Combined Chiefs of Staff

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The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) was the supreme military command for the western Allies during World War II. It was a body constituted from the British Chiefs of Staff Committee and the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Formed in February 1942, the CCS usually held its meetings in Washington. Since the British military chiefs could not be expected to be continually present thousands of miles away from their own capital, the British Joint Staff Mission was a body permanently situated in Washington D.C. to represent British interests. The Joint Staff Mission was a tri-service organisation and included Field Marshal Sir John Dill (who was replaced on his death by Field Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson) and Admiral Sir James Somerville amongst its members during the war.

The full CCS usually met only during the great wartime conferences on grand strategy, such as at Casablanca.

The key members of the CCS were General George C. Marshall, the United States Army chief of staff, and Gen. Sir Alan Brooke (later Viscount Alanbrooke), Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

Although it was responsible to both the British and US governments, the CCS controlled forces from many different countries in all theatres, including the Pacific, India and North Africa. It can safely be said that the degree of integration between the militaries of various nations, achieved by the CCS, has never been equalled or surpassed in the history of warfare.