers found themselves being pushed back by the British. This happened in Rangoon—and the Japanese soldiers realized that they had no option but to pull back.
Fortunately for them, they found that the area was a massive ditch of swamps and marshes, where they could easily hide. Was this battle, which had been ongoing for six weeks, finally coming to an end?
It did come to an end—but not in the way either party of soldiers was expecting.
Nightfall
As soon as the sun went down and the Japanese settled in those muddy marshes for the night, well-hid from the enemy, there was a strange shift in the air. The British felt it—and the Japanese felt it with even greater alarm. Soon enough, the British army had to contend with a night full of screams and shrieks that felt like they came straight from hell. It sounded like a massive troop of about a thousand hard-trained soldiers were all being tortured at the same time.
Had the Japanese walked into a death trap? Most certainly. But this trap was unlike any mines the British could have placed before they isolated the group of a thousand Japanese soldiers.
It was something far, far more sinister.
So What was in the Marshes?
Was it a monster? Yes, but not just one, but a whole bask of them. Bask is the collective term used for a group of crocodiles—so go figure.
The marshes were brimming with the largest reptiles in the world: the saltwater crocodiles. It is a croc that puts both the dreaded Nile Crocodile and the marsh crocs of South Asia to shame. Growing up to 22 feet long or more, saltwater crocs can reach a whopping 1000 pounds in weight. Their bite force is one of the strongest in the world—rivaled only by larger animals such as hippos and Great Whites.
And what happens when a bask of saltwater crocs meets unassuming Japanese soldiers walking into their territory, smelling nicely of blood and guts? Dinner. That’s what happens.
Even the battle-weary and hardened Japanese soldiers (remember, this is the same army that annihilated Nanking to the ground in the same war) couldn’t survive that attack. It has since become known as the worst croc attack in world history.
What the Survivors Said
Bruce Stanley Wright, a survivor of the Battle of Ramree Island but who was not on the Japanese side, actually wrote an account of that dreadful night. In his account, he says he heard “scattered rifle shots” in what was a “pitch black” swamp. That means he couldn’t see what was causing the commotion, but he could hear the agonized Japanese and their rifles going off.
Some 20 soldiers came out of that swamp, bloody and hurt, and were taken prisoner by the British forces almost immediately. Since then, many have contested the popular idea that saltwater crocs ate 980 Japanese soldiers in one night.
It would have been hard for one crocodile to eat one man—and it would have been harder for 980 crocodiles or more to be present in a congested swamp. We must also take into account the fact that these weren’t unarmed, untrained people the crocs were supposedly attacking. These were soldiers from one of the most feared empires on Earth, and they had weapons. We knew their rifles went off. How come these bullets never hit a reptile?
Or Was There Something Else in the Swamp?
There are two facts in this account. The first is that there are saltwater crocs on Ramree Island. The second is that 20 out of 1000 soldiers survived that attack. Oh, and there’s also the third: the British won.
These are also facts: no amount of reptiles can eat 980 grown men in one night. There were no croc casualties. Nobody saw the crocs because it was “too dark.”
Maybe it’s just us—but there’s a good possibility something else was present there that night too. You can discuss this and other hidden truths in greater depth and detail by joining the Get Wisdom Forum.