Paris Embassy files, 400 European Defense Forces: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bruce) to the Acting Secretary of State 1
2489. Restrict distribution on need-to-know basis. Subject: European Defense Forces. Re Embtel 2330, Oct 21.2 Alphand transmitted to chairman TCC last night EDF Conference Report in reply to questions asked by TCC and reported reftel. Conference’s Military Committee and its combined planning staff have been in almost continuous session since last week to complete report.
Following is a brief summary:
1. Basic Units
Agreement was reached on basic units for both ground and air forces, along general lines described paragraph 3–a reftel:
Infantry groupement—peacetime strength about 13,000 men, wartime strength about 15,600;
Armored groupement—peacetime strength about 12,700 men, wartime strength about 14.600;
For air forces, “demi-brigade” (roughly equivalent to an American wing) with 75 combat aircraft in most cases and 48 in a few special cases.
Steering Committee’s agreement to these units subject to reservation that “definitive form” of units may later be modified within the framework of general manpower and materiel requirements stated, and in particular (on insistence of the German delegation) that “mechanized” division could later be reestablished by the Commissioner.
2, Divisional Slice
Agreement reached in Military Committee and approved by Steering Committee on corps and army troops required to support a hypothetical field army of three corps and 12 groupements of Which eight infantry and four armored. (This is equivalent to D-day and D plus 7 strength of German contribution.) On this basis, groupement slice was worked out at 31,200 men; this includes only groupement, corps and army troops and excludes troops in communication zone, which according to SHAPE estimates would raise size average slice by about 5,000 men. Essential elements of wing slice for air forces have been [Page 904] worked out by Air Working Group of combined planning staff and will be transmitted to TCC Monday.
3. Volume of German Contribution
Agreement reached for planning purposes on total German contribution to ground forces of 18 groupement slices, of which eight to be ready for use on D–day, four on D plus seven, and six on D plus 30.
No agreement could be reached on air contribution. French delegation presented figures based on Paris Plan and approved by SHAPE, involving contribution of 1,158 planes; these figures acceptable to all dels except Germans. Latter insisted that to support ground forces of German origin already agreed to, a total of 1,746 planes would be required. As no agreement could be reached within deadline set, Conference Steering Committee decided to forward both sets of figures to TCC and let latter choose. This agreement was subject to German reservation that if lower figure should be chosen, a redistribution of each type of plane among various members of EDF should be negotiated.
4. Phasing of Build-up of German Forces
Agreement was reached for planning purposes on a general time-phased program for build-up of European forces in Germany, assuming coming into force of Treaty April 1, 1952.
The French on Monday presented their ideas on phasing along general lines reported Embtel 2328, Oct 21; after studying this plan, Germans presented in Military Committee their own proposal, under which recruiting would start somewhat later than French had envisaged but ready dates of units would be approximately same. Germans claimed this proposal was based upon estimate of when it would be politically possible to obtain approval of recruiting law in Germany and physically possible to establish necessary machinery in view of destruction of records, etc. Plan finally adopted was based on German proposal.
This plan may be summarized as follows: 18 German groupements would be formed in three waves of six groupements each. Approximately six months following entry into force of Treaty would be necessary for selection of cadres, issuing of necessary legislation and regulations for recruiting, establishing recruiting organization, taking census of population of military age, etc. At end of first six months, cadres previously selected, consisting of approximately 60,000 former officers and non-coms, would be inducted, given three months’ retraining, and organized into skeleton units to receive first recruits. These would be inducted during ninth month. Subsequent waves would be formed around cadres obtained from trained soldiers of first wave.
On this basis, first six groupement slices would be ready for use November 1, 1953; second six groupement slices would be ready for use [Page 905] March 1, 1954; third six groupements would be at full strength on July 1, 1954, would already have received five months’ training and could be used on this date if necessary.
5. Equipment needs for groupements and groupement slices will be worked out for TCC by SHAPE.
- This telegram was repeated for information to London and Frankfurt.↩
- Not printed. It reported that at the meeting of the Steering Committee of the European Defense Community Conference on October 19, Chairman Alphand announced that the Executive Bureau of the Temporary Council Committee of NATO had asked the Conference to supply information on the size and composition of the West German contribution to the projected European Defense Forces. The Steering Committee accepted the task and instructed the Military Committee to present the necessary data by the end of the month. (740.5/10–2151)↩