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    MEMORANDUM CONCERNING ANGLO-AMERICAN RELATIONS IN ITALY  
      (Particularly in the Allied Control Commission)       
 
                                                            
 
 
 That it behooves the U.S. and Britain to cooperate to the limit in   
the present emergency is almost axiomatic. If there is any break in such   
relations, both countries must suffer; but Britain would suffer more   
greatly than the U.S. The leaders of both countries have urged that   
nothing be allowed to interfere with the union of purpose. Americans, at   
least, have been ordered to "get along" with the British. To an American   
this means that both sides must yield something in order to gain   
something. To the British, however, this injunction seems to mean that   
Americans must be willing to do all things in the British way and as the   
British wish. There is, in Italy, a feeling that Americans have been "sold   
down the river" by some of their superiors who, they think, are too prone   
to take the British side in disagreements and never uphold their American   
                       subordinates.                        
 
                                                            
 
 
 The Allied Control Commission is the entity in which British and   
American officers of all grades and enlisted men as well, are thrown   
together more intimately than any other initaly. The Commission was   
created as a thoroughly joint undertaking, equally British and American.   
Had this supposed parity been maintained, much of the hard feeling and  
ciency that have crept into the Commission might have been a
 
                                                            
 
 
The ACC was created in order to carry out the Armistice terms.  
It was headed by Maj. General Joyce (U.S.). The Allied Military Govern-  
ment, on the other hand, had already been in existence for many months and   
had already planned and carried out its work in the conquest of Sicily.   
Allied Military Goverrnment was then headed by Maj. General the Lord   
Rennell of Rodd (British). There was no connection between the two   
organizations and the British officers, without exception, and   
particularly the seniors, said freely that it would be a most unfortunate   
thing were an attempt made to unite the two diverse bodies. However that   
is exactly what took place when Lieut. General Sir Mason Macfarlane became   
the head of the ACC (Replacing Gen. Joyce). He also managed to replace   
Lord Rennell and soon thereafter got the new Supreme Comanander, General   
Sir Henry Maitland Wilson (who replaced Gen. Eisenhower} to bring about a   
marriage of convenience between ACC and AMG. It was no love match, and   
            like such weddings, it was unhappy.             
 
                                                            
 
 
While even in AMG as originally constitued, there was a   
preponderance of British senior rank, it was as nothing as compared with   
the weight of British seniority that was set up in the new ACC/AMG (as   
Macfarlane called it). The Allied Control Commission now created 22  
subcommissions, of which 18 were headed by British and 4 by American   
officers. Moreover it was obvious that the ones headed by the Americans   
were those of less importance. At the same time a number of high-sounding   
but empty titles were invented for some of the Americans so that, on the   
surface, the disparity between the two nations was less evident. However   
even this could not conceal the astonishing fact that the British side   
included a Lieutenant General, three Major Generals, and eleven Brigadiers.   
The American side had but one Brigadier and even he was not at   
headquarters. At headquarters the senior American was a Colonel. The rank   
"major general" as here used includes equivalent rank in the Royal Navy   
                    and Royal Air Force.                    
 
                                                            
 
 
It was said that the Americans were to be allowed to furnish the money,   
supplies and transportation; while the British would furnish the   
administrative ability- at least American officers used to say this.   
Another commonly heard statement was that the line of division between   
American and British officers, in the ACC, was made to run vertically by   
the Americans, but horizontally by the British. This last is by way of   
saying that the British line of cleavage ran in such way as to leave the   
upper stratum to the British and the lower to the Americans.