WESTERN EUROPE DEFENCE HQ IS HEAVY WITH-RANK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 90, 23 May 1949, Page 5

WESTERN EUROPE DEFENCE HQ IS HEAVY WITH-RANK

(By Reece Smith, New Zealand Kemsley Empire Journalist) . London, April 27.

Field Marshal Montgomery’s Western European defence headquarters would have to look to South America to find a military organisation more top heavy with rank.

His headquarters, outside Paris, has talent. A French general (de Lattre de Tassigny) may command all the land forces of the five western European nations party to the organisation; a French admiral (Jaujard) may command the sea forces, and a British air marshal (Sir James Robb) may command the air forces.

All “may command.” For the moment, the fighting strength they command is precisely nil. The organisation has no authority till war breaks out. Till that moment each of the five subscribing nations conducts its own military affairs as it thinks fit. Good sense might be dictating some liaison through Monty’s headquarters in training methods, but it is not official.

The first sign of much military strength in these European countries will be the arrival of American arms. Yet even the selection and distribution of these will not be a matter for Monty. American representation on his European defence organisation is limited to observers. In the arms hand out America, on the face of it at least, will deal directly with the recipient countries.

It would be strange, nevertheless, if somewhere along the line Monty did not have a word in the allocation. This hand out is one step towads the standardisation of armaments, an ideal not to be reached cheaply or easily. For instance one estimate has it that to replace the British .303 rifle with the American .300 would cost £25,000,000. France must be the pivot of any scheme to defend Western Europe. Over the past 30 years or so French governments have averaged seven months in office. This insecurity is mirrored in the military, which is not so insensitive to political change as in Britain. And on top comes the shock of four years of German occupation. France is recovering her military morale only slowly. Her armed forces, except for occasional crack units, are convalescent. The same goes more or less for the rest of Western Europe, not excluding Britain, which according to one estimate can muster at the moment only two combat divisions.

It is no secret that some west European defenders would like to the manpower of west Germany trained as an ally. Militarily this may be desirable. Politically there is hardly a shred of hope of. getting the idea past France, who has not made up her mind whether she is the more terrified of Germany or Russia.

The place in the picture of American troops garrisoning Germany is not defined, though again there is surely some understanding among top soldiers. N \ So it is that, despite sheaves of future plans, Monty has what may be his smallest command since his subaltern days. It is unlikely that Russia trembles at his forces.