Operation tipping point, p.1
Operation Tipping Point, page 1
Operation Tipping Point
JP Cross
Monsoon Books
Burrough on the Hill
First published in 2023 by Monsoon Books Ltd
www.monsoonbooks.co.uk
No.1 The Lodge, Burrough Court, Burrough on the Hill, Melton Mowbray LE14 2QS, UK
ISBN (paperback): 9781915310149
ISBN (ebook): 9781915310156
Copyright©JP Cross, 2023.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Cover design by Cover Kitchen.
A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record is available from the British Library.
Contents
List of Characters
Abbreviations
Glossary
Map of Malayan Peninsula
Map of Malayan Railway
Preface
1
2
3
4
5
About the Author
Praise
Also by JP Cross
List of Characters
Historical characters:
Briggs, Sir Harold, Lieutenant General, author of the ‘Briggs Plan’
Brooke, Charles Vyner, last British ruler of Sarawak
Brooke, Duncan Stewart, successor-designate of the above
Capone, Al, famous mafia executive during prohibition in USA
Chien Tiang, chief confidant of Chin Peng (q.v.) and propaganda expert
Chin Peng, alias of Ong Boon Hua, Secretary General of the Malayan Communist Party
Churchill, Winston, English politician
Empikau, Iban ‘Pengara’ in the Ulu Ai area of Sarawak
Besarionis dze Jughashvilia, a.k.a.Joseph Stalin (‘Steel’), Georgian revolutionary and General Secretary of Soviet Communist Party
Kirill Novikok, Soviet Ambassador to India
Lai Tek, triple agent
Lee An Tung, Head of the Central Propaganda Department, Malayan Communist Party
Lee Kheng Kwoh, Chinese monk based in Darjeeling
Lu Dingyi, Chinese Communist Party spokesman
Mao Tse-tung, Chairman, Chinese Communist Party
Nagano, Major General, General Office Commanding 16th Japanese Imperial Army
Ng Chen, second-in-command of the killer squad of the Malayan Races Liberation Army
Ong Boon Hua, real name of Chin Peng (q.v.)
Padamsing (Padam) Rai, member of All-India Gorkha League and Sergeant, 1/12 Gurkha Rifles [Note: this is not the real name of the historical person your author knew]
Pahalman Rai, Rifleman, 1/10 Gurkha Rifles
Sharkey, Lawrence (’Lance’), Secretary General of the Australian Communist Party
Svetlana Allilueva, Stalin’s daughter
Taylor, Grant, Federal Bureau of Investigation officer during prohibition in USA
Templer, Sir Gerald, General, High Commissioner and Direcor of Operations, Malaya
Too Chee Chew (‘C C Too’) brilliant propagandist, Special Branch, Malayan Police
Ulyanov, Vladamir Ilych, a.k.a. Lenin, Soviet revolutionary saint
Westerong, Raymond, Dutch officer with Dutch ‘Shock Troops’
Wilhelmina ,Queen of the Netherlands
Yap Piow, Commander 7 Company, Malayan Races Liberation Army
Yerzin, Pavel Dmitrevch, Soviet handler for Sharkey (q.v.)
Zdhanov, Andrei A, Colonel General, Russian theoretician
Names either born in the author’s imagination or changed to avoid family embarrassment:
Ah Fat, police ‘mole’ and non-voting Central Committee member, Malayan Communist Party
Ah Ho, pseudonym of Xi Zhan Yang, secret Communist courier (q.v.)
Akbar Salleh, Indonesian delegate at Calcutta conference
Atmaji Anugerah, Indonesian delegate at Calcutta conference
Basnet, Mansing, Nepalese Vice Consul in Rangoon
‘Bear’, Hung Lo, nickname of Wang Ming, (q.v.)
Bugga, Vikas, Indian Communist agent
Chan Man Yee, Malayan Communist Party ‘mole’ in Police HQ, Kuala Lumpur
Cheng Fan Tek, grocer in Taiping
Chen Geng, Communist in Singapore
Dutt, Anil, Indian Communist
Hemlal Rai, Gurkha Captain, Chief Clerk, 1/12 Gurkha Rifles
Heron, James, Lieutenant Colonel, Defence Attaché, Rangoon
Hinlea, Alan, Captain, turncoat officer in 1/12 Gurkha Rifles
Hutchinson, Mr, Warrant Officer, Class 1, Movement Control.
Hutton, Reggie, Special Branch officer, Singapore
Jaslal Rai, Sergeant, 1/10 Gurkha Rifles
Jones, Peter, manager of Everton Estate
Kamal Rai, worker on Bhutan Estate
Kulbahadur Limbu, Rifleman, 1/12 Gurkha Rifles
Lam Wai Lim, Captain of SS Eastern Queen
Lau Beng, Negri Sembilan Regional Commissar
Law Chu Hoi, Purser of SS Eastern Queen
Lee Kheng Kwoh, member of the Chinese Security Service, Kwok Ka On Chuin Bo
May, Dougie, Major, Officer Commanding Gurkha Transit Camp, Barrackpore
McGurk, James, Major, Reserve Officer attached to 1/12 Gurkha Rifles
Mole, Rodney, Officer in charge Police District
Oli, Dhruba Kumar, Nepalese consul in Rangoon
O’Neal, Peter, Major, Second-in-Command, 1/12 Gurkha Rifles
Pahalsing Gurung, Gurkha Lieutenant, 1 Platoon Commander, A Company, 1/12 Gurkha Rifles
P’ing Yee, Flat Ears, nickname of Ah Fat (q.v.)
Rance, Jason Percival Vere, Captain, 1/12 Gurkha Rifles,
Shandung P’aau, Shandong Cannon, nickname of Jason Rance (q.v.)
Sim Ting Ong, Secretary General of the Sarawak United People’s Party
Sobolev, Leonid Pavlovich, Soviet ‘Rezident’, Calcutta
Tsarkov, Dmitry, a member of the Soviet consulate, Calcutta
Wang Ming, a.k.a. ‘Bear’, close friend of Ah Fat (q.v.)
Williams, Robert, Lieutenant Colonel, Commanding Officer, 1/12 Gurkha Rifles
Wong Kek Fui, Communist Hakka in Calcutta’s Chinatown
Xi Zhan Yang, secret Communist courier
Yerzin, Pavel Dmitrievich, Soviet handler in Delhi
Yusof Ali, Captain, HQ Kelantan Military District
Abbreviations
2 ic Second-in-Command
ADC aide de camp, personal staff officer to a senior officer
ADO Assistant District Officer
CO Commanding Officer, commander of major unit
CPO Chief Police Officer
CMP Corps of Military Police
CQMS Company Quartermaster Sergeant
CRW Communist Revolutionary Warfare
CSM Company Sergeant Major
CT Communist Terrorist/s, official name for guerrilla/s
DA Defence Attaché
DSO Distinguished Service Order, the second highest bravery award
FARELF Far East Land Forces
GHQ General Headquarters
GM Gurkha Major
GR Gurkha Rifles
HQ headquarters
ID identity
Int intelligence
KL Kuala Lumpur
MA Military Adviser
MCP Malayan Communist Party
MGB Soviet Ministry of State Security, Ministerstvo Gosudarstvennoi Besopasnosti (1946-54)
MRLA Malayan Races Liberation Army
MT mechanical transport
NCO non-commissioned officer
OC Officer Commanding, commander of sub-unit
OCPD Officer in Charge Police District
‘O’ Group ‘Orders Group’, sub-commanders for whom any orders are relevant
Red Cap nickname for British Army police from the colour of their hats
RSM Regimental Sergeant Major
sitrep situation report
Signals jargon
roger understood
sunray commander of unit or sub-unit concerned
sunray minor deputy commander of unit or sub-unit concerned
Glossary
Chinese
I sincerely thank Mr Bernard C C Chan, MBE, AMN, for his unstinting help in matters Chinese.
char sui crispy roast pork belly
fei toh bandit
Goo K’a bing Gurkha soldiers
gwai lo foreigner, literally ‘devil chap’, ‘old devil’
HakWa Hakka language
ham saap kwai ‘salty wet’, randy devil
juin jit dim turning point
kung toh Communist bandits
Kwok Ka On Chuin Bo Security Service
Loi Pai Yi Nepali
mi vermicelli
Min Yuen Masses Movement
Sinsaang Mr, ‘sir’ (in Hak Wa the pronunciation is Sin Saang)
tung chi ‘equal thinkers’
Hindi
hazur term of respect, inert conversational response (literally ‘presence’)
machan elevated platform for hunting or watching game
Pengara senior headman of a district
Indonesian
bakwan vegetable fritters
dalang proverbial puppet master
krupuk udang prawn crackers
Permuda Fatherland Defence Force fighters
tempeh deep-fried, fermented soya beans
Japanese
genchi shobun on-the-spot punishment
genju shobun punishment by law
romusha forced labour
Malay
atap palm thatch, Nipa fruticus
jalan road, street
kampong village
-lah tag for emphasis
makan food
Mat Salleh name Malays give to Europeans
orang man
parang chopper, knife
seladang wild bison, Bos gauruss
Selamat petang Good evening
songkok hat
Terima kasih thank you
tuan official, ‘sir’
Nepali (Gurkhali)
chamché one like a spoon, can turn either way
daku ‘dacoit’, guerrilla
keta lad
gaur wild bison, Bos gaurus
gora fair-skinned, word for British troops
hajur term of respect, inert conversational response (literally ‘presence’)
hunchha is, okay
-ji/-jyu polite suffixes, used after a person’s name
Major-ba one way of addressing a Gurkha
Company Sergeant Major
mijhar formal name for a monk
namasté Nepali greeting, made with joined hands in front of the lower face
S/sarkar government, officialdom word used to address or to refer to royalty
shikar game
shikari hunter
tagra rahau may you remain strong
ustad ‘teacher’, non-commissioned officer
Note: the ‘-bahadur’ at the end of names is often shorted to ‘-é’ when talking, so, instead of Kulbahadur, it is Kulé etc
Russian
I thank Prof. em Dr. George van Driem for his unstinted help in the vocabulary used in the narrative.
aktivnyye meropriyatiya active measures
gazvedka intelligence-gathering
maskirovka deception
Rodina motherland, Mother Russia
vlasti the elite
vnezapnost surprise
General
cane bamboo Aurindibaria falcata
Map of Malayan Peninsula
Map of Malayan Peninsula
Map of Malayan Railway
Map of Malayan Railway
Preface
It has happened times without number, most likely unknown at the time by those involved the most. Some put it that ‘history turns on a very small point’; others, less careful in expressing themselves, ask whether it was God’s law or sod’s law? However described, ‘it happens’. In the story I have written for you, disguised as it is to save reputations and to keep law suits off me, I tell how one night in August 1951 during the 10-year-long Malayan Emergency, a senior, highly experienced British major commanding a rifle company of Gurkhas, went to bed with ‘too much on board’. This was not the first or last time that such was the case. However, on the night in question he was woken up in the small hours by an excited Special Branch officer’s phone call – the line was not a clear one – to be told that a large party of guerrillas was at such-and-such a place. ‘I recommend you move now,’ the excited man said after passing the six-figure grid reference.
In his haze the Major wrote the last two figures in the wrong order so went where he had not been directed. Dame Fortune, that ever fickle lady, also decreed that the Special Branch officer’s information was out-of-date when he phoned and that by then the guerrillas had moved quite some way away. Against millions of odds, the two parties met up and the guerrillas suffered their greatest loss ever during the Emergency.
As the Major was a friend of the author’s he shall remain nameless.[1]
If, Gentle Reader, that intrigues you, please read on to learn what actually happened and how that one isolated incident became the ‘tipping point’ of the Malayan Emergency in favour of the Security Forces. Fully to appreciate the significance and the irony of that one incident, background events in Moscow, Darjeeling, Delhi and Calcutta must first be brought to your notice.
Your humble author.
* * *
The official version of the incident is on pages 31 to 41 in the History of the 2nd King Edward VII’s Own Gookhas (The Sirmoor Rifles) Volume IV, 1948-1994. ↵
1
Tuesday 4 October 1946, The Old Arsenal Building, The Kremlin, Moscow: ‘You have done well, Comrade Colonel General. I want our revolutionary struggle in Asia to prevail before that Mao Tse-tung wins the civil war in China, which I believe he surely will. Your suggestion has many merits. Once we have Politburo approval you will put your plan into action.’
The man known to the world as Stalin, ‘Steel’, the Secretary General and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the United Soviet Socialist Republics, the homicidal and illegitimate son of a Georgian shoemaker, was probably unaware that Mao’s spokesman, Lu Dingyi, had, nine months earlier, already produced his own theory and plan for similar action. Had Stalin – arch-realist, brutal and unpredictable despot, psychologically warped and capable of much evil – known that, his praise might not have been so warm as he looked up, eyes hooded, at the man standing in front of him whose son, Juri, would marry his daughter Svetlana Allilueva as her second husband. He was clearly pleased with his protégé, who should never be, nor was, allowed to become too strong.
‘Thank you, Comrade Secretary General. Your words mean a great deal to me and, indeed, I feel that my offering can only do the Party much good,’ answered Colonel General Andrei A Zhdanov, the younger by twenty years, trying, not very successfully, to hide his obvious pleasure.[1] It was never wise to show anything that might be taken as exuberance in front of the Secretary General, especially when his dark, cruel eyes – eyes that hooded as he spoke and seemed to know too much and to see farther than the line of vision permitted. ‘My life’s work is for Cause and Country,’ he said, adding, for good measure, ‘under the creative genius of your leadership.’
That merely drew a shrug: it was to be expected. His peers recognised that the Secretary General was a man out of proportion, his cunning, his conceit, his strength and his dreams – all were larger than life, exacerbated by megalomania. He was a man who thought and acted in absolute terms; patience and guile hiding his vainglory so successfully that many took him for normal.
Zhdanov, now the Party’s ideologue and theorist, had become a candidate member of the Central Committee in 1930 at the unusually young age of thirty-four and a full member of the Politburo in 1939. To be a political Colonel General was a rarity and reflected his great potential. Of medium height, his hairline had receded. His round face, with its small nose and wide-set eyes, belied his inner toughness. His tight lips under his clipped moustache and a protruding chin showed a firmness of character and his still lithe body reflected a strapping youth. In fact, he was as tough as any, more dedicated than most and as hard an exponent of the Stalinist line in all matters as there could be.
The members of the Politburo, sitting either side of a long, heavy, oak table, looked on with tolerance at the praise, so seldom given, now being bestowed on this potentially all-powerful individual who wore his authority with a bland good will that masked a subtle intelligence and dominating resolve. Older Politburo members, whose ideology had been the tiniest bit suspect or who had opinions of their own, had long vanished, shot in the head in the Lefortovo jail, bodies disposed of, leaving bereft families suffering hardships by being ‘tainted’, so under lifetime suspicion.
That left clever, fawning toadies to rise to senior level. Zhdanov’s potential was, however, a cause for Stalin’s jealousy – no one at that meeting would have guessed that he would die under mysterious and unexplained circumstances the following year.
