Operation Toba

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.