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.