Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: uptown on August 09, 2013, 06:15:40 PM
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.....check this story out. Just seen it on LiveLeak....frikken horrible
In the rotting jungles of Burma, WW II war took on a primal kind of savagery that has seldom been witnessed in modern time. The Burmese mangrove swamps of Ramree, filled with every kind of lethal creature and disease, became the enemy as much as any man armed with a weapon. And while this killing ground became a special kind of hell, what took place in that mangrove swamp on 19 February, 1945 rivals any of the legends that took place in the shark infested waters of the Pacific.
During February of 1945 the British launched a massive attack against the Japanese presence in southern Burma. As part of the attack, the heavily defended island fortress of Ramree was assaulted – and ultimately outflanked – by Royal Marines. Realizing they were cut off, the commander of the Japanese garrison ordered his force of between 900 and 1,000 Imperial infantry to retreat approximately ten miles through the mangrove swamps in an effort to synch-up with a larger defensive force.
The breakout was ordered at dusk on 19 February, but as the Japanese made their move they were subjected to immediate and effective harassing fire from British air, ground and sea units. Desperate to make their escape and suffering substantial casualties as they fled the Japanese force slipped away on foot into the ominous darkness of the mangrove swamp. Dark and infested with scorpions, poisonous spiders and snakes, leeches and every kind of stinging insect the force continued through the waist high water of the mangroves. Harassed by continuous artillery fire, the Japanese marched through the night using the darkness and the dense mangroves as cover.
As the force descended deeper into the swamp, the British sitting off the island in their patrol boats began to hear screams. It lasted all night. These were not the cries of wounded men. Instead they were the guttural screams of terror. As legend now has it the retreating force of men were descended upon by salt water crocodiles that averaged fifteen feet in length. The mangroves were the nesting grounds to these giants and it was reported that there were thousands of them in the nearby area at the time. Drawn by the noise and thrashing of the retreating infantry, the crocodiles took one man after another.
Wounded Japanese had no hope of getting out.
British naturalist Bruce Wright, attached to a Royal Marine division, made the following notes of what he witnessed:
“That night was the most horrible that any member of the M.L. [marine launch] crews ever experienced. The crocodiles, alerted by the din of warfare and the smell of blood, gathered among the mangroves, lying with their eyes above water, watchfully alert for their next meal. With the ebb of the tide, the crocodiles moved in on the dead, wounded, and uninjured men who had become mired in the mud.
The scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying 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…Of about 1,000 Japanese soldiers that entered the swamps of Ramree, only about 20 were found alive.”
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c5e_1376084511#d25ll2eUmqme8PDJ.99
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well WAR IS HELL
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There both horrific tales.
I think I'd rather be in ocean tho :(
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Those crocodiles give me the heebie jeebies. I've seen lotsa story's of people going for a swim off their sailboat, chomp, being caught in the outback in some heavy rains,chomp, diving into a swimming hole in Botswana or some place chompity chomp. Yikes.
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Considering what the Japanese did to prisoners and civilians, sounds like karma cashed in a few markers.
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Yeah I'll agree with that RPM.
Not to downplay what the men of the Indianapolis went though because it was no doubt a week long nightmare, but crocodiles just give my the creeps. Not to mention snakes. I think if I had to pick a way to be eaten alive, I'd take dead by shark.
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Considering what the Japanese did to prisoners and civilians, sounds like karma cashed in a few markers.
I highly recommend flyboys.
Tale of the cannabilistic ways of some Japanese commanders
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I think if I had to pick a way to be eaten alive, I'd take dead by shark.
Eaten alive by anything is very low on the list of ways I want to go. That being said, I would want something that would kill me as quick as possible.
I honestly believe that a Croc or Gator would kill you quicker than a shark. They do that roll thing and would snap your back or neck fairly quickly. A shark would bite you, and thrash around and maybe drown you before you really succumb to your wounds.
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I am a man of the sea. I've eaten shark, it's only right that they then consume me :)
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Considering what the Japanese did to prisoners and civilians, sounds like karma cashed in a few markers.
I can't really agree. Some deserved to be killed, though humanely rather than by crocodiles, but some did not. In war many who do not deserve to die are killed, it is the nature of the beast, but I don't think celebrating it is a good thing.
I recall a comment by an Aussie who was a prisoner of war held by the Japanese. He was in bad condition when the war was over, but he lived. He said many of the Japanese guards were cruel, but some were kind as well. Surely there were a number of kind Japanese in that 900-1000 men who tried to break out through the mangrove, a percentage who were guilty of nothing more than being drafted/pressed by their nation into a war. Crocodiles don't distinguish between those who deserve to be eaten and those who do not.
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I am a man of the sea. I've eaten shark, it's only right that they then consume me :)
You've probably eaten more chicken than shark. I think you should be pecked to death. Boy, wouldn't that be fun to watch?
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I think i saw something like this in one of the indiana jones movies. :D
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You've probably eaten more chicken than shark. I think you should be pecked to death. Boy, wouldn't that be fun to watch?
:huh
I eat a lot of seafood(and shark).
But yes I have eaten a lot of chicken. That besides the point :lol
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I'm thinking that if only 20 out of 900-1000 made it, I'd give some serious thought to my
firearm before being eaten alive. I am not the suicidal type either.
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I am a man of the sea. I've eaten shark, it's only right that they then consume me :)
Yeah they all say that before they get 'et.
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I can't really agree. Some deserved to be killed, though humanely rather than by crocodiles, but some did not. In war many who do not deserve to die are killed, it is the nature of the beast, but I don't think celebrating it is a good thing.
I recall a comment by an Aussie who was a prisoner of war held by the Japanese. He was in bad condition when the war was over, but he lived. He said many of the Japanese guards were cruel, but some were kind as well. Surely there were a number of kind Japanese in that 900-1000 men who tried to break out through the mangrove, a percentage who were guilty of nothing more than being drafted/pressed by their nation into a war. Crocodiles don't distinguish between those who deserve to be eaten and those who do not.
This ^^^. No matter what wrong another man may do, does not relieve you of the obligation to do the right thing.
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I'm thinking that if only 20 out of 900-1000 made it, I'd give some serious thought to my
firearm before being eaten alive. I am not the suicidal type either.
They would have had better odds facing the Brits.
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Yeah they all say that before they get 'et.
By no means am I saying I want to die. I'm just saying I feel at home at/on the ocean.
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By no means am I saying I want to die. I'm just saying I feel at home at/on the ocean.
And no doubt plenty of those soldiers felt at home in the mangroves.
I know full well the crimes of the Japanese Empire during WW-2. But getting 'et by a croc is no way for a soldier to die.
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If I had to pick what way I was going to die . I find a coral snake that's if Burma has them .
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If I had to pick what way I was going to die . I find a coral snake that's if Burma has them .
Well..............if we get to chose I'm going to skip being et' by a croc and pick dehydration from sexual exertion :devil
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Well..............if we get to chose I'm going to skip being et' by a croc and pick dehydration from sexual exertion :devil
After 900 Male soldiers, I guess you would be dehydrated. I would pass on that. To each their own I guess.
:cheers: Oz
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:lol he walked right into that one :rofl
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Nice historical fact that you don't see in history books. Thanks for posting it. :aok
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After 900 Male soldiers, I guess you would be dehydrated. I would pass on that. To each their own I guess.
:cheers: Oz
LMAO! I did not think that though! Well im pitching not catching if it "comes" to that. lol
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"The British Burma Star Association seems to lend credence to the swamp attack stories but appears to draw a distinction between the 20 Japanese survivors of one attack and the 1,000 Japanese who were left to fend for themselves in the swamp.[3]. Furthermore there is no corroboration of the event by British military reports or by interviewed Japanese soldiers and local Burmese.[4] These figures are disputed and the event has been described as an urban myth by British historian Frank McLynn, who opined that only a few wounded Japanese had been consumed, although he did admit that the saltwater crocodiles of the region were both "known man-eaters and opportunistic killers".[4] McLynn's criticisms of the account primarily stem from his personal incredulity that the "Japanese firepower, which tore such holes in British tanks and armour" would be incapable of dispatching large numbers of crocodiles at night. His suspicions are not cited to any other source, nor are they echoed by other historians. Additionally, although McLynn accused Bruce Wright's existence of being "unverified", his career in the Royal Canadian Navy and subsequently as a scientist and author is described in many additional sources and McLynn's doubts are again notably not echoed by other historians in this area."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ramree_Island
semp