Evening star., 1952-09-08
NAT0's Atlantic Force
Prepares 10 Launch
lis First Maneuver
By John A. Giles
Star St1H Correspondent

NORFOLK, Va, Sept. 8.-The
largest international naval COM
mand in history today prepared
to launch it's first great maneuver.
It will mark the coming of age
of the North Atlantic Treaty Or
ganization'S Atlantic Naval Com
mand which extends across the
ocean and from the North Pole
to the Tropic of Cancer. Admiral
Lynde c. Mccormick, commander
in-chief of the United States At
lantic Fleet with headquarters
here, also is Supreme Allied Com
mander, Atlantic, or "Saclant" inl
Navy lingo.
More than 80 men-of-war oil
the United States Navy now areI
nearing Scotland to join more
than 100 ships of seven other
NATO nations in exercise Main
brace" in the North Sea beginning
Saturday and continuing through
September Is. Newspaper, radio
and television correspondents and
Photographic representatives con-
verged on this port city today to
be flown to Firth of Clyde, Scot
land, to join the fleet. Admiral
Mccormick and the last echelon
of the NATO command will be
leaving also.
Marines to Land.
10 h,k 0f To- S,.I
will be staged ashore in northern
Norway in the vicinity of Bodoe
and in Denmark, where an amphi-
hious landing will be made by a
battalion of United States Ma
rineS.
The naval forces will range
across the North Sea and off the
coast of Norway. and from the
Arctic Circle to the Firth of
Forth in Scotland. Small light
Norwegian, Danish and British
forces will maneuver in the Baltic
in defense of the eastern ap-
proaches to the Jutland PENN
sula.
MalnDrace assumes a war De-
tween Blue forces, representing
NATO. and Orange forces who
are especially strong in SUBJ !,
marines and airpower. Orange
is supposed to have invaded Nor
way from the north and Denmark
from the south.
The local defense forces, under
overall command of Gen. Mat
thew B. Ridgway. Supreme Allied :
Commander. Europe, request as
Sistance from Admiral McC Cormick,
who sends an American task
force built around five aircraft
carriers.
Thus Mainbrace obviously has !,
important strategic Implications. .
It also will afford a test of the
complicated command relation
ships of NATO.
Admiral Mccormick has as his
deputy. British Vice Admiral Sir !.
William Andrews. The chief of .
staff is an American naval
aviator, Rear Admiral Cato D.
Glover, jr.
The international staff as
sembled here now numbers about
130 officers from the United
States, Britain, Canada, France,
the Netherlands. Norway and
Denmark, and some 156 United
States sailors. When the staff
Is completed, there will be about
155 off1cers-about 100 of them S
from the United States. I
A Canadian heads the personnel S
and administration section, an
Britisher intelligence, and United b
States officers the policy, opera
tions and the logistics branches. t
One Difficult Task. ii
One of the most difficult tasks a
Is that of allocating sub-com-
mandS and delineating geographic +
cal responsibilities. This has :
largely been completed though no $
agreement has been reached about
the establishment of an "Iberian" .
command. :
AS originally planned, the NATO =
Atlantic Command was to be sub :
divided into three principal sub :
ordinate commands: Eastern At
lantic under a British admiral;
Western Atlantic under United !
States admiral; and the Ibero-
Atlantic area under an United
States admiral.
The latter area, extending far G
of Spain and Portugal, including
the approaches to the Mediter- g
ranean and reaching to the Mo- I
roccan coast, has not been acti- II
vated.- This appears to be related S
to the problem of establishing a
satisfactory NATO command in r
the Mediterranean. All the COM
plex establishment must, of course, e
be co-ordinated closely with the s
NATO land forces under Gen. c
Ridgway.