In 1936 Orde Wingate was assigned to the British Mandate of Palestine to a staff office position and became an intelligence officer.
At the outbreak of World War II, Orde Wingate was the commander of an anti-aircraft unit in Britain. He repeatedly made proposals to the army and government for the creation of a Jewish army in Palestine which would rule over the area and its Arab population in the name of the British.
On Wingate's arrival in March 1942 in the Far East he was appointed colonel once more by General Wavell, and was ordered to organise guerrilla units to fight behind Japanese lines. However, the precipitous collapse of Allied defenses in Burma forestalled further planning, and Wingate flew back to India in April, where he began to promote his ideas for jungle long-range penetration units.