For the benefit of everyone, and especially those readers interested in irregular warfare, today's focus is on the remarkable, if unconventional, Orde Wingate.
Born in 1903, Wingate secured a Commission in the British Army as a Gunner and went on to learn Arabic at London's School of Oriental Studies (SOAS). This took him to secondment with the Sudan Defence Force and the command of 300 troops which he trained to ambush Muslim slavers and poachers.
After being recalled to England in 1933, Wingate was assigned to the Palestinian Mandate in 1936, where he went on to form irregular units of British and Jewish Haganah volunteers, called Special Night Squads. The SNS attacked Arab terrorists with effective ferocity; Moshe Dayan claimed that Wingate "taught us everything we know", and while not a Jew, Wingate, who was an ardent Zionist, became a celebrated figure of the Jewish community.
At the outbreak of World War II, Wingate was invited by General Wavell to assist with operations to drive the Italians from Ethiopa. He did just that, creating and training the guerrilla-style Gideon Force, which succeeded in restoring Emperor Haile Selassie to his throne in Addis Abbaba. Awarded a DSO for his efforts, Wingate returned to England and went overseas again, to the Far East, where the sudden Japanese takeover of Burma forced him to India.
From India, he gained permission to create a "deep penetration" strike force, the Chindits, who operated far behind Japanese lines. These fought with controversial success until Wingate's untimely death in March, 1944, when his transport plane crashed into the jungle. He is buried in Arlington cemetery.
Wingate was undoubtably eccentric and didn't much like wearing clothes. One British Officer was surprised to discover him naked and crying on the floor (through frustration? grief?) after an SNS operation and he would often give orders in a state of "undress". This confused some of his more staid colleagues.
The pioneering Chindit commander can be credited for laying some of the groundwork for the Israeli Defense Force's later success, and I have an odd feeling that when I was younger I met some of the people he trained.
We could do with a few Wingates to launch against ISIS.
God bless,
LSP
