| Gideon Force | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Active | 1940–1941 |
| Disbanded | 1 June 1941 |
| Countries | Britain, Sudan, Ethiopia |
| Branch | Army |
| Type | Infantry Special Operations |
| Role | Irregular warfare |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Orde Wingate |
Gideon Force was a small British and African special force, a Corps d'Élite with the Sudan Defence Force, Ethiopian regular forces and Arbegnoch (Amharic for Patriots). Gideon Force fought the Italian occupation in Ethiopia, during the East African Campaign of the Second World War. The leader and creator of the force was Major (later Colonel) Orde Wingate. At its peak, Gideon Force had fifty officers, twenty British NCOs, 800 trained Sudanese troops and 800 part-trained Ethiopian regulars, a few mortars but no artillery and no air support, except for intermittent bombing sorties.
The force operated in difficult country at the end of a long, tenuous supply-line, on which perished nearly all of the 15,000 camels used as beasts of burden. Gideon Force and the Arbegnoch ejected the Italian forces commanded in Ethiopia by General Guglielmo Nasi (the conqueror of British Somaliland). The campaign took six weeks; 1,100 Italian and 14,500 Ethiopian troops were captured along with twelve guns, many machine-guns, rifles, much ammunition and over 200 pack animals. Gideon Force was disbanded on 1 June 1941, Wingate resumed this substantive rank of Major and returned to Egypt, as did many of the troops of Gideon Force, who joined the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in the Eighth Army.