Operation Red Tidings
JP Cross
Monsoon BooksBurrough on the Hill
Published in 2021
by Monsoon Books Ltd
No.1 The Lodge, Burrough Court,
Burrough on the Hill, Leics. LE14 2QS, UK
ISBN (paperback): 9781912049943
ISBN (ebook): 9781912049950
Copyright©JP Cross, 2021
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
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Postscript
Map of Peninsular Malaysia
Map of Baling
Map of Negri Sembilan
List of Characters
Abbreviations
Glossary
About the author
Other books by JP Cross
Friday, 13 August 1954, Jelebu pass and Seremban, central Malaya: For three days the guerrillas had been lying in ambush, overlooking the steep, winding road leading to the narrow Jelebu pass. Their special target was the vehicle carrying the Commanding Officer of the 1/12 Gurkha Rifles, travelling south from Kuala Klawang to Seremban, the battalion’s headquarters.
In charge of the ambush was Tan Fook Leong, commander of the 2nd Regiment of the Malayan Races Liberation Army, MRLA, a bright, experienced, well-educated man with considerable jungle experience in operations against the Japanese during the late war.
‘Comrade commander, no military traffic has moved along this normally busy road while we’ve been in ambush. Why are we still here?’ a comrade asked, absent-mindedly scratching a leech bite on his leg.
To grumble openly meant a demerit and a self-criticism session when conditions were back to normal so not to show any disquiet only innocent questions were asked. Ambushes were not easy to stay in for long periods; movement was restricted, it was difficult to relieve oneself, there were midges, mosquitoes, leeches, poisonous centipedes, there was nowhere to go when it rained. In the Jelebu pass area it rained so regularly in the afternoons that one could set the time by it: twenty past four. Also the ambush area was high enough to be cold at nights, so the innocent question, ‘why are we still here?’ really meant ‘we have been long enough, uncomfortable enough and bored enough with nothing happening so why not get up and go, now?’
The answer, likewise, had to be firmly explicit to quell any misgivings. ‘Comrade, I happen to know that there is a new CO of the Gurkha battalion in Seremban, Lieutenant Colonel Ridings. My spies have told me that he had planned to visit his “out companies” around now. He has to return to his HQ along this road and I think he’ll be along soon as today could be his unlucky day,’ Commander Tang explained patiently.
‘Comrade, why should you think that?’ That was, surely, only a wild guess.
From long habit he spoke in a low voice and only the men near him could hear what he said. ‘I’ll tell you why. When I was in England in 1946 for the Victory Parade I learnt that the gwai lo have a strange fear; whenever the 13th of the month is a Friday it is unlucky. Today is Friday the 13th. Have any of you ever heard such nonsense?’
No, no one in earshot had.
‘Comrade,’ called out the man at the lower edge of the ambush, ‘I hear transport coming.’
‘Get ready for action. Open fire on my order. Only the Snatch Group move out after I order stop firing.’ Tan Fook Leong’s order loudly reverberated.
The Communist-inspired war in Malaya against the colonial power, Britain, known as the Emergency, had been a feature of everyone’s life for six years, since mid-1948. Sometimes flaring, sometimes subsiding, it rumbled on, waxing and waning, until 1959. By 1954 it was simmering, taking advantage of ‘opportunity’ targets, ‘as and how’. And one was about to be presented to the waiting ambush.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Ridings had only recently taken over command of 1/12 Gurkha Rifles (1/12 GR). He was an able and likeable man, with a good war record. Just over forty years of age, medium-sized and barrel-chested, he had black curly hair, an open face and, what he was secretly proud of, an extremely trim and athletic figure. He had been posted in from another Gurkha regiment so was eager to ‘get to know’ his company commanders and the men. His family had come with him: Fiona his wife, Theodore his son, who said he, too, wanted to serve in the Gurkhas, and Edwina his daughter, both children going to King George V School in Seremban.
1/12 GR had been on jungle operations since mid-1948 and every three years underwent six weeks of re-training which included modern warfare tactics, range classification, administration, a drill competition and games, especially the inter-company football tournament. After a battalion parade to celebrate the new Champion Company’s triumph, three of the four rifle companies moved out to tactical bases near villages between fifty and seventy miles away, with the fourth in Seremban. The CO had spent a night with each ‘out’ company, travelling in an open Land Rover. A champion rifle shot, he carried a rifle. With him was an armed bodyguard, sitting in the back seat. Behind came an armoured scout car with a Bren gun mounted on a cradle. This the gunner, sitting in a chair with his head showing, could fire with aimed shots – if he had to lower his seat and the cradle to close the roof, he fired it using the cradle’s handle-bars, aiming through an open slit in the bodywork.
Glancing at his watch the CO saw it was later than planned so told the driver to speed up. The scout car driver saw the Land Rover surge forward and tried to catch up. Negotiating a steep hairpin bend, he missed his gears and stalled the engine. The Land Rover, unescorted, drove on alone.
To the guerrillas’ amazement they saw an unescorted and open-sided Land Rover approaching, a little faster than normal, with an elderly British officer in the front passenger seat – so our leader was correct! – and an escort in the back.
When the vehicle was in the centre of the ambush, Tan Fook Leong gave the order to fire. The vehicle slew into the ditch with no movement from the three men inside.
‘Cease fire! Snatch Group out, get their weapons and ammunition. Quickly! Kill anyone still alive.’
The guerrillas spilled onto the road and saw all three men were dead. As they grabbed their three weapons and started to search for ammunition, they saw that the CO had been hit in the nose by a single bullet as well as his body being riddled and bleeding. The Gurkhas’ bodies were also heavily hit and bleeding profusely.
It was then that they heard a heavy vehicle coming towards them.
