Allied Command Channel

Allied Command Channel (ACCHAN) was one of three major North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commands. ACCHAN was activated in 1952 and disbanded in 1994.

Allied Command Channel was established in 1952 to defend the sea areas, including allied shipping, around the English Channel. In case of war with the Warsaw Pact American reinforcements, crucial to defeat a Soviet advance towards the Rhine, would have passed through the English Channel and disembarked mainly in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. Therefore ACCHAN's area of operations included most of the Southern part of the North Sea and all of the Channel up to the Celtic Sea.

At the end of the Cold War ACCHAN had the following structure:

The Commander-in-Chief, Allied Command Channel (CINCHAN) was a British admiral, who reported directly to the NATO Military Committee's Standing Group and was identified as a "Major NATO Commander" (like SACEUR and Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT). CINCHAN double hatted as follows:

Allied Command Channel was based initially at Portsmouth, but in 1966 the command moved to Northwood, where the Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic (CINCEASTLANT) was based. On 1 July 1994, the Channel Command was disestablished: however most of its subordinate commands remained in existence although reshuffled: most of the headquarters were absorbed within Allied Command Europe particularly as part of the new Allied Forces Northwestern Europe.A Channel Committee consisting of the naval Chiefs-of-Staff of Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom served as an advisory and consultative body to the Commander-in-Chief, Channel.

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