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The Gideon Force was a small British-led African special force which acted as a ''Corps d'Elite'' amongst the Sudan Defence Force and irregular Ethiopian forces fighting the Italian occupation forces in Ethiopia during the East African Campaign of World War II. The leader and creator of the force was Major Orde Wingate. ==Background and political situation== Italy created Italian East Africa (covering Eritrea and Somalia). When Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared war against France and Britain in June 1940, Italian forces became a potential threat to British supply routes in the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. British troops in Egypt and the Sudan were outnumbered relative to the Italian forces in Ethiopia and Libya. This was put into stark perspective when Italian troops made advances to capture territory on the borders of Kenya and the Sudan in June and July before moving to conquer British Somaliland in August. Short of men, General Archibald Wavell (the Commander-in-Chief of the British Middle East Command) needed all of the local support he could find. One answer was Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia. The deposed emperor had been living in England ever since the Italians invaded his country in 1936 during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. Ethiopian resistance fighters called ''Arbegnoch'' ("Patriots") had been fighting the Italians ever since the beginning of the occupation. They would raid Italian forts and communication lines. However, they hardly cooperated at all and the Italians were often able to play one group against another. In June 1940, Wavell invited Emperor Selassie to Sudan so his supporters could rally around him. The British recruited a bodyguard for him from among the Ethiopian refugees in Khartoum. In July the British government recognized Haile Selassie and promised to help him. In August 1940, the British set up Mission 101 led by Colonel Daniel Sandford, a close friend and advisor of Haile Selassie and who had encouraged him to return from Britain. The role of Mission 101 was to contact the ''Arbegnoch'' and make gifts of money to local leaders who agreed to fight the Italians. It would then organise "Operational Centres" (small groups of officers and NCOs) in Gojjam to provide weapons, training and co-ordination for ''Arbegnoch'' attacks. Wavell expected that these irregular forces would be able to tie down large numbers of Italian units throughout the colony, although Lieutenant-General William Platt, Wavell's senior commander in the Sudan did not believe that Hailie Selassie had the support of the majority of the Ethiopian people and was lukewarm towards providing support to the patriot groups.〔Rooney, David, ''Wingate and the Chindits'', p. 52〕 At the end of October 1940, because of the increasing Axis threat in the Middle East, the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden convened a conference in Khartoum. The importance of defeating the Italian Army in East Africa prior to operations in North Africa became a priority in order to avoid any conflict on two fronts. In attendance were Emperor Selassie, South African General Jan Smuts (who held an advisory brief for the region with Winston Churchill), the Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East Command, Archibald Wavell and his senior military commanders in East Africa, Lieutenant-General Platt and Lieutenant-General Cunningham. The general plan of attack, including the use of Ethiopian irregular forces, was agreed upon at this conference.〔Keegan, John, ''The Oxford Companion to World War II'', p. 245〕 Also agreed was an increased level of support for the ''Arbegnoch''.〔Rooney, David, ''Wingate and the Chindits'', p. 49〕 Part of the increased support saw the posting in early November of Major Orde Wingate (who had spent five inter-war years with the Sudan Defence Force and was later to gain fame in Burma with the Chindits) to Khartoum as a staff officer with the brief of liaising between Platt, ''Mission 101'' and the Emperor.〔 Wavell had met Wingate during their service in Palestine and selected him for the job. On 6 November 1940, Wingate arrived in Khartoum. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gideon Force」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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