A Face Like a Chicken's Backside: An Unconventional Soldier in South East Asia, 1948-71

In almost forty years in Asia without a home posting, British officer John Cross spent ten of them ‘under the jungle canopy’. He amassed a wealth of experience fighting against Communist Revolutionary Warfare, and training others to do so. As a result he was called upon to work in many formidable situations, and twice found himself on an army short-list of one for difficult tasks.

Cross focuses on five stages in his extraordinary army career. He spent eight years as a company commander with ...