When the Japanese Empire prepares to strike south in 1941, Malaya becomes the stage for a shadow war of spies, saboteurs and secret allegiances.

Masumi Toba, a Japanese Canadian veteran turned covert agent, hides his divided loyalties behind a camera lens in Singapore. Philip Rance, a British colonial, and his Chinese ‘brother’ Ah Zun serve as undercover operatives, their sons destined to inherit a dangerous legacy. One becomes a Gurkha officer, the other a deep-cover infiltrator in the Malayan Communist Party.

A clerical error gives their mission an unlikely name – Operation Toba – but in the jungles of Malaya, mistakes can mean death. As the Japanese invasion begins, these men must navigate treachery, loyalty, and survival in a war where every choice carries the weight of empire.

Operation Toba is the eleventh in a series of books involving Gurkha military units that may be read in any order. The author, JP Cross, a retired Gurkha colonel, old ‘jungle hand’ and counter-insurgency expert, draws on real events he witnessed during his time fighting in the Malayan Emergency.

‘Nobody in the world is better qualified to tell the story of the Gurkhas’ deadly jungle battles against Communist insurgency in Malaya in the 1950s. Cross spins his tale with the eye of incomparable experience.’ John le Carré

‘… a gripping adventure story … learn the ins and outs of jungle warfare from a true expert’ The Oldie (on Operation Janus)

Lt. Col. JP Cross is a retired British officer who served with Gurkha units for nearly forty years. He has been an Indian frontier soldier, jungle fighter, policeman, military attaché, Gurkha recruitment officer and a linguist researcher, and he is the author of twenty-four books. He has fought in Burma, Indo-China, Malaya and Borneo and served in India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Laos and Nepal where he now lives. Having reached his hundredth year, he still walks several hours daily.