Battle of Ramree Island

Battle of Ramree Island
Part of The Burma campaign
British troops in landing craft make their way ashore on Ramree Island, 21 January 1945.
Date 14 January – 22 February 1945 Location Ramree Island, Arakan, Burma 19°06′00″N 93°48′00″E / 19.10000°N 93.80000°E / 19.10000; 93.80000 Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  India	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Cyril Lomax	Kan'ichi Nagazawa
Units involved
Two brigades, 26th Indian Infantry Division; one squadron, 146 Regt, RAC, elements of 3 Commando Brigade	2nd Battalion, 121st Regiment, 54th Division
Strength
c. 6,000	c. 1,000
Casualties and losses
"Trifling"[1]	c. 500 killed 20 captured c. 500 evacuated to the mainland
Ramree Island class=notpageimage| Burma (Myanmar)

The Battle of Ramree Island (Burmese: ရမ်းဗြဲကျွန်း တိုက်ပွဲ), also known as 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 and was conducted by the XV Indian Corps.

Ramree Island, part of Arakan (now Rakhine State), has an area of 520 sq mi (1,350 km²) and is separated from the mainland by a strait with an average width of about 490 ft (150 m); the island is 70 mi (110 km) south of Akyab (now Sittwe). During the Japanese invasion of Burma in early 1942, the Island had been captured. In January 1945, forces of the Indian XV Corps 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 described this as the highest number of fatalities in an animal attack; zoologists and modern military historians have dismissed these claims.^[2]