Supreme Allied Commander is the title held by the most senior commander within certain multinational military alliances. It originated as a term used by theAllies duringWorld War I, and is currently used only withinNATO forSupreme Allied Commander Europe andSupreme Allied Commander Transformation.
On 26 March 1918, the French marshalFerdinand Foch was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, gaining command of all Allied forces everywhere, and coordinated the British, French, American, and Italian armies to stop theGerman spring offensive, the last large offensive of the German Empire.[1] He was the one who accepted theGerman 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 subsequentBeauvais 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 MinisterGeorges Clemenceau to request it, which was immediately granted.
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DuringWorld War II, theAllied leaders appointed Supreme Allied Commanders to manage the multi-nation, multi-discipline fighting forces for a particulartheater of war. These Supreme Allied Commanders were given operational control over all air, land, and sea units in that theatre. In other cases, senior commanders were given the titleCommander-in-Chief.
These Supreme Allied Commanders were drawn from themost senior leaders in theBritish Armed Forces andUnited States Armed Forces. These commanders reported to the British/AmericanCombined Chiefs of Staff, although in the case of the Pacific and South East Asia, the relevant national command authorities of the AmericanJoint Chiefs of Staff or the BritishChiefs of Staff Committee had responsibility for the main conduct of the war in the theatre, depending on the Supreme Commander's nationality.
General of the ArmyDwight D. Eisenhower served in successive Supreme Allied Commander roles. Eisenhower was theCommander-in-Chief, Allied Force for theMediterranean theatre. Eisenhower then served as Supreme CommanderAllied Expeditionary Force (SCAEF) in theEuropean theatre, starting in December 1943 with the creation of the command to executeOperation Overlord and ending in July 1945 shortly after theEnd of World War II in Europe. In 1951, Eisenhower would again be a Supreme Allied Commander, the first to hold the post forNATO (see next section).
Field MarshalHenry Maitland Wilson succeeded Eisenhower in the Mediterranean theatre, given the title Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean. Wilson was succeeded by Field MarshalHarold Alexander, who continued in charge of those Allied forces until the end of the war.
AdmiralLord Louis Mountbatten wasSupreme Allied Commander South East Asia (SACSEA) throughout most of its existence. He replaced GeneralArchibald Wavell.
GeneralissimoChiang Kai-shek was named the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in China Theater on 1942.[2] However,US forces in China were usually overseen by GeneralJoseph Stilwell, the commander ofChina Burma India Theater (CBI) and Deputy Allied Commander ofSouth East Asia Command (SEAC). It was not 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 ArmyDouglas MacArthur was appointed Supreme Allied Commander,South West Pacific Area (SWPA) on 18 April 1942.[3] However, he preferred to use the title Commander-in-Chief. During theAllied occupation of Japan following the war, MacArthur held the title ofSupreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). ThePacific Ocean Areas (POA), divided into the Central Pacific Area, the North Pacific Area and the South Pacific Area,[4]: 652–653 were commanded by AdmiralChester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief Pacific Ocean Areas.
Although not bearing any official title of Supreme Allied Commander,Joseph Stalin, asSupreme Commander-in-Chief of theSoviet Armed Forces, as well as the commanders of the1st Belorussian,1st,2nd,3rd and4th Ukrainian Fronts of the SovietRed Army -Zhukov,Rokossovsky,Konev,Malinovsky,Tolbukhin,Sokolovsky,Yeremenko,Petrov,Vatutin, etc. - acted in de facto capacity of Supreme Allied Commanders in that units of foreign Allied armies were incorporated into the fronts' order of battle and fought against the EuropeanAxis powers under their command during theGreat Patriotic War: thePolish Armed Forces in the East,1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, FrenchNormandie-Niemen Fighter Regiment and RomanianTudor Vladimirescu Division from 1943, then from 1944 until the end of the war also theRomanian Army,Bulgarian Army andYugoslav National Liberation Army.
After the end of the Soviet Union's European theater of World War II, during theSoviet-Japanese War, the commanders of the Red Army's1st and2nd Far Eastern fronts andTransbaikal Front -Vasilevsky (in overall command of all three fronts), Malinovsky,Meretskov andPurkayev - once again acted in de facto capacity of Supreme Allied Commanders as theMongolian People's Army and partisans of the ChineseNortheast Anti-Japanese United Army andKorean People's Revolutionary Army were incorporated into their order of battle for the liberation ofNorthern China,Northeastern China and northernKorea from Japanese imperialist occupation.
The term came into use again with the formation ofNATO in 1949. In 1952,Allied Command Europe was established, led by Eisenhower. He became theSupreme Allied Commander (SACEUR). Soon afterwards, Allied Command Atlantic was established, at Norfolk, Virginia, underLynde McCormick, a U.S. Navy admiral. His title wasSupreme 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, theWarsaw Pact was established in 1955 along with their own posts ofUnited Armed Forces Supreme Commander andChief of Combined Staff. Until the disbandment of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, both posts had always been held by aMarshal of the Soviet Union orArmy General due to their expertise in commanding and coordinating forces of enormous sizes in theSoviet 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 andAllied Command Transformation established. The headquarters of ACT is at the former SACLANT headquarters inNorfolk, Virginia, USA. Each has a Supreme Allied Commander as its commander.
