Orde Charles Wingate

Orde Charles Wingate , 1903-44, British general. He served with the Sudan defense force (1928-33) and on special duty in Palestine (1936-39). It was in Palestine that he first used guerrilla tactics, against Arabs attempting to cut the Haifa pipeline. An ardent Zionist, Wingate trained large squads of Jewish youths in military tactics and worked closely with Jewish leaders. The possibility of his acting against British interests to secure Jewish independence caused his removal from Palestine. In World War II, although only a major, he commanded (1941) the British and African troops who ousted the numerically superior Italians from Ethiopia and restored Emperor Haile Selassie to his throne. Sent to India and raised to the rank of brigadier in 1942, Wingate trained and led a force of raiders into Japanese-held Burma (now Myanmar) for a period of seven months (1943). His guerrillas became known as the "Chindits" or "Wingate's raiders." He was made a major general and placed in command of a larger army, which was flown into Burma, but he was killed in an airplane accident two weeks after this operation began. A colorful personality and an unorthodox campaigner, Wingate demonstrated the effectiveness and practicality of jungle guerrilla warfare by Western troops.

Bibliography: See C. Rolo, Wingate's Raiders (1944); W. G. Burchett, Wingate's Phantom Army (1946); L. O. Mosley, Gideon Goes to War (1955); C. Sykes, Orde Wingate (1959); J. Bierman and C. Smith, Fire in the Night: Wingate of Burma, Ethiopia, and Zion (1999).

Wingate, Orde Charles (1903–44) British major-general. A brilliant exponent of guerrilla warfare, in the 1930s he helped to establish and train Jewish irregular forces operating against Arabs in Palestine, and in 1941 he organized Sudanese and Abyssinian irregulars to fight the Italian occupiers and restore Emperor Haile Selassie to the throne. He created and led the chindits, a Burmese guerrilla group that operated behind Japanese lines. He died in an air crash in 1944 at the outset of his second, and greatly enlarged, chindit operation.

Wingate, Orde Charles (b. 26 Feb. 1903, d. 24 Mar. 1944). British major-general Born in Naini Tal, India, and educated at Charterhouse and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned in 1922, and then served in the Sudan and Palestine. In the 1930s, he gained experience of guerrilla warfare, through his training of Jewish irregular forces, operating in Palestine against Arabs who were resisting Jewish immigration. In 1941, he put this into practice by organizing Somalis and Ethiopians to fight against the Italian occupiers in Abyssinia, in order to restore Emperor Haile Selassie as ruler. Called by Wavell, he went to India in 1942, and created and led the Chindits. This Burmese guerrilla force had mixed success fighting behind Japanese lines. A great military innovator, he tread a line between genius and instability that was difficult to determine. Wingate died in an air crash in 1944, before he could fully develop his plans.