Battle of Ramree Island

The Battle of Ramree Island ( Burmese:ရမ်းဗြဲကျွန်း တိုက်ပွဲ, (also called Operation Matador) took place from 14 January to 22 February 1945, in the Second World War as part of the offensive on the Southern Front in the Burma campaign by the XV Indian Corps.

Ramree Island, part of Arakan (now Rakhine State), has an area of and is separated from the mainland by a strait with an average width of about ; the island is south of Akyab (now Sittwe). The Island had been captured by the Imperial Japanese Army in early 1942, during the invasion of Burma. In January 1945, forces of the Fourteenth Army landed on Ramree and the neighbouring island of Cheduba, to establish airfields for the supply of the mainland campaign.

The battle is known for claims that hundreds of Japanese soldiers were killed by crocodiles in the mangrove swamps of Ramree. Some editions of the Guinness Book of World Records have attributed the highest number of fatalities in an animal attack to the battle; zoologists and modern military historians have dismissed these claims.

Background

The early capture of Akyab made the 26th Indian Infantry Division (Major-General Henry Chambers) available for an attack on Ramree Island, to the south, the island being long and wide, flat and an obvious site for airfields. A plan was ready by 2 January, when it was clear that the advance of the Fourteenth Army (Lieutenant-General William Slim) would soon pass beyond the range of its airbases at Imphal and Agartala; replacements at Chittagong, Akyab and Ramree would be needed.

On 14 January, the 26th Indian Division was ordered to attack Ramree on 21 January, as a Royal Marine detachment from 3 Commando Brigade occupied the neighbouring Cheduba Island. The Japanese garrison of Ramree consisted of the II Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment (Colonel Kanichi Nagazawa), part of the 54th Division, with artillery and engineer detachments to act as an independent force.

Prelude

The battle started with Operation Matador, an amphibious assault to capture the strategic port of Kyaukpyu at the north end of Ramree Island and the airfield near the port, south of Akyab across Hunter's Bay. The invasion force was led by three Joint Assault Commanders, Captain Bush RN, Major-General Cyril Lomax and Wing Commander H. Smith. Reconnaissance carried out on 14 January 1945, found that Japanese forces were placing artillery in caves overlooking the landing beaches on Ramree and the Royal Navy assigned the battleship , the escort carrier , light cruiser , the destroyers ''Rapid'', ''Napier'', ''Norman'' and ''Pathfinder'', with the sloops ''Flamingo'' and .

The large number of ships was intended to provide more firepower in support of the landing force. On 21 January, an hour before the 71st Indian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier R. C. Cotterell-Hill) was to land, ''Queen Elizabeth'' opened fire with of -shell from the main battery, the fall of shot being watched by aircraft from ''Ameer''. ''Phoebe'' also joined the bombardment, along with Consolidated B-24 Liberators, North American B-25 Mitchells and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts of 224 Group Royal Air Force (RAF), under the command of HQ RAF Bengal and Burma, that strafed and bombed the beaches.

Battle

The assault troops were slightly delayed when a motor launch and a landing craft struck mines but landed unopposed on the beaches west of Kyaukpyu at securing the beachhead by the afternoon. The following day, the 4th Indian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier J. F. R. Forman) landed, took over the beachhead and occupied Kyaukpyu. On 23 January, the 71st Infantry Brigade advanced southwards, down the west coast. Two days later Mayin was occupied and the troops reached the Yanbauk Chaung the next day. Resistance at the chaung from the troops of the II Battalion, 121st Regiment increased and on 31 January, the 71st Brigade was ordered to move inland, north-east towards Sane, then head south towards Ramree town. The 4th Brigade was to keep the defenders at Yanbauk Chaung under pressure and follow up vigorously should they retire.

On 26 January in Operation Sankey, a Royal Marine force landed on Cheduba island, about offshore of the south-west coast of Ramree Island and found it unoccupied. On Ramree, the Japanese garrison resisted with great determination but on 1 February, the 71st Indian Infantry Brigade reached Sane and parts of the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade, from reserve, took Sagu Kuyun Island and relieved the marines on Cheduba Island. When the British outflanked a Japanese stronghold, the abandoned the base and marched to join a larger force of Japanese soldiers across the island. The route took the Japanese through of mangrove swamp and as they struggled through it, the British encircled the area. Trapped in deep mud-filled land, tropical diseases soon started to afflict the soldiers, as did scorpions, tropical mosquitoes and saltwater crocodiles.

On 7 February, the 71st Indian Infantry Brigade and supporting tanks reached the town of Ramree and encountered determined Japanese resistance. The 4th Indian Infantry Brigade had advanced to Ledaung Chaung and then moved east to reinforce the attack; the town fell on 9 February. The navy and the 26th Indian Infantry Division then concentrated on blockading the (small streams) on the east coast, to prevent the Japanese from escaping to the mainland. A Japanese air raid on 11 February seriously damaged a destroyer with a near miss and forty small craft were sent by the Japanese from the mainland to rescue the survivors of the garrison. Japanese resistance on the island ended on 17 February and the Allied blockade was maintained until 22 February, sinking many of the rescue craft and inflicting many casualties on the Japanese troops hiding in the mangrove swamps; about managed to get away. Cheduba Island was not garrisoned and the 22nd East African Brigade was sent to hold Ramree Island.

Aftermath

Analysis

In 1965, the British official historian, Stanley Woodburn Kirby, wrote that the Japanese defence of the island and the escape of about against "fearful odds", had been courageous and determined. It took until 16 April for the airfield to be used for transport sorties, Akyab having come into use on 1 April. It had been vital to complete the occupation of Ramree Island quickly, as Operation Dracula against Rangoon needed to commence in the first week of May at the latest, to have a chance of finishing before the monsoon. The experience in co-operation between the 26th Indian Division and the navy in the war of chaungs and small ports along the Arakan coast was intended to be exploited in the attack. An estimate put naval gunfire support from 4 January to 13 March for the land operations at Akyab, Ramree and Cheduba at The navy also carried of stores and

Casualties

In the 1965 edition of the British official history, Stanley Woodburn-Kirby wrote that the Japanese force suffered about 500 men killed and twenty men taken prisoner; British losses were "trifling".

Alleged crocodile attacks

On Feb. 24, 1945, Reuters war correspondents reported that Japanese soldiers trying to escape Ramree island were "being forced by hunger out of the mangrove swamps and many have been killed by crocodiles." In his 1962 collection ''Wildlife Sketches Near and Far'', Canadian naturalist and veteran of the Burma campaign Bruce S. Wright described the events of the battle, focusing on predation of the Japanese soldiers by the saltwater crocodiles.

Other writers, including Roger Caras in his 1964 ''Dangerous to Man'', repeated Wright's version, with Caras stating "had the story come from a source other than Bruce Wright, I would be tempted to discount it."Dangerous to Man; Wild Animals: A Definitive Study of Their Reputed Dangers to Man
by Roger Caras; published 1964 by Chilton Books; quoted at The-Avocado.org Subsequently, the story was incorporated into the '' Guinness Book of World Records'' as the worst animal attack ever recorded, due to Wright's statement that " about one thousand Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about twenty were found alive."

The presence of crocodiles in the Ramree swamps led other servicemen stationed on the island to believe they were a significant factor in the battle's outcome, with one British soldier writing in his diary that " en the Army landed they drove the Japanese into the swamps and the crocodiles killed hundreds of them. They used to call the crocodiles the allies."Veterans' Voices: Coventry's Unsung Heroes of the Second World War
by Caroline Freeman-Cuerden; published July 21, 2005 by History Press In his memoir, ''An Odyssey in War and Peace'', Lieutenant-General Jack Jacob (Indian Army) recounted his experiences during the battle,

Over a 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. Salt-water crocodiles, some of them well over 20 ft (6.1 m) long frequented these waters. It is not difficult to imagine what happened to the Japanese who took refuge in the mangroves!

In 2006, Robert Duff, a veteran of the 26th Division, recorded an oral history for the BBC
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