Orde Wingate

In 1936 he was assigned to serve in Palestine. However his growing sympathies for the Zionist cause disconcerted senior army officers and in 1939 he was transferred back to Britain.

In 1940 Wingate was back in East Africa. From 1940-41, he led a guerrilla force of British, Ethiopian and Sudanese troops which operated against the Italians in Ethiopia. This small band, named ‘Gideon’s Force’, did very well against the considerably bigger Italian Army. Gideon’s Force contained less than 2,000 men, but it managed to force around 20,000 Italians to surrender around the end of their campaign in 1941.

Wingate caught malaria after the campaign ended. The illness, and possibly the medicine he took to cure himself, triggered a nervous breakdown which culminated in a suicide attempt. He returned to Britain to recover.

In May 1942, Wingate was sent to Rangoon in Burma. Here he created 'Wingate's Raiders', now better known as the ‘Chindits’ from the Burmese word for lion 'chinthe'. The Commander-In-Chief of India, General Wavell, already knew Wingate; indeed when Wavell was General-Officer Commanding the Middle East he had had come close to court-martialing Wingate for insubordination. However, that did not stop Wingate’s quick promotion from major to colonel when he arrived in Burma.

Wingate’s ‘Chindits’ wreaked havoc behind Japanese lines. The Chindits were especially successful along the Irrawaddy River where they damaged Japanese supply lines. Wingate’s Raiders also gathered and sent back information useful to Royal Air Force operations. Orde Wingate died in a plane crash in April 1944, but the Chindits continued to weaken Japanese forces in Burma after his death.