HBM Ambassador, Alan Davidson, with the Red Prince, Souvanouvong, in the Politburo cave at Sam Neua. MEET the lone British officer who was sent to fight the Japanese in World War Two but at just twenty years old ended up commanding them in the fight against communism in Vietnam. John Cross was originally sent to Southern Vietnam because his battalion, 1/1 Gurkha Rifles, was part of 100 Brigade, 20 Indian Division who were sent from Burma to what was then called French Indo-China to disarm the occupying Imperial Japanese Army. With the French initially incapable of taking back control of their colonies the British relied on Japan to run things and worked with them to fight the Vietminh guerrillas. Stunning pictures document Lieutenant Colonel Cross??? time there in the months after World War Two ended and again during the 1970s when he was stationed as an attach?? in the region. The exploits of John Cross??? time in South East Asia have been revealed in his new book, First In Last Out, which is published by Pen and Sword.