REPUTATIONS: ORDE WINGATE
Allan George profiles the unconventional soldier who took the war to the Japanese using World War Two’s largest special operations force
Major-General Orde Wingate, arguably the most controversial of Britain’s general officers in World War Two, was “a man of genius” in the judgement of Winston Churchill. He was the architect and exponent of unorthodox behind-the-lines campaigns against the Italians in Abyssinia and the Japanese in Burma, a bizarrely eccentric, strong-willed and original thinker who attracted opposition from more traditional officers, who regarded him as a military misfit.
Nevertheless, Wingate had the ability and the good fortune to gain the protection and support of senior figures such as General (later Field Marshal) Archibald Wavell and became his protégé. In particular, Churchill was enthused over his proposed ‘Chindit’ operations. Whether or not his methods were successful or a misguided use of resources is a matter of debate among historians and seems perpetually tied to perception of his success. Equally so is Wingate’s reputation, where there is a very thin dividing line between ‘Wingate, the master of the jungle’ and ‘Wingate, the madman’.
