Office of the Historian

J.C.S. Files

Memorandum by the United States Chiefs of Staff

top secret
C.C.S. 618/1
[Washington,] 22 August 1944.

Machinery for Coordination of United States-Soviet-British Military Effort

Reference: C.C.S. 6181

1.
The United States Chiefs of Staff agree that additional machinery is necessary to coordinate the military efforts of the United Nations forces on the European fronts.
2.
It is considered that the present relationship between the Combined Chiefs of Staff and the Soviet General Staff through the medium of the United States and British Missions in Moscow on over-all strategy must be retained until the matter can be discussed further at the next United Nations Staff Conference.
3.
The United States Chiefs of Staff recommend that the machinery for the coordination of day-to-day United States-British-Soviet operational matters be established by attaching a Soviet liaison group to Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force. An additional Soviet liaison group could be sent to Allied Force Head quarters if needed.
4.
It is recommended that the Combined Chiefs of Staff dispatch the enclosed directive relative to machinery for the coordination of our common military effort to the British and United States Military Missions in Moscow with information copies to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean.

Enclosure

Draft Message From the Combined Chiefs of Staff

The Combined Chiefs of Staff direct that the Heads of the United States and British Military Missions in Moscow open discussions with the Soviet General Staff along the lines indicated in the following paragraph. When the Soviet views on the proposal have been obtained you will submit them to the Combined Chiefs of Staff together with your comments thereon.

The creation of machinery for the coordination of Soviet-British-American military efforts is increasingly necessary. It is therefore proposed that the machinery for coordination of day-to-day operational matters should be established by attaching a Soviet liaison [Page 183] group to Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force and, if needed, to Allied Force Headquarters. Strategic direction would of course be retained by the Chiefs of Staff of the three nations.

  1. Ante, p. 9.↩