Orde Wingate

Orde Wingate was a British Army officer whose career included service in Sudan, Mandatory Palestine, East Africa and Burma. During World War II he developed long-range penetration forces designed to operate behind enemy lines with air supply, first in the 1943 Chindit expedition and then on a larger scale in 1944.

Wingate died in an aircraft crash in India on 24 March 1944 while the second Chindit operation was under way. His methods, strategic claims and treatment of troops have remained controversial, but his influence on irregular and airborne-supported operations was substantial.

In John Masters’ The Road Past Mandalay, the central episodes concern the 1944 Chindit campaign, including the isolated strongpoint known as Blackpool and the brutal decisions forced on 111 Brigade during withdrawal. Masters also gives sharply observed portraits of commanders such as Orde Wingate, William Slim and Joseph Stilwell, making the book both a personal account of combat and an examination of leadership under extreme pressure. Caroline Alexander’s Skies of Thunder discusses Orde Wingate as the unconventional British commander behind the Chindits, placing his long-range penetration forces within the wider Allied struggle in Burma and the China–Burma–India theatre.