Operation TOBA by JP Cross
A book review by Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Elton Davis
Fates Collide in the Wartime Jungles of Malaya
Set during the Japanese invasion of Malaya and Singapore in WWII and focused on the daring exploits of stay-behind parties as they disrupt the Imperial forces with rudimentary tactical devices, JP Cross has delivered an historical fiction which is devilishly intriguing and a masterclass in his depictions of operating in the jungle in his latest book, Operation TOBA.
The story begins with an isolated act of kindness at the end of the Great War: an act which unwittingly sets two characters on a collision course two decades later. Unlike his previous books in the series, the erstwhile hero Jason Rance is not the main protagonist. Instead, JP Cross turns the spotlight on Ah Fat, Jason’s childhood Chinese friend. Ah Fat is selected by British Colonial actors and his father to become a key member in a small band of fifth columnists consisting of British, Gurkha, and Malay Communist activists. Ah Fat’s tactical deceptions and devastating skill with a humble catapult pit him against a young Kempeitai officer charged with rooting out the saboteurs. As the stakes get higher, the two characters are thrown together and in the final pages, the event from the Great War finally comes full circle.
As John Le Carre observed, no one is better qualified than JP Cross to write about the jungles of Malaya. His first-hand knowledge of the jungle environment leaps from each page with authenticity and precision. His literary techniques are as beguiling and ingenious as some of the tactics and techniques used by the heroes of the piece. The brutality of war is not ignored, but JP Cross also manages to depict the camaraderie between comrades and surprisingly, the occasional glimpse of humanity between adversaries.
After eleven books in the series, the pace and energy of JP Cross’s imagination show no sign of letting up. What next will drip from his pen – and when?
JP Cross said, “I have written eleven books under the rubric of Operation Something-or- Other. When asked why I write them, my answer is two-fold: the most important is that I have spent more than 80 years in Asia, have had 10 years in the jungle, operated on the North-West Frontier of (then) India, Burma, Vietnam, Malaya, Sarawak, and Brunei, as well as serving in Laos, Hong Kong, and Nepal. I speak nine Asian languages and write the script of five of them (two don’t have any). I have also read extensively about and spoken to those engaged in Southeast Asian matters. No one else has had such a wide template of such matters during the period I have written about, and it seems a pity not to use what I know as ‘faction’, fiction based on fact so as not to lose it. My three autobiographies cannot be so inclusive. The second reason is that it helps me keep the grey matter alive and kicking in my dotage: ‘if you don’t use it, you lose it.”