Historica Wiki
Advertisement
Orde Wingate

Orde Wingate (26 February 1903 – 24 March 1944) was a Major-General in the British Army who commanded the Chindits in a guerrilla campaign behind Japanese lines during the Burma campaign of World War II.

Biography[]

Orde Charles Wingate was born in Nainital, Uttarakhand, British India in 1903, and he was educated at Cahrterhouse and the Royal Military Academy, Wollwich. 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. In 1942, he went to India, and created and led the Chindits. This Burmese guerrilla force had mixed success fighting behind Japanese lines. Wingate died in an air crash in 1944, before he could fully develop his hands.

Advertisement