Wingate was a British Army officer whose deep religious convictions and military innovations left a lasting imprint on Israel’s early defense efforts. Born in India in 1903 into a devout Christian family, he was raised with a strong emphasis on the Old Testament, which shaped his worldview and later fueled his support for Zionism. In 1936, he became an intelligence officer and was assigned to Palestine during the British Mandate. Wingate immediately allied with the leaders of Haganah, the Israeli paramilitary organization that laid the groundwork for Israel’s future intelligence services.
During the Arab Revolt, he formulated the idea of armed groups of British-trained Jewish commandos and formed the Special Night Squads (SNS) to counter Arab insurgents during the Arab Revolt (1936–1939). The SNS conducted night raids, ambushes, and preemptive strikes—a prototype of tactics later used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), especially in elite units like Sayeret Matkal and Shayetet 13. These tactics emphasized mobility and surprise, small-unit cohesion, and aggressive counterinsurgency.
Even though Wingate’s deep political involvement with the Zionist cause forced his superiors in Britain to remove him from command, he remained beloved among Israelis, who nicknamed him “Hayedid” (“The Friend”)—a rare honor reflecting his unwavering support for the Jewish cause. Moshe Dayan, who had trained under Wingate, claimed that, militarily speaking, he “taught us everything we know.”
Wingate died in a plane crash in Burma in 1944. Winston Churchill called him “a man of genius,” and David Ben-Gurion believed he could have become the IDF’s first chief of staff.
Loosely based on the following sources:
- Aaron Cohen, Brotherhood of Warriors, HarperCollins e-books, 2023 (2008)
- “Charles Orde Wingate. Friend of Israel”, Israel my Glory, December/January 1992/1993, https://israelmyglory.org/article/charles-orde-wingate/
- Hillel Kuttler, “75 years after his death, why Orde Wingate remains a hero in Israel”, https://www.timesofisrael.com/75-years-after-his-death-why-orde-wingate-remains-a-hero-in-israel/, March 23, 2019
- Jim Fletcher, “The onion-eating eccentric who transformed the Israel Defense Forces”, https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/orde-charles-wingate-israel-defense-forces/, April 11, 2023
- Defense Technical Information Center, “DTIC ADA563007: Orde Wingate and the British Internal Security Strategy during the Arab Rebellion in Palestine, 1936-1939”, August 6, 2012