The Crocodile Attack of Ramree Island

This article was first published August 14, 2025, at fieldethos.com.

If you frequent this website, there’s a decent chance that you’ve heard the story of the man eaters of Tsavo, two maneless lions with a taste for human flesh that the British government, in its stubborn determination to build the Kenya-Uganda Railway, effectively treated to an all-you-can-eat buffet on train tracks.

And then maybe, too, you’ve read something about Sergeant Phleger’s tiger, the tragic tale of a soldier being snatched up by a blur of black and orange while patrolling along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. That story may not be as well known, but in my mind it’s every bit as terrifying.

But do you know the story of the Ramree Island crocodiles? As far as battles go between man and beast, it’s at least the equal of Tsavo’s lions and Sergeant Phleger’s tiger. No less an authority than the Guinness Book of World Records called it the Greatest Disaster Suffered from Animals. Now, admittedly, there are naysayers that dispute the veracity of that claim, but I’ll tell you the story and let you decide for yourself.

The Battle of Ramree Island was waged in January and February of 1945, after the island, the largest in a string of islands off the Arakan Coast and therefore a hot commodity in supply chain strategy, was captured by Japanese soldiers during its invasion of what was then known as Burma. The XV Indian Corps, a contingent of the British Indian Army, was ordered to retake Ramree, and in the dead of night, surprised those Japanese soldiers and sent them scampering for the mangrove swamp at the far end of the island.

Among the twisted roots and branches at the water’s edge, the XV Indian Corps found an army of unlikely allies. Saltwater crocodiles. Some of them 20 feet long and weighing well over a ton. Prehistoric monsters with chain mail scales and bear trap teeth. Perfectly suited to his habitat, the saltwater crocodile is as opportunistic and effective a predator as has ever stalked prey.

So, imagine yourself, if you will, as one of those Japanese soldiers fleeing headlong into that mangrove swamp, utterly unaware of the reptilian killing machines lying in ambush. I mean, that’s the stuff that nightmares are made of, right? I’m guessing, though, that if you had been part of that first wave of soldiers, you would have never known what hit you.

So, instead, imagine being part of that second or third wave of soldiers arriving on scene and trying to make sense of what your senses were telling you. Imagine the stench of blood and cordite, thick in your nostrils. Imagine your eyes adjusting to the black of night just in time to witness one of those gruesome yet graceful death rolls for which crocodiles are so well known. Imagine staccato bursts of gunfire punctuating the dying screams of your comrades.

Now, imagine being faced with the Japanese soldier’s dilemma – an advancing army behind you and certain death in front of you. Should you surrender to the enemy in shame? Or are you better off trying your luck hopscotching across that crocodile infested swamp?

I don’t know the particulars of why the naysayers naysay. Something about the most detailed accounts of the attack not being penned by actual eyewitnesses, I think. And that may well be the truth. But I’m wondering whether or not those naysayers cast their aspersions on the crocodile attack of Ramree Island simply because they can’t bring themselves to face in their imaginations what those Japanese soldiers faced in reality.

I know I can’t.