Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Doctrinal Background
- 2 Wingate before Palestine, 1923–36
- 3 Wingate and Counterterrorism in Palestine, 1937–9
- 4 Wingate in Ethiopia, 1940–1
- 5 Wingate in Burma (1) – the Origins of the Chindits, 1942–3
- 6 Wingate in Burma (2) – Operations Longcloth and Thursday, and the Subsequent Development of Long Range Penetration
- 7 The ‘Wingate Myth’ Reassessed
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
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1 - The Doctrinal Background
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Doctrinal Background
- 2 Wingate before Palestine, 1923–36
- 3 Wingate and Counterterrorism in Palestine, 1937–9
- 4 Wingate in Ethiopia, 1940–1
- 5 Wingate in Burma (1) – the Origins of the Chindits, 1942–3
- 6 Wingate in Burma (2) – Operations Longcloth and Thursday, and the Subsequent Development of Long Range Penetration
- 7 The ‘Wingate Myth’ Reassessed
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
[T]o most officers there was no such thing as ‘doctrine’, only ‘pamphlets’ – and they were, at best, a basis for discussion, and for quoting in promotion exams. Instead there was an ethos … which viewed which viewed tactics as being the opinion of the senior officer present: an agreeable state of affairs (for the senior officer, at least).
Major General John Kiszely,[I]f an Army is to succeed, everyone in it must know the class of action other people on their right and left, or in front of or behind them, will take under certain circumstances. It is fatal not to work to a common doctrine …
General Sir Philip Chetwode,Introduction – Military Doctrine
To complete this study it is vital to establish whether the British Army of Wingate's time had an official model for war fighting and whether Wingate departed from it. This is made difficult by the British Army apparently shying away from any such ‘doctrine’ until recently, there being no identifiable, single codified British military doctrinal document until 1989, and even then, this document's definition of ‘doctrine’ was vague: ‘Put most simply, doctrine is what is taught [consisting of] fundamental principles by which the military forces guide their actions in support of objectives’.
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- Orde Wingate and the British Army, 1922–1944 , pp. 19 - 40Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014
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