Editing Supreme Allied Commander (section)

==Historical titles==
===World War I===
On 26 March 1918, the French marshal [[Ferdinand Foch]] was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, gaining command of all Allied forces everywhere, and coordinated the British, French, American, and Italian armies to stop the [[German spring offensive]], the last large offensive of the German Empire.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Reader's Guide to Military History|last=Messenger|first=Charles|year=2001|pages=170–71}}</ref> He was the one who accepted the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|German cessation of hostilities]] in his private train.

On 16 April 1918, at his own request, Foch was appointed "Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies". Despite his promotion 19 days earlier, and the subsequent [[Beauvais Conference]] of 3 April 1918, he was not provided a title. He remedied this by making up his own title and by writing to Prime Minister [[Georges Clemenceau]] to request it, which was immediately granted.

===World War II===
{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}}
During [[World War II]], the [[Allies of World War II|Allied leaders]] appointed Supreme Allied Commanders to manage the multi-nation, multi-discipline fighting forces for a particular [[Theater (warfare)|theater of war]].  These Supreme Allied Commanders were given operational control over all air, land, and sea units in that theatre. In other cases, senior commanders were given the title [[Commander-in-Chief]].

These Supreme Allied Commanders were drawn from the [[Five-star rank|most senior leaders]] in the [[British Armed Forces]] and [[United States Armed Forces]]. These commanders reported to the British/American [[Combined Chiefs of Staff]], although in the case of the Pacific and South East Asia, the relevant national command authorities of the American [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] or the British [[Chiefs of Staff Committee]] had responsibility for the main conduct of the war in the theatre, depending on the Supreme Commander's nationality.

[[General of the Army (United States)|General of the United States' Army]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] served in successive Supreme Allied Commander roles.  Eisenhower was the [[Allied Force Headquarters|Commander-in-Chief, Allied Force]] for the [[Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II|Mediterranean theatre]].  Eisenhower then served as Supreme Commander [[Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force|Allied Expeditionary Force]] (SCAEF) in the [[European Theatre of World War II|European theatre]], starting in December 1943 with the creation of the command to execute [[Operation Overlord]] and ending in July 1945 shortly after the [[End of World War II in Europe]].   In 1951, Eisenhower would again be a Supreme Allied Commander, the first to hold the post for [[NATO]] (see next section).

[[Field marshal (United Kingdom)|Field Marshal]] [[Henry Maitland Wilson]] succeeded Eisenhower in the Mediterranean theatre, given the title Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean. Wilson was succeeded by Field Marshal [[Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis|Harold Alexander]], who continued in charge of those Allied forces until the end of the war.

[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Lord Louis Mountbatten]] was [[South East Asia Command|Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia]] (SACSEA) throughout most of its existence. He replaced General [[Archibald Wavell]].

[[Generalissimo]] [[Chiang Kai-shek]] was named the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in China Theater on 1942.<ref>{{Cite web|date=15 July 2024|title=The War of Resistance: 1937–1945|url=https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=4&post=4691|access-date=|website=Taiwan Today|publisher=Free China Journal}}</ref> However, [[US forces]] in China were usually overseen by General [[Joseph Stilwell]], the commander of [[China Burma India Theater]] (CBI) and Deputy Allied Commander of [[South East Asia Command]] (SEAC). It was not until late 1944 that the land forces chain of command was clarified, after Stilwell was recalled to Washington.{{Clarify|date=December 2022}} His overall role, and the CBI command were then split among three people: Lt Gen. [[Raymond Albert Wheeler|Raymond Wheeler]] became Deputy Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia; Maj. Gen. [[Albert Coady Wedemeyer|Albert Wedemeyer]] became Chief of Staff to Chiang, and commander of US Forces, China Theater (USFCT). Lt Gen. [[Daniel Isom Sultan|Daniel Sultan]] was promoted, from deputy commander of CBI to commander of US Forces, India-Burma Theater (USFIBT) and commander of the NCAC.

General of the Army [[Douglas MacArthur]] was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, [[South West Pacific Area (command)|South West Pacific Area]] (SWPA) on 18 April 1942.<ref>{{cite book| last = Milner| first = Samuel| year = 1957| title= Victory in Papua| publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]]| location = Washington, D.C.| url = http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/005/5-4/CMH_Pub_5-4.pdf| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120927081829/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/005/5-4/CMH_Pub_5-4.pdf| url-status = dead| archive-date = September 27, 2012| access-date = 9 July 2012|lccn=56-60004| oclc = 220484034|page=22}}</ref> However, he preferred to use the title Commander-in-Chief. During the [[Allied occupation of Japan]] following the war, MacArthur held the title of [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers]] (SCAP). The [[Pacific Ocean Areas]] (POA), divided into the Central Pacific Area, the North Pacific Area and the South Pacific Area,<ref name="p&n">Potter & Nimitz (1960).</ref>{{rp|652–653}} were commanded by Admiral [[Chester W. Nimitz]], Commander-in-Chief Pacific Ocean Areas.

Although not bearing any official title of Supreme Allied Commander, [[Joseph Stalin]], as [[Supreme Commander-in-Chief]] of the [[Soviet Armed Forces]], as well as the commanders of the [[1st Belorussian Front|1st Belorussian]], [[1st Ukrainian Front|1st]], [[2nd Ukrainian Front|2nd]], [[3rd Ukrainian Front|3rd]] and [[4th Ukrainian Front]]s of the Soviet [[Red Army]] - [[Georgy Zhukov|Zhukov]], [[Konstantin Rokossovsky|Rokossovsky]], [[Ivan Konev|Konev]], [[Rodion Malinovsky|Malinovsky]], [[Fyodor Tolbukhin|Tolbukhin]], [[Vasily Sokolovsky|Sokolovsky]], [[Andrei Yeremenko|Yeremenko]], [[Ivan Yefimovich Petrov|Petrov]], [[Nikolai Vatutin|Vatutin]], etc. - acted in de facto capacity of Supreme Allied Commanders in that units of foreign Allied armies were incorporated into the fronts' order of battle and fought against the European [[Axis powers]] under their command during the [[Great Patriotic War]]: the [[Polish Armed Forces in the East]], [[1st Czechoslovak Army Corps in the Soviet Union|1st Czechoslovak Army Corps]], French [[Normandie-Niemen]] Fighter Regiment and Romanian [[Tudor Vladimirescu Division]] from 1943, then from 1944 until the end of the war also the [[Romanian Army]], [[Bulgarian Army]] and [[Yugoslav National Liberation Army]].

After the end of the Soviet Union's European theater of World War II, during the [[Soviet-Japanese War]], the commanders of the Red Army's [[Far Eastern Front|1st]] and [[2nd Far Eastern Front|2nd Far Eastern fronts]] and [[Transbaikal Front]] - [[Aleksandr Vasilevsky|Vasilevsky]] (in overall command of all three fronts), Malinovsky, [[Kirill Meretskov|Meretskov]] and [[Maksim Purkayev|Purkayev]] - once again acted in de facto capacity of Supreme Allied Commanders as the [[Mongolian People's Army]] and partisans of the Chinese [[Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army]] and [[Korean People's Army|Korean People's Revolutionary Army]] were incorporated into their order of battle for the liberation of [[Mengjiang|Northern China]], [[Manchukuo|Northeastern China]] and northern [[Korea under Japanese rule|Korea]] from Japanese imperialist occupation.