Memorial today for Charles Orde Wingate

From the Jewish Virtual Library:

Born to a religious Christian family and a firm believer in the Bible, Orde Wingate passionately embraced the prophetic vision of Jewish redemption and the Jews' ultimate return to Eretz Yisrael. During his service in Eretz Yisrael, he worked to help realize that ideal.

The son of a British officer, Wingate was born in India, received a military education, and was commissioned in 1923. He served in India and then in the Sudan, where he studied Arabic and Semitics, and acquired a familiarity with the Middle East. Wingate was recognized as a talented officer, and by 1936 he had earned the rank of captain. That same year he was transferred to Eretz Yisrael, and served there for the next three years.

Wingate arrived in Eretz Yisrael as an intelligence officer at a time when small bands of Arab rioters were regularly attacking both the British and the Jews. To counter this offensive, Wingate organized and trained “Special Night Squads,” comprised primarily of Haganah fighters, which were successfully employed throughout the Yishuv. Their tactics were based on the strategic principles of surprise, mobility, and night attacks, and they served effectively both as defensive and offensive units, successfully pre-empting and resisting Arab attacks.

Wingate maintained good contacts with the heads of the Yishuv and the Haganah. He learned Hebrew, and he demonstrated his ardent belief that the Jews were entitled to their homeland in Eretz Yisrael. He also recognized the need for a working military force, and he dreamed of heading the army of the future Jewish state. Because of his efforts and support, he was called in the Yishuv “ha-yedid,” the friend.

Wingate's intense support for the Zionist viewpoint, however, was controversial, and in 1939

the British succumbed to Arab pressure and transferred Wingate from Eretz Yisrael. His passport was stamped with the restriction that he not be allowed to re-enter the country. His personal involvement with the Zionist cause was thus curtailed, but many of those he trained became heads of the Palmach and, later, the Israel Defense Forces

Wingate returned briefly to Great Britain, but, recognized for his military talent, he was transferred to further active duty. In 1941 he led the force in Ethiopia against the Italians and was a major figure in liberating the country. He then worked in Burma, organizing and training the Chindits, a special jungle unit that operated behind Japanese lines. Wingate was killed in an airplane crash in Burma in 1944, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Wingate's friendship for the Yishuv and his contributions to its defense have been recognized through the several places in Israel named for him, including the College of Physical Education near Netanya.

Here is the reason I am mentioning it:

CIPAC (Christians’ Israel Public Action Campaign)is pleased to cosponsor again this year, with the Jewish War Veterans, the Orde Wingate Memorial Service at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) this Sunday, May 5 at 2:30.

You are specially invited, with no need for tickets, to check in at the ANC visitors center, near the Arlington National Cemetery Metro stop, for directions to the grave site, or if weather’s inclement, to the “Women in Military Service for America Memorial” auditorium.

Wingate, in the British Army and a Christian, served in pre-State Israel under the British League of Nations mandate in the late 1930′s as an intelligence officer to defeat Arab terrorists attacking Jewish kibbutzim and the Iraq-Haifa oil pipeline in the North. His creation of British-Israeli joint Special Night Squads (“Plugot Lila”) embodied a biblically inspired, preemptive offense centered, lead from the front, style of combat doctrine that still typifies the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) today.

Though Wingate would go on to create Special Forces to defeat vastly more numerous Axis troops, restore Haili Selassie to the Ethiopian throne and convince the Japanese in Burma to drop plans to conquer India, he never lost a burning desire to create and lead the first Israeli Army in 2000 years. He died in a US bomber crash in Burma, a 42 year old major general and father of a newborn son he’d never see, likely with Israel in his heart and on his lips. His remains are buried, with those of all aboard the ill-fated flight, in Arlington – fittingly, I feel, since the US has been Israel’s best backer on Earth.