Supreme Allied Commander

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the commander of Allied forces in Europe. For the general concept of a supreme military commander, see Commander-in-chief.

Supreme Allied Commander is the title held by the most senior commander within certain multinational military alliances. It originated as a term used by the

Supreme Allied Commander Transformation
.

Historical titles

World War I

On 26 March 1918, the French marshal Ferdinand Foch was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, gaining command of all Allied forces everywhere, and coordinated the British, French, American, and Italian armies to stop the German spring offensive, the last large offensive of the German Empire.[1] He was the one who accepted the German cessation of hostilities in his private train.

On 16 April 1918, at his own request, Foch was appointed "Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies". Despite his promotion 19 days earlier, and the subsequent Beauvais Conference of 3 April 1918, he was not provided a title. He remedied this by making up his own title and by writing to Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau to request it, which was immediately granted.

World War II

During

Commander-in-Chief
.

These Supreme Allied Commanders were drawn from the most senior leaders in the British Armed Forces and United States Armed Forces. These commanders reported to the British/American Combined Chiefs of Staff, although in the case of the Pacific and South East Asia, the relevant national command authorities of the American Joint Chiefs of Staff or the British Chiefs of Staff Committee had responsibility for the main conduct of the war in the theatre, depending on the Supreme Commander's nationality.

European theatre, starting in December 1943 with the creation of the command to execute Operation Overlord and ending in July 1945 shortly after the End of World War II in Europe. In 1951, Eisenhower would again be a Supreme Allied Commander, the first to hold the post for NATO
(see next section).

Field Marshal Henry Maitland Wilson succeeded Eisenhower in the Mediterranean theatre, given the title Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean. Wilson was succeeded by Field Marshal Harold Alexander, who continued in charge of those Allied forces until the end of the war.

Archibald Wavell
.

US forces in practice were usually overseen by General Joseph Stilwell, the Deputy Allied Commander in China and South East Asia Command (SEAC). Until late 1944 that the land forces chain of command was clarified, after Stilwell was recalled to Washington.[clarification needed] His overall role, and the CBI command were then split among three people: Lt Gen. Raymond Wheeler became Deputy Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia; Maj. Gen. Albert Wedemeyer became Chief of Staff to Chiang, and commander of US Forces, China Theater (USFCT). Lt Gen. Daniel Sultan
was promoted, from deputy commander of CBI to commander of US Forces, India-Burma Theater (USFIBT) and commander of the NCAC.

General of the Army

Allied occupation of Japan following the war, MacArthur held the title of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). The Pacific Ocean Areas (POA), divided into the Central Pacific Area, the North Pacific Area and the South Pacific Area,[4]: 652–653  were commanded by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
, Commander-in-Chief Pacific Ocean Areas.

Although not bearing any official title of Supreme Allied Commander, the commanders of the

Yugoslav National Liberation Army
.

After the end of the Soviet Union's European theater of World War II, during the

Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and Korean People's Revolutionary Army were incorporated into their order of battle for the liberation of Northern China, Northeastern China and northern Korea
from Japanese imperialist occupation.

Cold War-era to present-day titles

Main articles:
Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, and Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization

The term came into use again with the formation of

Allied Command Europe was established, led by Eisenhower. He became the Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR). Soon afterwards, Allied Command Atlantic was established, at Norfolk, Virginia, under Lynde McCormick, a U.S. Navy admiral. His title was Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic
(SACLANT), and the entire command was usually known as SACLANT. Both Supreme Commanders have, until 2009, been American, with a deputy commander from another NATO member, though only British and Germans have held the post.

Responding to the establishment of NATO, the Warsaw Pact was established in 1955 along with their own posts of United Armed Forces Supreme Commander and Chief of Combined Staff. Until the disbandment of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, both posts had always been held by a Marshal of the Soviet Union or Army General due to their expertise in commanding and coordinating forces of enormous sizes in the Soviet Armed Forces.

In June 2003, the commands were reshuffled. One command was given responsibility for operations, and one for transforming the military components of the alliance to meet new challenges. In Europe, Allied Command Operations was established from the former Allied Command Europe, and given responsibility for all NATO military operations worldwide. However, for legal reasons,[further explanation needed] SACEUR retained the traditional title including Europe.[5] In the United States, SACLANT was decommissioned and Allied Command Transformation established. The headquarters of ACT is at the former SACLANT headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. Each has a Supreme Allied Commander as its commander.

See also

References

  1. ^ Messenger, Charles (2001). Reader's Guide to Military History. pp. 170–71.
  2. ^ "75th anniversary of the end of WWII: Ashes to glory in the China-Burma-India Theatre". ThinkChina. 30 July 2020.
  3. OCLC 220484034
    . Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  4. ^ Potter & Nimitz (1960).
  5. ^ Pedlow, Evolution of NATO's Command Structure 1951-2009.
  6. ^ "NATO - Who's who?".

External links

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