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The Eccentric Hero: Orde Wingate. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, Oct, 2000 by George Evans

Fire in the Night: Wingate of Burma, Ethiopia, and Zion. John Bierman and Colin Smith. Macmillan. [pound]20.00. 434 pages. ISBN 0-333-72576-X.

Orde Charles Wingate of Chindit fame occupies a unique place in British military history. One of the most controversial generals of the Second World War, he was also, with a triple DSO for bravery, one of the most fearless. His death at the peak of his career in an aircrash just as the Chindits, the elite force of jungle fighters he raised and led, prepared to step up their campaign behind the Japanese lines in Burma, was a crushing blow. He was, said Churchill in a tribute in the House of Commons, a man of genius and audacity who might also have become a man of destiny. His name deserved lasting honour. Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander in south east Asia, thought so, too. Wingate, he reflected, may have been a pain in the neck to the generals over him but he was a fire-eater and a fearless leader of men.

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Controversy surrounded Wingate throughout his career, much of it of his own making. A deeply religious fundamentalist Christian, he bore little resemblance in appearance or manner to the traditional British officer, let alone general. With his beard, piercing gaze, crumpled, ill-fitting uniform and outsize pith helmet he looked, one observer remarked, more like a Baptist missionary. Although he carried a Bible with him throughout his life and lived by it, there was nothing meek or forgiving about him.

He had an explosive temper when roused and a sharp tongue. The 'top brass' who, he was convinced, were out to get him, were dismissed as 'military apes'. He had no compunction in reducing officers to the ranks or hitting men who failed the test in action. An intellectual and an undoubted eccentric with, as the authors of this illuminating study put it, self-confidence bordering on the messianic, he made enemies more readily than friends. The dedicated, puritanical Cromwellian image of Bible and sword which some saw in him was not without substance. His detractors called him mad, which he certainly was not, though he had, in a fit of depression, once attempted suicide.

An unusual aspect of Wingate's life was his unwavering support of Zionism nurtured perhaps by his unshakable belief in the Old Testament. He openly supported the Jewish cause during the Arab revolt in Palestine though there was not a drop of Jewish blood in his veins. His name is commemorated in Israel to this day. His greatest ambition after the war broke out was to raise and lead an Anglo-Jewish brigade against the Axis powers in the Western desert. He was sent instead to Ethiopia to confront the Italians. His guerrilla column, which he named Gideon Force after his favourite Old Testament warrior, was instrumental in restoring Emperor Haile Selassie to his throne. Wingate, mounted on a grey charger, led the victory parade into Addis Abeba.

It is, however, his leadership of the Chindits which secures his place in military history. Churchill, convinced of the value of such a force and of Wingate's ability to lead it, took him to the Quebec summit conference. Wingate, still only a brigadier but brimming with confidence, duly presented his plan for the Chindit's Burma campaign which to the immense satisfaction of Churchill, won the backing not only of the combined chiefs of staff but of President Roosevelt.

Wingate's plan met with a cool reception, however, in Delhi. Auchinleck, the Commander-in-Chief and his staff, known derisively by the troops as Curry Colonels, were strongly opposed to any such operation, especially one led by Wingate.

Confident of the support of Churchill, to whom he had direct access, Wingate brushed the opposition aside. On 13 March 1944 with more than 9,000 men behind the Japanese lines, his order of the day to the Chindits and the Air Commandos who got them there, read: 'We have inflicted a complete surprise on the enemy. All our Columns are inside the enemy's guts ... Let us thank God for the great success He has vouchsafed us. We must press forward with our sword in the enemy's ribs'. Days later he took off in an American B-25 bomber in the course of a frontline tour of inspection. Twenty minutes into the flight the plane plunged into a steep jungle-clad hill. There were no survivors. The Chindits, deprived of their leader, fought on for a time but were eventually withdrawn, exhausted, and a few months later disbanded.

Whether Wingate, who was only forty-one when he died, would have found a role in the post-war army is a matter for speculation but it seems unlikely. The official military animus against him expressed in an Army Council minute which the authors of this very readable book quote, describes him as divisive. 'We don't want any more Wingates in the British army', it said in effect, 'therefore we must write down Wingate and the Chindits'. It contrasts strangely with the view of the Japanese who freely admitted that it was the Chindits who forced them to abandon northern Burma. Lt. General Mutaguchi, commander of the 15th Army, said 'I realised what a loss his death was to the British army and said a prayer for the soul of this man in whom I had met my match'.

The Eccentric Hero: Orde Wingate. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, Oct, 2000 by George Evans

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