Lang Ley is Myanmar's largest island, located on the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal, with an area of about 2,300 square kilometers, almost 30 kilometers from the nearest part of the mainland. There are a lot of mangrove swamps on this island, it is a paradise for crocodiles to inhabit, and the rumored "crocodile anti-Japanese" incident occurred on this small island, so is this real thing happening?
It is reported that when the British army attacked Langley Island to besiege the Japanese army, before they had time to fight with the Japanese army, they found that the Japanese army on the island had been completely destroyed, and there were Japanese remnants everywhere, and only about two dozen seriously wounded Japanese troops still had a breath, and this situation was caused by crocodiles. But there were more than nine hundred Japanese troops entering the island at that time, how did the crocodile destroy them? This starts with the attack on Langley Island.
Battle of Langley
After the Japanese army launched the war of aggression against China, it first proposed to occupy all of China within three months, but this delusion was shattered by the stubborn resistance of Chinese people. At that time, the Japanese army stretched the battle line too long, logistics supply slowly appeared problems, it decided to go south to conquer Southeast Asia to obtain strategic materials such as oil and rubber to feed the war. At that time, Southeast Asia had great relations with the United States, and to occupy the region, it was necessary to pull out the Us military in the Pacific.
After some careful deployment, the Japanese army gathered a large number of naval air forces and launched a sneak attack on pearl harbor, a US military base in the Pacific, in the early morning, which caught the American troops who were still immersed in sleep. American troops suffered heavy losses in the battle, and the Japanese took the opportunity to occupy vast areas such as the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands and Burma.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Pacific War broke out in full swing, and more than twenty countries, including the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and Britain, formed an anti-fascist alliance to wage war against Axis powers such as Germany and Japan. The Japanese army that occupied Burma was counter-attacked by allied forces from China and Britain. At that time, the Japanese occupied the geographically advantageous Island of Langley in Burma, and the northern part of the island had a port close to the airport, which had an important strategic role for the Allies.
In order to take Langley, the British sent aircraft carriers and cruisers to prepare for shore bombardment missions on Langley, and also sent bombers and fighters to bomb the beaches of Langley. After a series of bombing operations, the Japanese fortifications on the beaches of Langley Island were completely destroyed. Subsequently, the British Royal Marines and the Indian Infantry Brigade landed on Langley Island and decided to wipe out the Japanese troops stationed above.
During the attack on Langley Island, the Allies engaged the Japanese in a fierce battle. Due to the lack of equipment and heavy weapons of the Japanese army, they were soon defeated by the Allies. When the British prepared to besiege a Japanese military fortress on Langley Island, the Japanese, knowing that it would be difficult to resist, abandoned the military base and decided to move into the defensive front on the other side, but they had to cross a mangrove swamp.
Trapped in the mangroves
The mangrove swamps on Langley Island are more than ten kilometers long, the environment is very harsh, there are mosquitoes everywhere, and tens of thousands of crocodiles inhabit here, and people will feel extremely frightened and suffocated when they step into this place. When the Japanese were preparing to cross the mangrove swamp, the British were already ready to besiege it around the mangroves, so that the Japanese could only turn around in the mangroves.
Gunshots continued to sound over the mangroves, and the British repeatedly shouted to the besieged Japanese troops, demanding that they surrender, but the Japanese troops were not moved, and still hid in the mangroves to resist. Mosquitoes were rampant in the mangroves, and the blood of the injured Japanese army attracted a large number of mosquitoes, and many Japanese soldiers were bitten all over the bag, itching and infected with a variety of diseases.
Lacking food and clean drinking water, the Japanese trapped in the mangroves became weak and collapsed on the road before they could get out of the mangroves. Even more frightening to the Japanese, crocodiles in the mangroves targeted them and attacked them. In particular, crocodiles frightened by the sound of artillery fire were even more ferocious, and these Japanese troops who invaded their territory without permission inevitably had to be attacked.
When these Japanese troops crossed the mangroves, they did not carry much equipment, and in the face of crocodile attacks, there was almost no strength to resist, and they became the target of crocodiles to bite at will. Later, the British army did not see the Japanese army out of the mangrove forest, so they entered the mangrove forest for inspection. After searching, the British found that there were many Japanese stumps left behind by crocodile bites in the mangroves, and only about two dozen Japanese soldiers survived, and there was a faint breath.
There were more than 900 Japanese troops who first entered the mangroves, but when they were discovered by the British, there were only more than 20, and the story of "crocodile resistance to Japan" spread locally. As the story went on, it became many different versions, and the content was different from the real events, many people thought that the more than 900 Japanese troops on Lanli Island were all slaughtered by crocodiles, and this unknown island was also famous.
Uncover the truth
In fact, not all of the nine hundred Japanese soldiers on Langley Island were killed by crocodiles, and in addition to the twenty weak Japanese troops, more than five hundred Japanese soldiers actually escaped from the mangroves. Although the British surrounded the mangroves at that time, the terrain of this place was complex, and it was inevitable that the blockade of other places would be lax, so that the Japanese army took the opportunity to escape.
Except for those who escaped, the rest were not all bitten to death by crocodiles, some were infected with bad diseases and died, some were starved to death on the way, and some accidentally fell into the swamp and died accidentally, and no matter how strong the crocodiles were, they could not bite nine hundred Japanese troops to death. Moreover, the Japanese troops who entered the mangroves also had guns in their hands, and after encountering crocodiles, these Japanese soldiers also used their guns to repel many crocodiles.
When the British army found the area where the Japanese army fought with crocodiles, they saw hundreds of wounded crocodiles lying there quietly, mixed with the Japanese who had been bitten and killed, and the surrounding area was stained red with blood. Therefore, in the Battle of Langley Island, the 900 Japanese troops who entered the mangrove forest were not all bitten to death by crocodiles, which is most likely just exaggerated by posterity in order to show the legend of the anti-Japanese resistance.
As the anti-fascist alliance grew, the Japanese army's plan to draw resources from Southeast Asia to feed the war eventually collapsed, and it had to surrender to the world. After Japan's surrender, the Japanese troops in the occupied areas withdrew one after another, and the Japanese troops stationed in Burma also withdrew. However, the legend of "crocodile anti-Japanese resistance" has been circulated in the local area for a long time, although this story has a lot of controversy, but it reveals the hatred of the Japanese invaders in the colonial areas, and people also want to express their inner resistance to aggression through such stories.