Evening star., 1943-11-25
Unity Of Command
Among Allies Needed
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

Weu-1nformed circles" are that one OF
the main purposes Of the next important
meeting OF United Nations leaders will
be to bring about much closer military
coordination of British, American and
Russian strategy. 1t is not dificult to
believe these reports, for such q move
has now become urgently necessary.
One OF the outstanding contributions
to the progress already made in the
offensive against Germany has been the
successful organization and the success
ful functioning of the combined chiefs
OF staf1. This admirable agency of joint
command and joint planning has built
up the combined strategy of the forces
OF the United States and those of the
nations Of the British Commonwealth.
The campaigns in the Pacific, in South
east Asia, in the Mediterranean and the
great air attacks on Germany have all
been and are being carried out under its
general directives. 1t obviously has
maintained some sort of cooperation,
or at least an occasional exchange of
ideas. with the Russian high command,
4 fact which is evidenced by the timing
OF certain Russian offensive operations
In relation to Anglo-American OPERA
tions.
But now the time clearly has come
for much closer coordination in the
final decisive effort to knock Germany
out OF the war as quickly and COM
pletely as possible. The reason why
closer coordination is necessary is that
the scale OF Anglo-American offensive
effort In Europe is now obviously rising
We may be about to see a cross Channel
invasion on large scale and it may or
may not be preceded by diverSionary
operations in the Balkan Peninsula or
elsewhere. But when the cross Channel
blow comes 1t must be the final decisive
attack. 1t cannot be allowed to fail
The enemy cannot be allowed full free
dom Of action to deal with it as his
resources permit. 1t is no easy task even
Tor single command to produce care
fully timed coordination between two
great offensive operations proceeding
from entirely different bases and di-
rected at fronts hundreds of miles apart
Yet this careful timing must be assured
II the enemy is not to be allowed to
switch troops and air forces about and
to make double use of his resources. If
all the pains and penalties of war on
two fronts are to be inflicted on the
Germans, those two fronts must in effect
be under one command.
That is why We are now hearing of
closer Russian integration with the An
glo-American combined chiefs of staff.
1t may we'll be that We shall not vet
see Russian officers sitting as members
OF that body, for after all one of the
major duties Of the combined chiefs of
staff is to plan the war against Japan.
in which Russia is not yet engaged. But
a way around that dif1iculty might be
found If new high command for all
the United Nations forces in the Euro
pean theater of operations were to be
created at London, under Gen. Marshall,
perhaps, as commander in chief. and
II as the Russian member of this organ
ization there were appointed one of the
admirable representatives of the Rus
sian high command such as Marshal
Voronov, who has done so much to CO.
ordinate and direct the strategy Of far
flung Russian armies on a thousand
miles of battle fronts.
Under such conditions it would not
matter very much whether the new
command had anything more than the
general direction OF the Russian armies
under its control. Gen. Marshall might
actually command only the Anglo
American forces. But with a respon-
sible Russian ofiicer and a good Russian
stan at his side, the coordination nec-
essary for the defeat OF Germany could
be accomplished. For the decisions
taken by Gen. Marshall and concurred
IN by Marshal Voronov or some other
Russian officer of equal ability and sta
tus naturally would be conclusive and
we would have in effect what has long
been needed and is now imperative-a
joint command for all the Allied forces
operating against Germany. The Ger
mans have unified command. As the
United Nations close in for the kill,
they cannot allow the Germans to re-
tain that unique advantage.
tCopyright. 1943. N. Y. Tribune. Inc)