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The Combined Chiefs of Staff was the supreme military command for the western Allies during World War II. It was a body constituted from the British Chiefs of Staff Committee and the American Joint Chiefs of Staff. Formed in February 1942, it usually held its meetings in Washington. Since the British military chiefs could not be expected to be continually present thousands of miles away from their own capital, the British Joint Staff Mission was a body permanently assigned to Washington to represent British interests. The full Combined Chiefs of Staff usually met only during the great wartime conferences on grand strategy, such as at Casablanca.
The Combined Chiefs of Staff was responsible to neither the British nor the American governments singly. It was responsible to both governments collectively. The degree of integration between the British and American militaries that the Combined Chiefs of Staff achieved has never been equalled or surpassed in military history when considering an alliance between two sovereign nations.
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