Cross, J. P. A Face Like a Chicken's Backside. An Unconventional Soldier in South East Asia, 1948-71

In the almost forty years he spent in Asia, the British officer John Cross spent ten of them "under the jungle canopy". He gained a wealth of experience fighting the communist revolutionary war and training others in the field. As a result, he was deployed in many difficult situations and was twice on the army's shortlist for difficult assignments. Cross focuses on five stages of his extraordinary army career. He spent eight years as a company commander with the Gurkhas in Malaya, where he conducted jungle operations against the Communists. He then took part in the attempt to end twenty years of guerrilla rule over the aborigines in northern Malaya, securing the territory between Thailand and the aborigines that had been occupied and utilised by the guerrillas. As commander of the Sarawak and Sabah Border Scouts in Borneo, Cross was constantly on the move. During this hectic period of service, he once narrowly escaped the danger of being beheaded by an angry tribesman. In the second half of the Indonesian confrontation with Malaya, he commanded the Gurkha Independent Parachute Company, which had to operate like Paras, SAS men and conventional soldiers. Finally, Cross was the last commander of the British Army's Jungle Warfare School, which trained officers and men from five continents - including American trackers who had twice the bounty on their heads in Vietnam. Following the closure of the Jungle Warfare School, John Cross was asked to serve in both the Royal Thai Army and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Instead, he became a defence attaché in Laos. This fascinating book offers a vivid insight into the realities of jungle warfare by one of its most experienced practitioners.