Rediscovering Irregular Warfare

123 The prime minster had long been intrigued by irregular warfare. As a young man Churchill had observed the Cuban War of Independence and particularly admired the way the guerrillas used intelligence to enhance the effectiveness of their limited forces.124 He likewise observed the Second Anglo-Boer War at very close range—including capture by and

At the outbreak of the war, Gubbins served with a British liaison mission in Poland, where he witnessed Nazi Germany’s offensive power and also began fostering relationships with what soon became the Polish General Staff in exile, Britain’s essential link to the Polish resistance.

Between August 1939 and November 1940, Colin Gubbins served in three different capacities that provided valuable experience, though none of the three could, in a strict sense, be described as leading a guerrilla force.

In 1940, Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton echoed this sentiment in a letter to Lord Halifax, the foreign secretary: “We have got to organize movements in enemy-occupied territory comparable to . . .—one might as well admit it—to the organizations which the nazis themselves have developed so remarkably in almost every country in the world.”1

By 1938 two infantry divisions, composed of some twenty-five thousand men, were deployed to put down the rebellion, which lasted until 1939.40

The Special Night Squads, deployed in Palestine, included many of the features Gubbins advocated: intelligence, initiative, deception, and strong leadership.

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Schutztruppe

The third element, the “psychological,” was of particular importance to Lawrence considering the Arabs’ relative inferiority. “We were so weak physically that we could not let the metaphysical weapon rust unused.”173 He explains, “We had to arrange [our Arab soldiers’] minds in order of battle, just as carefully and as formally as other officers ar

Lawrence’s second element, the “biological,” concerned the components of war, “sensitive and illogical” human beings. Because of unknown human factors, commanders are forced to hold a body of men in reserve as a safeguard, thus stretching thin their other human resources. Lawrence worked to magnify his enemy’s ignorance: “We were to contain the ene