https://declassified.library.utoronto.ca/files/original/dc910d825a1ecffba45d145f0a231cb8.pdf 3588af903bdbb7546e43d4f3930b75a7 PDF Text Text Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act Document divulgueenvertrde'la Eol qdt^’^cceS a I’information THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT CANADIAN EYES ONLY ci CONFIDENTIAL (18719) wu 1217/199 Foreign Office and Whitehall Distribution Sv 1 EWESTERN (GENERAL) 57 // 4. ( i — Z 17 20th November, 1952 ---- —-C Section 1 N.A.T.O. COUNCIL’S VISIT TO EXERCISE “ LONGSTEP ” * All the members of the council, except the Portuguese and Icelandic representatives, who were represented by their Number Two’s, went on this trip, accompanied by Captain Fitzroy, R.N., from S.H.A.P.E., and Captain Ter Poorten of the Standing Group Liaison Officer’s staff. The party left Paris by air on the morning of Monday, 10th November, arriving in Naples in the afternoon. They proceeded immediately to Admiral Carney’s headquarters, where the Admiral and three or four senior members of his staff (with the exception of an Italian general they were all American) gave an exposition of the aims and objects of the Southern European Command, the forces at the Commander-inchief’s disposal, the intelligence estimate of the Russian threat against the command and a variety of information about the way in which the command was organised, the manner in which it had developed and the progress which it had made. The statements by Admiral Carney and his assistants followed the expected lines and emphasised the American concept of the role of the Southern Command in the event of war, the part which its naval forces would play in supporting land operations in Central Europe, &c., &c. I do not imagine that .there was anything new in the facts and figures about the strength of the N.A.T.O. forces in the command and the estimate of the forces with which the Russians might attack and the way in which they would attack, &c. The other permanent representatives were, however, very gratified at being given so much detailed information and shown so many diagrams and maps, &c. Indeed, two or three of them said that they wished that the Standing Group could have been equally communicative at their recent meeting with the N.A.T.O. Council. As I have reported elsewhere, Admiral Carney was careful to avoid saying anything embarrassing during his talk about the Anglo-American dispute regarding the Mediterranean Command, and this subject was hardly mentioned during the meeting. 169—19 I would say that the main points of interest which arose were: — (a) Admiral Carney’s suggestion that any war in Europe might well begin by a Russian or satellite attack on the Southern European Command; (b) the emphasis laid by several of the officers on the vital importance of the Middle East to the security of N.A.T.O. as a whole and Western Europe in particular; • (c) the great importance of holding the Ljubliana gap; (d) the difficulty of holding Eastern Thrace; (e) Admiral Carney’s references to the vital part which North Africa would play in supporting the defence of Europe. Although Admiral Carney invited questions, very few were asked. Mindful of the experience of " Mainbrace,” I asked whether communications and the difference of language did not present a great problem. The admiral said that great progress had been made in dealing with the problem, that during " Longstep ” there had been very little difficulty over communications, and that he was greatly impressed by the way in which the different national forces were able to co-operate with each other in English. I also enquired about infrastructure. In their replies, Admiral Carney and General Schlatter implied that they were fairly satisfied with the present situation as regards airfields. What they seemed to want most were pipelines, signals and radar installations. Admiral Carney also talked about some improvements being needed in North African ports. Neither of the officers, however, laid anything like the same stress on infrastructure as S.H.A.P.E. usually does. After this meeting with Admiral Carney, the council moved to the naval headquarters, where they were given a very clear account by a United States naval officer of exercise " Longstep.” This account, having been I a 000140 J �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act— Document divulgue en vertii de la Loi surl'acces a I'information 2 . . » s ' 6* . given immediately after Admiral Carney’s general exposition of the scope and functions of the Southern European Command, was very instructive, and I think the other permanent representatives found it rather easier to follow than the briefings which they had had in connexion with " Holdfast ” and “Mainbrace.” After these meetings, the council attended a reception given by Admiral Carney. On this occasion I met several of the British officers attached to Admiral Carney’s staff, Admiral Mountbatten’s liaison officer and Her Majesty’s Consul-General. In the evening, there was a dinner party given by the Italian Government and presided over by Signor Zoppi of the Italian Foreign Office. I have reported separately what was said to me on this occasion about Trieste. Early the following morning the council left by air for Athens. On arrival there they were met at the airport by Admiral Carney, who had preceded them, and by representatives of the Greek Government. They proceeded directly to Piraeus, where they embarked on board the U.S.S. Columbus, the flagship of Admiral Cassady, the commander of the United States Sixth Fleet. While the Columbus proceeded to a rendezvous with the U.S.S. Mount Olympus in the gean. Admiral Cassady gave the council a lecture on the functions and duties of the Sixth Fleet. Here again the lecture followed familiar lines and was mainly concerned to emphasise the support which the Sixth Fleet could give to the land battle in Southern Europe and the manner in which air attacks on Russia could be launched from the carriers of the fleet. Admiral Cassady gave a very lucid exposition of this thesis, and the permanent representatives appeared to be considerably impressed by his remarks. I think the points which aroused the most interest were the Admiral’s statements that he already had at his disposal certain aircraft which were capable of carrying atomic weapons ; and that whereas his fighter aircraft had sufficient range to provide protection for the bombers from the aircraft carriers while they were attacking targets in Russia, the Russians could not, owing to the shorter range of the MIG 15, provide similar coverage for Russian aircraft attacking the fleet carriers. In reply to a question on this last point, Admiral Cassady expressed the opinion that the reason why the Russians had at present no longer-range fighters was that so far they had concentrated primarily on the defence of their own territory, rather than on attacking distant targets. Admiral Cassady also explained that the average tour of duty of the United States ships in the Mediterranean amounted to four months, that the training facilities available in the Mediterranean were better than those available in American waters, and that from the point of view of efficiency the experiment of stationing a United States ■ fleet in the Mediterranean had proved very successful. He added that, as a general rule, all the refuelling and reprovisioning of the fleet was done at sea, and that, in consequence, his ships were able to spend about 42 per cent, of their time at sea—a distinctly higher percentage than would have been the case had the ships been stationed in United ' States waters. Finally, Admiral Cassady spoke in warm terms of the close co-operation between the various navies in the Mediterranean and confirmed Admiral Carney’s earlier remarks about the successful way in which the communications problem was being overcome. He reported that, in respect of exercise “ Longstep,” there had been very few difficulties over communications. Columbus met Mount Olympus , in the middle of the afternoon, and the council transferred to the latter vessel. Fortunately the weather was fine and the sea calm, so that the process of transfer was effected by small boats. Perhaps this was just as well as some of my colleagues, on reading the printed programme which suggested that the transfer might be " by trolley,” had expressed some apprehension as to what was in store for them. Mount Olympus is the flagship of Admiral Rose and the headquarters ship of the amphibious landing force. After a short explanation from Admiral Rose about the way in which the amphibious force was organised and the manner in which Mount Olympus functioned, the council were given a most interesting briefing about the amphibious landing which was planned for the following morning at Lebedos Bay near Izmir. This briefing was given by a number of United States officers from the navy, the marines and the army, all of whom gave the impression of extreme keenness and efficiency. Once again during this briefing emphsasis was laid on the excellent manner in which the various national forces engaged in the exercise were collaborating, and upon the absence of any serious difficulties in the field of communication. The council spent the night on board Mount Olympus and were able to watch the landing at Lebedos Bay the following morning. In fact, the council landed on the beach ahead of the first wave of United 000141 �Document disclosed under the Access to Information Act I Document divulgue en vertu de la Loisurl’acces a /’information' 3 ** States marines—presenting, I am afraid, rather a strange picture as they scrambled ashore from the landing craft. The landing, which was the culmination of exercise " Longstep,” went off entirely according to plan, and the council were able to see at first-hand the air strikes (which incidentally were mainly made from carriers over 200 miles away), tanks being landed by United States marines, &c., &c. Here again, the weather was fortunately fine and the council (and indeed most of the troops) were able to land dry shod. After about an hour the council reembarked on their landing craft and, along with Admiral Carney, were taken to the U.S.S. Quincy, which then proceeded at speed to Izmir, which was reached in the early afternoon. The council disembarked at Izmir, where they were met by various Turkish officials and by General Wyman, who has quite recently taken up his new post there. There was little time for conversation with the general, but he seemed very much on the spot and already to be on excellent terms with the local Turkish authorities. After a short tour of the city, and an even shorter vin d’honneur given by the Turkish dignitaries, the council hurried off by road to the airport, whence they departed for,Athens about 5 p.m. On reaching Athens later on in the evening, the council were first received by the King and Queen of Greece, and subsequently attended a dinner party given by the Greek Government. On the following morning they had a meeting with the Chief of the Greek General Staff, who was accompanied by a number of his officers. The general gave rather an exhaustive exposition of the present state of the Greek armed forces, the difficulties with which they were faced in trying to defend such a long (and frontier, the particular difficulties of defending Eastern Thrace, &c., &c. The main object of his discourse, however, was to make a plea for additional American aid. As, however, General Grigoropoulos spoke in French, a language which Mr. Draper hardly understands, I doubt if his pleas had much effect. At all events, the meeting came to a sudden end when Mr. Draper got up and said that as he had another engagement, he must ask to be excused. Before this happened, however, the general, in reply to an obviously inspired question from M. Pipinelis, had explained that on account of the internal political conditions and the length of their land frontier, the Greek Government felt it necessary to maintain the present rather large number of army divisions, even though these were by no means fully efficient, rather than a smaller number of divisions at a higher state of efficiency. This meeting with the Greek General Staff was the council’s last official engagement. After an hour or so’s sightseeing in Athens, they left by air at mid-day, reaching Paris at 8 p.m. the same evening. The council’s tour, though some of my colleagues seemed to find it rather exhausting, proved highly interesting and instructive, and was, I think, well worth while. The permanent representatives were highly gratified by the way in which they were received by Admiral Carney and the other American officers, and by the amount of information on military matters which was made available to them. They were also, I think, greatly impressed by the spirit of close co-operation which obviously existed between the various national forces in the Southern European Command. Admiral Carney and his staff clearly took a great deal of trouble over the whole business and went out of their way to be as helpful and communicative to the permanent representatives as possible. Certainly, the officers on the various United States ships visited were most hospitable. I have, &c. F. R. HOYER MILLAR. ( 20th November, 1952. 000142 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource CDEX (NATO Exercises) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CDEX00084 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived RG25, 50115-G-40, "North Atlantic Treaty Organization - Military, naval and air exercises," Part 1, Library and Archives Canada. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Canadian Crown Subject The topic of the resource Exercises Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Canada Declassified Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Language A language of the resource en