Orde Wingate

Orde Wingate was the eccentric British General who pioneered airborne and air-landing operations in Burma.

He was also the eccentric British officer who pioneered the use of Special Night Squads to battle Arab terrorists in 1930s British Mandate Palestine.

This makes him the proto-founder of the IDF. As such he is a hero in Israel.

The Times of Israel has a profile of the man where he is a national hero.

Wingate was beloved by Churchill, who ever loved the idea of a band of tough, daring men striking out on their own. Wingate certainly did that in Burma in 1944, landing six special infantry brigades behind Japanese lines in Operation Longcloth.

Americans know Longcloth through the 4307th (Provisional) Regimental Combat Team- Merrill's Marauders.

We've written a ton about the war in Burma. Britain's GOC commanding 14 Army in Burma, General William Slim, was the best general Britain produced during the war. He also loathed Wingate whom he felt diverted too many resources to his pet idea.

Wingate was a wierdo alright. He liked raw onions, carried an alarm clock around his neck, was a member of a small Pentecostal church and had a messianic belief in his causes, especially Zionism.

He shows up a lot in A March through Hell.