FDR invented the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the USA,
and recalled Admiral Leahy to be its chairman.
Then the Brits sent a senior officer from each service
to DC, to join the JCS in "Combined Chiefs of Staff."
CCS ran the details of the UK/USA parts of the war,
under political supervision of course.
NATO has a Supreme HQ Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE),
led by a SCAPE.
Of course it helped that WSC, FDR, and Leahy could talk
by telephone in real time, and SCAPE can talk with any
of his Heads Of State.
The GA won't have that. (Not until the Streak Drive can
trail phone lines through hyperspace! )
HTM
tonyz wrote:belowSWM wrote:Did the Alliance during World War II have a joint chiefs of staff? Does NATO? Or did/do they just have an overall commander plus commanders of each participating unit, plus administrative structure? NATO appears to have a Military Committee, but that appears to be parallel to the Allied Command Operations rather than superior to it. I'm not sure how they are really structured.
WW II definitely saw US and Britain with joint chiefs of staff,and I think the Grand Alliance could use such a structure. Will they realize it in time,though? There's a lot of operational planning and coordination and allocation above the fleet command level -- try reading Alanbrooke's diaries sometime to see what might be involved. The Grand Alliancemight try to handle that at the head of state level, though, instead of a joint planning body... Which would induce Issues similar to those the Entente faced during World War I, or Soviet/British+US issues duringWorld War II.