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Recommended Reading: Fire In The Night
By Lt Col P
I just finished reading for the third or fourth time Fire In The Night, the very good biography of Orde Wingate, who was both the founder of the Long Range Penetration Group in the China-Burma-India theater (better known as the Chindits), and the real father of the Israel Defense Force. Eminently readable and full of illuminating references and footnotes, the book sheds some critical but not unsympathetic light on that complex and controversial man.
Wingate was talking about (and fighting) an integrated air-ground deep battle long before anyone else was doing it. Necessarily, he was years ahead of his time, although he exploited to the full the tools available to him. His Chindits had some real successes but paid a heavy price for them; whether the success was worth the cost is still a subject for debate. Wingate himself paid the ultimate price, as he was killed in a plane crash at the height of the campaign. (Since it was a USAAF plane and the remains of the crew and passengers could not be separately identified, all were buried in Arlington. For further discussion of the Chindit operations see, among others, Defeat Into Victory, Fighting Mad, and The Road Past Mandalay.)
Also of great value is the detailed and fascinating description of Wingate’s controversial efforts to train Jewish settlers in small unit combat and send them out on offensive operations against the rebellious Palestinian Arabs, and the somewhat related campaign to restore Haile Selassie to the throne. Both cases illustrate Wingate’s violent attachment to causes not fully backed by officialdom, and his consequent difficulties with the military establishment.
In this reading of the book, though, what really struck me was the question as to whether there would be room in today’s military for a Wingate. The answer, for better or for worse, is probably no. For starters some of his personal behavior would have gotten him dismissed in 2006: imagine an officer in his late 30s marrying a girl on the day before her eighteenth birthday. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…) Were he to emerge from that with a second chance, imagine him surviving, in the career sense, a suicide attempt. Between those two incidents lay years of controversy in Palestine, where his bold and successful efforts to train and arm a Zionist force were, to put it mildly, problematic and probably insubordinate. Add in a documented history of calling superior officers who didn’t agree with him “military apes,” as well as several gross instances of bypassing the chain of command and going straight to the top, and you wonder how even the eccentric-friendly British Army not only allowed him to stay in but promoted him and gave him a large, independent command for a very risky operation. It also amuses me to think of how Wingate would have filled out the questionnaire for a security clearance.
So the question is, I suppose—what price genius? In the U.S military of 2006, it’s probably more than most would want to pay. But in a war of indeterminate duration, where we need bold spirits and free thinkers, should we treat our loons more kindly? Other than having broad-minded and forgiving senior officers to defend them, what mechanism can exist to identify and protect the brilliant but bad? This is a difficult proposition, because every time we protect an officer, no matter how capable, from the consequences of his actions, it necessarily pokes everyone else in the eye. I hope, however, that the star-wearers are keeping their eyes and ears (and minds) open.
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Comments
I really enjoyed this review and will make sure I get my hands on this book. I'm always fascinated by mavericks, those who bring pure, unadulterated genius out of their frequently dysfunctional and tortured psyches. In my opinion, those men rarely fit in because they are well ahead of their time. - and seem crazy to their staid and stagnate peers, and sometimes themselves! It's only in hindsight that later generations can appreciate their vision. I'm really glad you brought this book to my attention - it's going on my list of must-haves.
As an aside, I'd like to say a belated hello. I'm pleasantly suprised to see that you've joined the boys here at Op-For. What a great team you guys make!
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Thanks for a great recommendation just in time for Christmas! No doubt Wingate, "Chinese" Gordon, and those like them would probably be forced out as passed over Majors nowadays. As far as our Generals go, we don't have a good track record when it comes to recognizing and promoting our innovators either, a good example of this is John Boyd.