Vintage Military - Part 11

 World War II Airmen in Australia

These are American men of the Army Air Corps (the Air Force didn't exist yet) stationed at an Allied air base near Darwin, Australia in 1943.  LIFE photographer George Silk took all of today's photos.  Above, the airmen have found a local swimming hole.  You're probably admiring the men, who are swimming without a care (and without a stitch).  But notice the crocodile.  What's going on?

One of the men examines the crocodile.  It looks smaller here, so it must have been positioned in the foreground to look larger in the first photo.

And then the guy opens the crocodile's mouth.  It's dead.  This photo was published in the Nov. 22, 1943 issue of LIFE.

The text explains that the airmen, bored between flying their missions, find things to do such as swimming in pools with crocodiles.

The photo caption says: "Teeth of a baby crocodile, killed in a pool, are examined.  After mother crocodile, still alive, went to the pool's bottom, airmen started swimming there."

Here's another photo of the men skinny-dipping in the pool.  Now we know that the little crocodile in the foreground is dead, but there's a much larger one at the bottom of the pool!