 Allied Command Channel was established in 1952 to defend the sea areas and allied shipping around the English Channel.In case of war with the Warsaw Pact, United States 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.