851.01/4013: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 19—2:29 p.m.]
4870. For Dunn29 from Phillips. At a conference between the Chief of Staff and General Koenig30 on Saturday which I attended, it was agreed as follows:
General Koenig will provide sufficient French liaison personnel to assist the French civil authorities in liberated territory at centers of French civil administration. These officers will be responsible to the French authorities for providing necessary liaison between the French civil administration and Allied military commanders and will operate from the civil administration center.
The necessary number of French Army officers as liaison officers to each headquarters down including army corps and later divisions will be provided by General Koenig. General Koenig will assign these officers as tactical liaison officers on the staffs of designated commanders and they will come under the command of the Allied commander to whom they are assigned. It is understood that in addition to tactical liaison and advice, the commander to whose staff these officers are assigned will use them as required to assist him in his dealings with the civil administration in France.
It was further agreed that all French forces of the interior will be commanded by General Koenig under the supreme command of General Eisenhower, and that Koenig’s status will thus be the same as that of any Allied commander serving under SCAEF directly. [Phillips.]