MILITARY WORLD WAR II

One soldier’s fight against the Japanese in a time of disaster

This author of this book, written during the Second World War, was an officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who served in Malaya. The fall of Malaya, and subsequently the imperial fortress island of Singapore in 1942, is infamous as the greatest capitulation in the history of the British Army. When Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival surrendered to the invading Japanese Army, 138,000 British and Commonwealth troops had been killed, wounded or captured in the campaign. Defeat in Malaya at this point in the war was practically a certainty, but despite holding a position on Percival’s staff, Angus Rose was determined to personally take the fight to the enemy. This book describes the author’s participation in the campaign in detail, but what makes this account unusual is that Rose determined to lead a volunteer raiding unit, delivered by sea, behind enemy lines. Few readers will be aware that at the time the embryonic SAS was operating in the Western desert, similar operations were being planned and executed in the Far East. This is the story of a consummate infantry officer who was determined, if necessary, to die fighting.

pp. 159, intact fold-out map, contemporaneous newspaper cutting re controversial treatment of the officer.

First Edition (1944), (reprints published in 2017) #060324 (Edge-worn dustjacket )