Early nineteen forty-five, west coast of Burma

In charge, Colonel Kan'ichi Nagazawa

The tiny strategic tropical island of Ramree

‘’Defend at all costs!’’ he said ‘’Till your last hour!’’

 

The Colonel mined the beaches,

Fortified the garrison in the cliffs.

Split his force to maximise his fire

Left no stone unturned, there were no ‘ifs’

 

Twenty-first of January, hell's fury breaks

HMS Queen Elizabeth's fifteen-inch gun's roar

Pounding the beach and the seaward cliffs

Expelling sixty-nine shells, ship to shore

 

The Japanese were surrounded eventually.

By superior Indian and British forces

Their only escape was a ten-mile hike

Through muddy swamps and river courses

 

A small flotilla on a chance rescue mission 

Saved five hundred war-weary Nipponese

Including a reluctant Colonel Nagazawa 

Unfortunately, none of those less eager swampees

 

The British surrounded the swamp in small boats

Hailing them to surrender and live another day

But these soldiers had their Nippon pride

They would fight till their dying breath made way

 

The one thousand men were fearful of the British

But the Royal Marines had honour too

The Marines wanted prisoners, not corpses

For the swamp, only corpses would do

 

The almost invisible mosquito took its toll

The fly’s malarial injection infected, causing fever

Scorpions sensing their victims, venomously stung

So much pain and fear, ultimately a life leaver 

 

But worst was the fearsome saltwater crocodiles

The British heard distant gunfire at night

Followed by the loudest shouts and screams

As death rolled men were eaten alive, out of sight

 

Nine hundred eighty lost in that darkened swamp

Only twenty souls came out unscarred

Ramree Island mangrove tree swamps

Our Wildlife Allies' macabre graveyard