Operation Blowpipe, page 23
LMG Light Machine Gun
IO Intelligence Officer
LP landing point
MA Military Adviser
MCP Malayan Communist Party
MIC Malayan Indian Congress
MRLA Malayan Races Liberation Army
MTO Mechanical Transport Officer
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
QM Quartermaster
Raj British India
recce reconnaissance
RV rendez-vous, the appointed place for assembly
sitrep situation report
SWEC State War Executive Committee
Glossary
Chinese
I sincerely thank Mr Bernard C C Chan, MBE, AMN, for his unstinting help in matters Chinese.
cheongsam long, tight-fitting, slit-sided ‘skirt’
Ghee Hin a Secret Society
Goo K’a bing Gurkha soldiers
gwai lo foreigner, literally ‘devil chap’, ‘old devil’
Hai San a Secret Society
Loi Pai Yi Nepali
Min Yuen Masses Movement
Sinsaang Mr, sir
Siu Gaau Major
tong brotherhood
t’o yan ‘soil man’, aborigine
wei hello (chiefly telephone calls)
Malay
atap palm thatch, Nipa fruticus
ipoh poison tree, Antiaris toxica
ladang orang asli (indigenous people’s) settlement
nasi lemak rice cooked in coconut milk, with fried crispy
anchovies, peanuts and cucumber
orang asli indigenous people of Malaysia
parang chopper, knife
ringgit Malayan dollar
sampitan blowpipe
Tuan official, ‘sir’
Nepali (Gurkhali)
Belayat England
Cheena Chinese, normally a man
daku ‘dacoit’, used for Communist guerrillas
dushman enemy
inding pinding independence
ita aija come here
keta lad
gora fair-skinned, word for British troops
hajur term of respect, inert conversational response (literally ‘presence’)
hunchha is, okay
sal a tree, Shorea robusta
sarkar government, officialdom
ustad ‘teacher’, word used in some Gurkha units to an NCO
Note: the ‘-bahadur’ at the end of names is often shorted to ‘-é’ when talking, so, instead of Kulbahadur, it is Kulé etc
Temiar
Blau blowpipe
senoi bar halaaq shaman
Map 1 - Malaysia
map 1 of Malaysia
Map 2 - Detail of the intersection of Kedah, Perak and Thailand
map 2 Detail of the intersection of Kedah, Perak and Thailand
Map 3 - Detail of Negri Sembilan
map 3 Detail of Negri Sembilan
Map 4 - Detail of Sungei Perak and its tributaries
map 4 Detail of Sungei Perak and its tributaries
About the Author
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 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. Well into his nineties, he still walks four hours daily.
Operation Blowpipe is the seventh in a series of historical military novels set in Southeast Asia including Operation Black Rose, Operation Janus, Operation Red Tidings, Operation Blind Spot, Operation Stealth and Operation Four Rings. The first four books may be read in any order; the final two are sequential. The series features Gurkha military units, and the author draws on real events he witnessed and real people he fought alongside in various theatres of war in Southeast Asia and India.
Also by JP Cross
Fiction
The Throne of Stone
The Restless Quest
The Crown of Renown
The Fame of the Name
The Age of Rage
Operation Black Rose
Operation Janus
Operation Blind Spot
Operation Stealth
Operation Four Rings
Operation Red Tidings
Nonfiction
English For Gurkha Soldiers
Gurkha – The Legendary Soldier
Gurkhas
Gurkha Tales: From Peace and War
In Gurkha Company
It Happens with Gurkhas
Jungle Warfare: Experiences And Encounters
Whatabouts And Whereabouts In Asia
Memoirs
First In, Last Out: An Unconventional British Officer In Indo-China
The Call Of Nepal: A Personal Nepalese Odyssey In A Different Dimension
‘A Face Like A Chicken’s Backside’: An Unconventional Soldier In South-East Asia, 1948-1971
Oral History
Gurkhas at War
JP Cross, Operation Blowpipe
