Western Union Defence Organization

Formation

The Treaty of Brussels was signed on 17 March 1948 between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and was an expansion to the preceding year's defence pledge, the Dunkirk Treaty signed between Britain and France. The Treaty of Brussels contained a mutual defence clause as set forth in Article IV:

If any of the High Contracting Parties should be the object of an armed attack in Europe, the other High Contracting Parties will, in accordance with the provisions of Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, afford the Party so attacked all the military and other aid and assistance in their power.

Article V set forth the obligations of Brussels Pact members to cooperate with the United Nations Security Council to maintain international peace and security, and Article VI set forth the obligations of Brussels Pact members to not enter any third-party treaties that conflicted with the Treaty of Brussels. Beginning in April, the parties to the Brussels Pact decided to create a military agency under the name of the Western Union Defence Organization. The WUDO was formally established on September 27–28, 1948.

Operations

Exercise Verity was a WUDO naval training exercise involving 60 warships from the British, French, and Dutch navies held in the Bay of Biscay during July 1949. The exercise was under the overall command of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Rhoderick McGrigor, RN, the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet. The 60-ship flotilla included the British battleship Anson; the British carriers Implacable, Victorious and Theseus; and the French carrier Arromanches. Admiral McGrigor summarized the accomplishments of Exercise Verity by noting:

The object of these manoeuvres is to show that we are willing and able to work together in case of aggression. I can say straight away that it's been a very great success.

Following Exercise Verity, WUDO announced that a major ground military exercise was scheduled for Fall 1949 under overall command of Général d'Armée Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.

Disestablishment

When the division of Europe into two opposing camps became unavoidable, the threat of the USSR became much more important than concerns over German rearmament. Western European governments sought a new mutual defence pact involving the United States. The United States recognized the growing threat of the USSR and was responsive to this concept. Secret meetings began by the end of March 1949 between American, Canadian and British officials to negotiate such a trans-Atlantic mutual defence pact. Eventually, it would lead to the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) with the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, DC, in 1949. NATO began setting up its own military command structure in 1951, at which time the headquarters, personnel, and plans of the WUDO were transferred to Supreme Headquarters Allied Power Europe (SHAPE), and SHAPE took over responsibility for the defence of Western Europe.

Command structure

WUDO consisted of a Western Union (WU) Defence Committee at the Prime Ministerial level, and a WU Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, comprising the national military chiefs of staff, which would direct the operational organization. Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, British Army, was the WUDO's senior officer as Chairman of the Commanders-in-Chief Committee which was created on 5 October 1948. Other nominated members of the Commanders-in-Chief Committee included:

General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, French Army — Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces (CinCLand)

Air Chief Marshal Sir James Robb, Royal Air Force — Commander-in-Chief, Air Forces (CinCAir)

Vice-Admiral Robert Jaujard, French Navy — Flag Officer, Western Europe (FOWE)

The overall command structure was patterned after the wartime Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), which included a joint planning staff. The WU Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee included observers from the United States. This American liaison mission was initially led by Major General Lyman L. Lemnitzer, U.S. Army, and subsequently by Major General A. Franklin Kibler, USA.