Operation stealth, p.1
Operation Stealth, page 1
Operation Stealth
JP Cross
Monsoon Books
Burrough on the Hill
Published in 2020
by Monsoon Books Ltd
www.monsoonbooks.co.uk
No.1 The Lodge, Burrough Court,
Burrough on the Hill, Leics. LE14 2QS, UK
ISBN (paperback): 9781912049783
ISBN (ebook): 9781912049790
Copyright©JP Cross, 2020
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.
Contents
List of Characters
Abbreviations and Glossary
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Sequel to Operation Stealth
About the Author
Praise for the series
Operation Black Rose (Vol.1)
Operation Janus (Vol.2)
Operation Blind Spot (Vol.3)
Operation Stealth (Vol.4)
Operation Four Rings (Vol.5)
Other books by the Author
List of Characters
[Note: except for those with a * in front of their name, all the others were born in the author’s imagination]
Bakunin, Soviet Ambassador in Laos
Bill Hodges, Secret Intelligence Service official, London
Bounphong Sunthorn, a senior Lao communist. Ring B
Charlie Law, English name of Thai surrogate son of David Law, Q.V.
Chi, Colonel, South Vietnamese Defence Attaché, Laos
Clifford Bates, Colonel, Ministry of Defence, London
David Law, Sir, Lieutenant General, KCB, CBE, DSO, MC, Director of Military Intelligence, Ministry of Defence, London
Ed Murray, Central Intelligence Agency, listed as Cultural Attaché in the Bangkok embassy
Etam Singvongsa, Brigadier General, Director of Intelligence, Royal Lao Army
Georgi Nechaev, Colonel, Soviet Defence Attaché, Laos
Gerry Elwood, Head of the Southeast Asian Desk, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London
Gordon Parks, Secret Intelligence Service representative in British embassy, Vientiane, Laos
Hamish Charles Cameron, British Ambassador, Laos
Harry J. Vainey, functionary from United States Agency International Development, Vientiane, Laos
*Hồ Chí Minh, first Vietnamese leader
Inkham Hatsady, a.k.a. Princess Golden Fairy, Third Secretary, Royal Lao Embassy, London
Jacque Grambert, KBG agent
James Redfeather, Sir, KCMG, Whitehall Mandarin
Jason Percival Vere Rance, Lieutenant Colonel, Commandant, British Army Jungle Warfare School, Malaysia, later Colonel, British Defence Attaché, Laos
James Tomlinson, Treasury official, London
Jay V. Gurganus, Colonel, US Army Attaché, Laos
Jeremy Coulson, Whitehall functionary, London
John (J L B) Chambers, Indo-China desk officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, London
Joseph, Mr, supporting clerk for British Defence Attaché, Vientiane, Laos
Kaysone Phomvihan, pro-Vietnamese Lao communist
*Kaysorn Bouapha, Lao language teacher, Vientiane, Laos
Khian An, British Defence Attaché’s house boy, Vientiane, Laos
Lanouk na Champassac, Prince, Defence Minister, Laos
Le Dâng Khoã, Major, Army of the Republic of Vietnam Guiding Officer, British Army Jungle Warfare School. A senior Vietnamese communist. Ring A
Leuam Sunthorn, British Defence Attaché’s driver, Vientiane, Laos
Mana Varamit, Major, a.k.a. Major Chok Di when in Thai Secret Army
*Mangkara, Lieutenant Colonel Prince, son of Prime Minister of Laos
Maurice Richard Burke, a.k.a. Dally, Central Intelligence Agency representative in London
Neil Gherry, Captain, Adjutant, British Army Jungle Warfare School, Malaysia
Nga Sô Lựự, a Vietnamese political commissar
Oswald Stewart Taunton, British ambassador, Laos
Ouane, Princess, King of Laos’ eldest daughter
Percy S. Zollinger, Assistant US Army Attaché to Royal Lao Army’s Military Region 2
Phannyana Maha Thera, abbot of Sam Neua, later Chief Bonze of Laos in Luang Prabang
Phou Si, a mythical giant and the name of a small hill in Luang Prabang, Laos
Prachan Pimparyon, Sergeant Major, Thai Frontier Police
Richardson, Colombo Plan adviser in the Ministry of Information, Vientiane, Laos
Roger Daniel, Colonel, out-going British Defence Attaché, Laos
Ronny Hill, Major, British Assistant Military Attaché, Laos and embassy Beaver pilot
Sainyavong Hatsady, Prince, the King of Laos’ only full brother, President of the King’s Council
*Savang Vatthana, King of Laos from 1959
*Sisavangvong, King of Laos until 1959
Sisavat Abhay, Major General, Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Royal Lao Army
*Soth Petrasy, head of Lao Patriotic Front delegation in Vientiane, Laos
*Souvanna Phouma, Prince, the Neutralist Prime Minister of Laos
*Souvannouvong, Prince, the ‘Red Prince’ of Laos
Tâ Tran Quán, a.k.a. Tanh Bên Lòng, a senior Lao communist. Ring C
Tan Ying-chao, interpreter to Chinese Defence Attaché, Laos
Teng Ah-hok, Chinese Defence Attaché, Laos
Terry Olsen, Colonel, Australian Defence Attaché, Laos, and wife, Jane
Thong Damdouane, a senior Lao communist. Ring D
*Vang Pao, Major General, Commander, Royal Lao Army, Military Region 2
Vladimir Gretchanine, Third Secretary, USSR embassy in Paris, later Defence Attaché in Laos
Xutiati Xuto, a.k.a. Charlie Law, q.v.
Yvonne Grambert, French language teacher, London
Abbreviations and Glossary
Abbreviations
AMA Assistant Military Attaché
ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam, South Vietnamese Army
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation
BE Buddhist Era
C-in-C Commander-in-Chief
CIA Central Intelligence Agency, USA
CPLA Chinese People’s Liberation Army
CTC Central Training Command, Saigon, ARVN
DA Defence Attaché
DI Defence Intelligence, Ministry of Defence, London
DMI Director of Military Intelligence, Ministry of Defence, London
FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London
GHQ General Headquarters
GI ‘General issue’, a US army private soldier
GR Gurkha Rifles, British Army
GRU Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate, a.k.a. Military Intelligence Agency
HE His Excellency, used for ambassadors, etc
ICSC International Control and Supervision Commission
LBJ Lyndon (Baines) Johnson, 1908-73, 36th USA President, 1963-9
LP Luang Prabang, the Lao royal capital
LPF Lao Patriotic Front, political wing of anti-royalist faction in Laos
LPLA Lao People’s Liberation Army, more commonly known as PL
LS Landing Site
MOD Ministry of Defence
MR Military Region, Royal Lao Army
NVA North Vietnamese Army. Its official name was The People’s Army of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam but it was always alluded to as NVA
PA personal assistant
PGNU Provisional Government of National Union: joint Royal Lao Government and Lao Patriotic Front administration after Pathet Lao military victory
PL Pathet Lao, military wing of Lao Patriotic Front
PLA (Chinese) Peoples’ Liberation Army
RLA Royal Lao Army
RLAF Royal Lao Air Force
RLG Royal Lao Government
SDECE French external intelligence service
SIS Special Intelligence Service, United Kingdom, a.k.a. MI 6
USAF United States Air Force
USAID United States Agency for International Development
Lao Terms
baçi ceremony of prayer and good wishes
ban village, house
bor ‘or not’ when at the end of a question
bor pen nyang it doesn’t matter
boun festival, celebration
Meo Lao ethnic tribe, now known as Mhong
phee thirty-two spirits that inhabit a Lao’s body
Tan Mr
thud attaché
Tu Nong Your Highness, to a princess
wai salutation, hands joined in front of face
wat Buddhist temple
Vietnamese Terms
Dại Tá Colonel
Chào Ông Hello, to a man
Prologue
Early April, 1945. Somewhere in north Indo-China: ‘Never forget The Catechism of a Revolutionist. It was written many years ago but is still true today,’ explained the earnest-looking, gaunt-faced man in a chilling, nasal twang to his class of keen, young politi
‘Our Communist revolution in Indo-China started many years ago. Now those arrogant and feckless French are so weakened that they will never be able to prevent us from achieving our aim. Our victory may still be years away but you young men in front of me,’ and in an uncharacteristic gesture, the fore-finger of the instructor’s right hand slowly pointed at each one in turn, his malicious eyes piercing theirs so deeply that they sent shivers up each spine, ‘are the cutting edge of the impetus of our movement. You will be responsible, to start with, for northern Laos. Never forget what I have taught you. Never forget that your bedrock for success will be relentless planning, remorseless opportunism and pitiless persistence, with no limits to just how harsh your methods are. As soon as the war is over I order you to go out and practise.
‘The Politburo plan, called Operation Stealth, will take thirty years for final victory. Over those years your unflinching dedication to our cause will need unstoppable momentum: that means perseverance, perseverance, perseverance …’
Late October, 1945: News of the Japanese surrender on 14 August 1945, with Hồ Chí Minh becoming President of the independent Republic of Vietnam – the name used before the French imposed their unwanted presence – travelled slowly in the more remote regions of Indo-China. This was certainly so near the northeast of Houa Phan province on the border of Laos and Tonkin where fast-flowing rivers, jungle-covered mountains, massive perpendicular blocks of limestone outcrops and primitive communications ensured that scattered and isolated village communities, disinterestedly self-sufficient and parochially narrow-minded, were almost always out of touch with their nearest neighbours – and were entirely happy with their lot.
One such village, not more than a couple of hours’ brisk walk from the district capital, Sam Neua, was Ban Liet. Situated in a valley, it had enough rice fields and pasture for the villagers’ needs. It spread along two tracks, rutted by bullock carts, in the shape of a cross and consisted of some fifty small, rickety, primitive wooden houses, built on stilts. The roofs were thatched and steep, the floors were made of bamboo slats and the rooms, partitioned by plaited wattle, were devoid of furniture. Entry from outside was only possible by climbing up notched poles. In one corner of one room in each house was a cooking place built of mud and stones. With no chimney it was squalidly smoky. People slept on mats woven from grass and there was no privacy whatsoever. The space under the houses was used for domestic animals, chickens, farming implements, carts, kindling and junk.
The peasants, small, brown-skinned, black-haired folk with high cheek bones and epicanthic eyelids – the men almost beardless – normally lived quietly but one morning in late October the place was abuzz with excitement and tension. Unusually, a group of about thirty men, women and children had moved west from Ta Lang, a village just over the border in Tonkin, asking for refuge. They were Tai Dam people, Black Tais, so called from the colour of their clothes. They looked the same as and were ethnically close to the local Lao villagers so were made welcome with food and shelter. And what rumours spread as they talked amongst each other that evening and late into the night: unbelievable devastation had been wrought on some country far away and, although no one knew for sure where, some said it could be connected with the strange disappearance of those heavy-handed Japanese soldiers. Other menaces were threatening, according to the visitors: there were roving bands of marauding Tongkinese whose allegiance was to some nationalist hot-head named Hồ Chí Minh in far-off Hanoi, who was preaching that Tonkin, along with Annam and Cochin-China should again be called by their old name, Vietnam; the Chinese were coming from Yunnan; those unbearable French were coming back … meanwhile was it really true that King Sisavangvong ruled in Luang Prabang as King of all Laos? Was the war really over? If so, why this new terror? When would it be safe to live normally? Not for many years had there been so much speculation. Nobody could guess the answers.
Early next morning the elders of both communities put their heads together. The harvest was in and ploughing for the next crop had yet to start, so with little work to be done, most of the villagers came to listen. It was decided that three men from Ban Liet and three from Ta Lang would go to Sam Neua, find out what had been happening and maybe also get news of the nature of the threat of the roving bands so that they could make plans as how best to defend their village. They had eaten early so they could get there and back well before dusk. Each man’s youngest son asked if his father would take him and, although this was an unusual request, it was granted. The boys, between five and seven years old, were sturdy lads used to grazing cattle, so the two-hour walk to Sam Neua would be no hardship and they could always hop on dad’s shoulders on the way back if they became tired. Indeed, one man took both his sons – the elder for the fun of it and the younger to study in the wat, as Buddhist temples were known, at Sam Neua for a year.
At the last moment one of the men from Ban Liet suddenly decided he could not go as his buffalo had started to calf. Instead a shifty-eyed itinerant trader, who had drifted into the village with a woman and a young boy some months before and had stayed there doing odd jobs said he would go along with his son. He had told the villagers that he had come from the northeast of Thailand and had been coerced by the Japanese to work in procuring local talent for their officers. He was, in fact, a soldier of the Royal Thai Army, who had changed his surname from Xuto to Varamit, the easier not to be picked up were he to desert. His woman was temporary but the boy, named Mana, had been with him since leaving Bangkok where a younger son, with his mother, had been waiting for his return for several years.
The weather was crisp and cloudlessly clear. As was the custom when any mission of importance was undertaken, many people came to the village bounds to see the little party of six men and seven boys off. The jungle closed in. At a low pass they turned round and gazed back fondly. There were no other villages in view, in fact the whole of that small valley was empty of people save for those three hundred souls living in Ban Liet. It was a peaceful, pleasant scene that the group turned away from and continued on their journey down the jungle path.
Two hours later the track left the jungle, passed into an area of bare fields before joining a red laterite road, Route Coloniale 6. They crossed the wooden bridge over the River Sam and made their way into the small town, which boasted some stone buildings, a primary school, a wat and the provincial offices, now unstaffed. The wat was the natural place for the group to go to. As was normal the men had brought some sticky rice with them as an offering to the bonzes, the monks. They went inside and paid their respects to the saffron-robed abbot, a man in his early forties, whose name, Phannyana Maha Thera, none of the boys could remember although they had practised it one their way.
The senior man from Ban Liet introduced himself and the rest of his group, telling the abbot that the others were from over the border in Ta Lang. ‘We will have a serious talk later on towards sundown,’ said the abbot before turning to the boys. ‘Introduce yourselves. Tell me who you are. Don’t be shy. First let me have those from Ban Liet.’
‘I am Leuam Sunthorn,’ said the lad who had come to study.
