Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe was withdrawing from the NATO military structure. SHAPE and all the other NATO installations, including NATO Headquarters and Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT), were informed that they must leave French territory by April 1967. Belgium became the host nation for both NATO's political headquarters and SHAPE. General Lyman Lemnitzer, SACEUR at the time, had hoped that SHAPE could be located near to NATO Headquarters, as had been the case in Paris, but the Belgian authorities decided that SHAPE should be located at least 50 kilometres from Brussels, NATO's new location, because SHAPE was a major wartime military target. The Belgian
Allied Forces Northern Europe in the case of war, was directly subordinated to CINCNORTH and was always a general from the U.S. Air Force. The leadership of AFNORTH additionally included a "Land Deputy", a "Sea Deputy", and an "Air Deputy", who were for a period Danish or Norwegian Major Generals or Rear Admirals. Headquarters Allied Air Forces Northern Europe was created by SHAPE on 29 March 1951. Major General R.K. Taylor, U.S. Air Force, was assigned as its commander on 2 April 1951. The Headquarters was established in London on 1 June 1951 and later transferred to Oslo, Norway on 22 June 1951. By