[ Barry Pitt, military historian. ] Typescript, with autograph emendations, of article on 'Orde Wingate'.

Author: 
Barrie Pitt (1918-2006), military historian [ Orde Wingate [ Major-General Orde Charles Wingate ] (1903-1944), British Army officer, tactical innovator during the Burma Campaign of World War Two
Publication details: 
Place and date not stated.
£150.00
SKU: 18037

3pp., 4to. On three leaves of yellow paper. In good condition, with slight staining from paper clip. Emendations in black and red ink. No evidence of publication of the text has been discovered. It begins: 'On 25th July, 1943, Mr. Churchill wrote "I consider Wingate should command the army against Burma. [...]"'. According to Pitt, his investigation has revealed that 'while those who served under him profess a devotion amounting to idolatry, those who commanded him have combined with the Official Histories in almost unanimously denigrating his every action.' He concludes that 'Wingate was neither a charlatan nor a madman (and some of his critics have called him both) [...] but he was an imaginative soldier with immense powers of mental concentration and of will. The only essential for great generalship he seems to have lacked, was luck; and that lack was fatal.'