BOOK REVIEW

Caption
 SPY ON THE ROOF OF THE
WORLD
A True Story of Espionage and
Survival in the Himalayas

AUTHOR - SYDNEY WIGNALL

PART – I: PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK

1. Name of Book : Spy On The Roof Of The World

2. Author : Sydney Wignall

3. Publishers : The Lyons Press and Burford

Publishers

4. Pages : 288

5. Year of Publication : 1997

 Sydney Wignall

PART – II: REVIEW

6. Introduction to the Author

(a) Sydney Wignall (16 Oct 1922 - 16 April 2012) was a British
Marine Archaeologist, climber and explorer. He was born to a cobbler,
left school when he was sixteen with no qualifications but later became
an apprentice electrical engineer. He was a fellow of the Royal
Geographic Society and a member of the Himalayan Club. As a marine
archeologist, he discovered two flagships of the Spanish Armada,
searched for Drake's coffin off Panama, and discovered the wrecks of
several galleons in British Portuguese and Panamanian waters. Many of
the details of his work are stored at Bangor University archives.

7. INTRODUCTION
 (a) The book never saw an early light of the day since Sydney
Wignall could not reveal my intelligence-gathering role in print because
he had given his word to Indian Army friends that the true story would be
secret for at least twenty-five years. This was to protect the careers or
pensions of Indian Army officers who motivated by patriotism and love of
Mother India had decided to disobey Prime Minister Nehru’s instructions
that no intelligence-gathering activities were to be targeted against
Nehru’s new-found ‘anti-colonialist’ friends Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-
lai and the rapidly expanding Chinese communist army in Tibet. Major
figure of Wignall’s story is General K. S. Thimayya DSO arguably the
most brilliant soldier India ever produced (the only Indian national to
command a brigade under the British in World War ll). Thimayya made
no secret of the fact that he regarded Nehru’s right-hand man Krishna
Menon as a communist. It is against the above background that General
Thimayya known with affection by all ranks of the Indian Army as
‘Timmy’ set in motion intelligence-gathering operations to obtain proof
that the Chinese were building up a huge army in Tibet and had
ambitions to wrest territory from India.

(b) The book leads the readers through various passes and gorges
and overall justifies the read as a fascinating story of great courage and
determination.

8. THEME AND CHAPTERWISE SUMMARY

(a) CHAPTER 1-4: In the fall of 1954, Sydney Wignall and several
of his Welsh mountaineering friends formed the Mountaineering Club of
Wales with the intent of mounting the first ever Welsh Himalayan
Expedition. With the support of several newspapers, the Royal
Geographic Society and Life Magazine, Wignall and his friends set out
for the Himalayas. When news of his proposed expedition reached the
newspapers, he was approached by representatives of the Indian
Intelligence Service, who asked him to gain as much information as
possible about Chinese forces in Tibet, an area occupied by the Chinese
since 1950.

(b) CHAPTER 5-8: Wignall's recruitment into espionage led him to

the ill-defined border between Tibet and Nepal where he, his
mountaineering friend, John Harrop, their Nepalese government liaison
officer, Damodar Suwal, and four of their porters were captured by a
Chinese army patrol. The porters were sent back to Nepal; Wignall,
Harrop and Damovar were taken to Taklakot, Tibet for interrogation.
There they were kept prisoner (guests according to the Chinese), fed
very poorly, and subjected to psychological, if not physical, torture.

(c) CHAPTER 9-12: While all three were interrogated, Wignall,

as expedition leader, received the most intensive questioning. When he
told them the truth about the expedition, he was accused of lying. They
did not believe any of his story, having no concept of men who want to
climb mountains just because they are there. Finally, in a hilarious
sequence, Wignall began to tell them outrageous lies. Foremost was
that his cover name was Charlie Brown and that he was there under
orders of the CIA and that the real purpose of their trip was to place
surveillance equipment on top of the mountains to supplement the
equipment already in place on Mount Everest, which had been climbed
just a couple of years before. According to the story he told them, the
equipment on Mt. Everest could observe the movement of men, material
and airplanes all the way to Lop Nor (not realising that Lop Nor was the
site of China's nuclear bomb plant). Wignall continued to feed the
interrogators outrageous information, all of which they apparently
believed without question.

(d) CHAPTER 13-16: The trio were confined to unheated cells

on starvation rations for three months, during which time Wignall
managed to keep a diary—secreted in his air mattress—not only
detailing his tribulations but also jotting down information on Chinese
military intentions in the region; during periods of solitary confinement,
Wignall communicated with his companions by singing messages to the
tunes of English dance-hall songs. His captors never caught on to
Wignall's dodges. Although frequently threatened with either immediate
execution or long-term imprisonment, Wignall doled out laughably
erroneous intelligence that was eagerly lapped up by his interlocutor.

(e) CHAPTER 17-20: Finally bowing to international pressure for their

release, the Chinese allowed the men to return to Nepal, but only by the
most treacherous route, the trio were forced into the Seti Gorge, a
difficult passage in the summer, never before attempted in the winter.
 Much weakened by their four months imprisonment, they managed the
transit of the gorge, only because they were experienced mountaineers.

(f) CHAPTER 21-24: Returning to India, Wignall gave the

information he had collected to the Indian Intelligence Service. They, in
turn, passed it on to Prime Minister Nehru who, under the influence of
Communist Krishna Menon, rejected anything which reflected on his
friends, the Chinese. Wignall's last couple of chapters is a brief synopsis
of Chinese, Nepalese and Indian history up to the current time.

9. Review

(a) This Book makes you a part of the adventure as experienced by

Sydney Wignall and his close friends. With Chinese soldiers in pursuit,
you will pass through some of the most breath-taking sites such as Mt
Kailash, Lake Mansarovar, Gurla Mandhata, Taklakot, etc and some of
the most life threatening moments. You will pass through regions where
nature meets compassion - Tibet, the country colonially oppressed for
years by Chinese communist rule. You will also relive the horrors of a
captured Indian soldier and imagine what kind of treatment must have
been meted out to them by Chinese military if the worst that seems to
exist is already meted out to a non-Indian Sydney Wignall when he is
captured on the pretext of spying on behalf of Americans and slapped
several weeks’ imprisonment in a rat-infested, freezing cell. You will
understand the futility of all the efforts put in by Indian military to warn
the Indian government of the lurking danger and their frustrations at not
being able to drive sense through the higher-ups.

(b) This is a true story of endurance, of the willingness to survive

against the worst that could be thrown to anyone - be it by the snowy
Himalayas or by the ice-cold human soldiers. This enthralling account of
espionage, arrest by Chinese communists, and harrowing escape over a
never-before-scaled Himalayan gorge is at once a thrilling real-life spy
travelogue. It is laced with intrigue, close escapes from death, and vital
information that if made use of by Indian government could have made
huge differences to the fate of the war. In fact History may have been
very different today.
 PART – III : RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

10. Recommendations

(a) This book is recommended to be read by all who have an avid

interest in expeditions, adventure and a hint of military adventure of
survival and never give up spirit. The book is a great rendition of gritty
human character and high altitude mountain climbing brings out the
best of it. The spying part is just coincidence or else this might have
just been a book on mountain climbing and a pretty good one at that.

11. Conclusion A true story of endurance and guts, willingness to

survive, overcoming the horrors of freezing cells in High Altitude prisons and
the wit to accomplish the task assigned. The mental capability and
resourcefulness of mountaineers is reflected in this book as first hand
experience by the author. “Spy On The Roof Of The World” is a must read to
experience a fascinating time capsule, an adventure writing of first rank and a
thrilling real life spy tale. The book succeeds on many levels, all told with
cantor and humour.

LT RAJAT GODARA

IC-90039L

10 ASSAM