FEDERAL SUPPLY MANAGEMENT (Overseas Survey) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1951 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES The subcommittee met Friday, November 23, 1951, at the European Command Headquarters, Heidelberg, Germany, Hon. Herbert C. Bonner, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding. Members of the Congress present: Herbert C. Bonner, chairman, Harold D. Donohue, W. J. Bryan Dorn, Bill Lantaff, Sidney Fine, Cecil M. Harden, Charles B. Brownson, and Thomas B. Curtis. Staff members present: Christine Ray Davis, chief clerk; Thomas A. Kennedy, general counsel; Herbert Roback, staff member; Annabell Zue, minority clerk; Ray Ward, Bureau of the Budget; Robert L. Cartwright and Lee Seymour, from the General Accounting Office; Nathan Brodsky, consultant, Munitions Board; John Elliott, State Department escort officer; and Brig. Gen. Clarence C. Fenn, Department of the Army escort. European Command representatives present: Gen. Thomas T. Handy, commander in chief, European Command; Maj. Gen. Daniel Noce, chief of staff, EUCOM; Maj. J. D. Kidder, Operations, Plans, Organization and Training Division, EUCOM; Col. Martin J. Morin, Intelligence Division, EUCOM; Col. T. G. Bilbo, Jr., Chief of the Management Branch, Office of the Comptroller; Brig. Gen. John B. Murphy, Director of Personnel and Administration, EUCOM; Maj. Gen. Aaron Bradshaw, Director of Logistics, Headquarters, EUCOM; Col. F. P. Campbell, Deputy Director for Plans, Logistics Division, Headquarters, EUCOM; Lt. Col. W. D. Duncan, planning officer, Logistics Division, EUCOM; Col. Lucien F. Wells, chief, Supply Branch, Logistics Division, EUCOM; Col. George Harvey, Chief of Procurement, Logistics Division, EUCOM; Lt. Col. Wilber H. Burgess, General Purchasing Branch, Logistics Division, EUCOM; Col. J. R. Dyer, USAFE Headquarters; Col. Charles Hutchison, Comptroller's Office, Headquarters, EUCOM; Lt. Col. Irene Galloway, WAC staff adviser; Maj. R. J. Karsen, Logistics Division; Brig. Gen. Ray M. Hare, Chief of Ordnance, EUCOM; Maj. Myril E. Naylor, Logistics Division; Lt. Col. Arnold A. Berglund, Logistics Division, EUCOM; Col. Elmer J. Jantz, Ordnance Division; Albert L. Triplett, NOTE.-Asterisks denote classified material deleted for security reasons. Ordnance Automotive Center; Brig. Gen. Frank A. Henning, Deputy Director of Logistics, EUCOM; and Col. Oliver van den Berg, Corps of Engineers, EUCOM. Mr. BONNER. The subcommittee will come to order. First we will hear from General Handy. STATEMENT OF GEN. THOMAS T. HANDY, COMMANDER IN CHIEF, EUROPEAN COMMAND General HANDY. In the first place, I would like to welcome you gentlemen to the European command. We are very glad to have you here, and as I have already said to the chairman, I am here for anything you want. We have, of course, been informed as to the matters in which you are particularly interested. This morning the briefing will consist of more or less general matters, in which General Noce will lead it off, covering the question of the mission of the command and its organization. There will be some remarks on organization and training, on intelligence matters, and I think the general picture of the budgetary and financial question and also personnel will be covered this morning. This afternoon after lunch we have arranged a briefing which covers, I think, the subjects in which you gentlemen are more particularly interested, or have indicated an interest-logistic situation, the line of communication, interservice coordination, supply management, and also something, I believe, on our procurement activities. The chairman has requested that this afternoon the room be rearranged so that the committee will be on the other side of the table and the group who will answer the questions and make the presentation will be on this side of the table. In other words, he would like to face the people who will answer the questions, and make the statements. I want to repeat that we are very glad to have you here, Mr. Chairman, and all the members of your subcommittee. If it's all right with you, we will go right ahead with this thing. STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. DANIEL NOCE, CHIEF OF STAFF, EUROPEAN COMMAND Major General NOCE. I am Maj. Gen. Daniel Noce, Chief of Staff of the European Command. This morning, as General Handy said, we will have a general briefing which will give more or less the operational set-up in the command, and personnel set-up-it will be very broad coverage. Before the members of the staff present their subject here I would like to give a few general remarks in regard to the theater and in regard particularly to the Commanding General's responsibilities here. GENERAL HANDY'S DUTIES IN EUROPE In general, you may say General Handy's duties are divided into three parts. First, those having to do with troops-command of troops in an occupied area; second, those having to do with North Atlantic Treaty Organization; and third, those having to do with the Mutual Security Program. The first duties of the Commanding General in the field, commanding troops in occupied areas, he supports United States policy in Europe and occupied this zone with the troops placed at his disposal. This is a unified command-Army, Navy, and Air Force in the armed US Zone of Germany are under his command. Provides logistical support to the High Commissioner and to members of the other departments of Government who are stationed here, like ECA, and so forth. Upon the request of the High Commissioner he will take such action as is necessary to maintain law and order. That has to do with domestic law and order. In an emergency when the safety of our troops is threatened, he will take such steps as are essential to safeguard their safety. He plans for a general emergency and keeps those plans up to date. He is also the adviser to the High Commissioner on matters that have a military connection. CHANGES IN EUROPEAN MILITARY SCENE We are in a period of change now, changes because of many reasons, which I will outline very broadly. First, SHAPE has come into the picture. General Eisenhower commands. The President assigned operational control of all American forces in Europe to General Eisenhower's command. General Eisenhower, in turn, has passed the operational command of these troops to the Allied Air Force Commander, the Allied Ground Commander, and the Allied Naval Commander. Therefore, the ground looks to General Juin, Commander of the Central Land Forces, the Air looks to General Norstad, the Navy looks to Admiral Jaujard, all three of those men being the Allied Commanders. That system of command is not complete yet; it is still being worked out. General Eisenhower has started to plan for the operations here. He has gotten quite a ways into that. Prior to his advent, we formed the plans here and we coordinated them with the French and British occupation forces. And, of course, we operated under the JCS completely on it. The matter of troop strength. We are in a period of expanding our troop strength. As you know after the great debate in Congress, the size of the forces here was to be augmented by four additional divisions. The fourth division has now started to arrive. We have also been involved in the redisposition of troops. That has been given on, starting over three years ago. Initially the people placed here in Germany after the war were to serve occupational purposes. Then when the airlift started we began to form them for purposes of defending themselves and shifting them so we could better defend this zone. With the increase in troops, further shifts have taken place, so that we could be in better position to meet attack. * * * NEED FOR NEW REAR LINE OF COMMUNICATIONS If you look at the map you will see a red border. That's the iron curtain. You see at the top of it Bremerhaven. BPE means Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation. The American zone is shown almost due south of Bremerhaven. Our line of communications ran initially from Bremerhaven into our zone. We closed all installations we had in France out as fast as we could after the end of the war. With the change of the situation in Europe, it became essential that we have a line of communication that would extend towards the rear, rather 94756-52-78 * * than parallel to the front. You can see the line from Bremerhaven down to our zone runs parallel to the red border. That will be explained to you fully this afternoon, but that has been another very important matter that we have had to undertake. In doing all these things, in carrying out our training and conducting our maneuvers and everything we do here, ought to be done with one very important thing in mind. An attack may start from the red border any time. We know that we are not going to attack but we don't know that someone else isn't going to attack us. It's 80 miles from the bulge in that border down to the Rhine River, between 80 and 90 miles. The two large Russian training areas are right next to the border, at that shortest distance. That is why it is necessary that we have in mind at any time the enemy may decide to launch an offensive. Now, the present strength is one thing; the future strength may be another thing. At present, compared with the Russian size, we are small. As NATO increases in strength there may be a different outlook of our capabilities and what we can do, where we can stand, where we can hold, whether we can take the offensive or not. There is a period of change in that. I do invite your attention to the Rhine River, which is the blue line runing from the Netherlands right down to Switzerland. That's an important barrier and has been an important barrier from Caesar's time and before, up to date. It is a very important line to us today. With that general outline of our duties here, I would like to turn the rostrum over to the next speaker who will give you a talk on operations and plans. Major Kidder. At any time you are free to ask questions, of course, and we will do our best to answer them. * ** * General HANDY. One thing, Mr. Chairman, I want to add, I don't believe General Noce covered it, with reference to changes. We are of course in the process of a major change in our relations, as far as the German Federal Republic is concerned. In other words, the negotiations, as you gentlemen all know, are underway which are intended to result in the establishment of so-called contractual arrangements, as contrasted to the occupational status which we have at present. STATEMENT OF MAJ. JAMES D. KIDDER, OPERATIONS, PLANS, ORGANIZATION, AND TRAINING DIVISION, EUROPEAN COM MAND * Major KIDDER. I am Maj. James D. Kidder, from the Operations, Plans, Organization and Training Division, European Command. I will cover the organization and training activities of the European Command. The European Command is a joint command. Also directly subordinate to the European Command are the military posts. On this chart is shown the United States zone of responsibility in Germany, divided into the several military posts. The Wiesbaden Post is operated by the Air Force. These posts are charged with the responsibility for administrative and logistical support of the tactical units located within their geographical boundaries. In this way we have divorced the housekeeping role from the combat units, enabling them to devote their major attention to training and operations. * * * EUCOM TRAINING FUNCTIONS This command has the function of training in order to insure its readiness for combat. The general nature of these training programs is progressive, culminating in the joint and combined maneuvers in the fall. For example, this year in September European Command units participated in the British maneuvers and in the French maneuvers. In turn, in October British and French units participated in the European Command "Exercise Combine." Subsequent to these annual maneuvers, individual and unit training, including field exercises, night problems, and command-post exercises are repeated in all units in order to insure a high state of training and combat readiness. Our former deficiency in training areas has been greatly alleviated by continuing land acquisition and construction programs. This program provides more training areas and extensive range facilities at or near the unit home station. Recently acquired was a new division-size training area located at Hohenfels. This Hohenfels area, plus the Grafenwohr area, which we have had for some time, now gives us two division-size training areas. Other major training areas of smaller capacity include the Wildflecken area and the Baumholder area, located in the Rhine Post. This area we share jointly with the French. We have had a requirement for training specialists of technical and administrative services. For this purpose over here and in order to keep abreast of this requirement, we have established several schools. Now, to go on with a few special training activities which we have, all units primarily engaged in occupational duties are required to conduct training aimed at preparing them for carrying out an emergency combat mission. For instance, our military-post personnel are all trained to carry out additional duties in the event of hostilities. This training is referred to as secondary-mission training. An educational training program is conducted both during duty hours and off-duty hours and is designed to raise the educational level of all Negro soldiers to a minimum of 8 years' schooling. We carry on an active part in the military-aid program to NATO countries. The primary objective of this program in EUCOM is to train a nucleus of foreign instructortype military personnel, both officer and enlisted, in the operation, the care, the maintenance of supplies of military equipment furnished these respective NATO countries under MDAP. This training is coordinated with the SHAPE headquarters. General Eisenhower's headquarters. The Armed Forces assistance program and German youth activities is an element of occupation-type activity which EUCOM operates. The principal business of the German Youth Activities is the operation of 107 youth centers and 20 summer camps for German youth. The objective of the program is keeping the German youth interested and occupied in healthful and educational projects and to reorient them along democratic lines. Approximately one-half million German youths have been assisted monthly by this program over the past 5 years. The High Commissioner's budget furnishes the major part of this program. However, a number of influential organizations and individuals in the United States have contributed liberally to the support of this program. That, sir, con * * * |