Orde Wingate

Major General Orde Wingate
Born	(1903-02-26)26 February 1903 Nainital, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India (now in Uttarakhand, India)
Died	24 March 1944(1944-03-24) (aged 41) Near Bishnupur, Manipur State, British India (now in Manipur, India)
Buried	Arlington National Cemetery
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service / branch	British Army
Years of service	1921–1944
Rank	Major General
Service number	27013
Unit	Royal Artillery
Commands	Chindits (1942–44) Gideon Force (1940–41)
Battles / wars	1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine Second World War East African Campaign Burma Campaign
Awards	Distinguished Service Order & Two Bars[1] Mentioned in Despatches (2)"No. 35120". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 March 1941. p. 1872. MacGregor Medal[2]

Major General Orde Charles Wingate, DSO & Two Bars (26 February 1903 – 24 March 1944) was a senior British Army officer known for his creation of the Chindit deep-penetration missions in Japanese-held territory during the Burma Campaign of the Second World War.

Wingate was an exponent of unconventional military thinking and the value of surprise tactics. Wingate was a dedicated Christian Zionist.^[3] In Mandatory Palestine, he set up a joint British–Jewish counter-insurgency unit called the Special Night Squads. Under the patronage of the area commander Archibald Wavell, Wingate was given increasing latitude to put his ideas into practice during the Second World War. He created units in Abyssinia and Burma.

At a time when Britain was in need of morale-boosting generalship, Wingate attracted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's attention with a self-reliant aggressive philosophy of war, and was given resources to stage a large-scale operation. The last Chindit campaign may have determined the outcome of the Battle of Kohima, although the offensive into India by the Japanese may have occurred because Wingate's first operation had demonstrated the possibility of moving through the jungle. In practice, both Japanese and British forces suffered severe supply problems and malnutrition.

Wingate was killed in an aircraft accident in March 1944. The casualty rate the Chindits suffered, especially from disease, is a continuing controversy. Wingate believed that resistance to infection could be improved by inculcating a tough mental attitude, but medical officers considered his methods unsuited to a tropical environment.