List of Supreme Allied Commanders Europe
1951-53: Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
1954-55: Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
1956-58: Humberto da Silva Delgado
1959-61: Ivan Stepanovich Konev
1961-63: Maurice Challe
1963-65: Witold Pilecki
1966-: Bill Alexander
Because headcanons for these things are half the fun, here's mine:
Through some sort of extremely fast talking Stauffenberg and his gang manage to not just overthrow Hitler but succesfully negotiate a peace treaty that leaves them in power. Stalin isn't a fan but has one of his crises of confidence and eventually agrees with the Western Allies to peace a little past the Molotov Ribbentrop line in Poland. However he doesn't trust the Germans and is more focussed on fortifying what he's seized in Eastern Europe than cementing his control, making common cause with the London Poles to better militarise Poland and avenge the Nazi massacre at Katyn. In the West, joy at peace turns into immense anger as the news of what the Red Army found in Poland becomes more and more commonly known. CPGB meetings distribute copies of The Hell of Treblinka to passers by at their increasingly well attended Vengance Rallies. In France, right and left are united in their anger at having been liberated by treaty, not by combat, and that portions of the sacred motherland still have German occupiers. To stem the rising tide of popular anger, western states act more decisively against unaligned fascist states in Europe. The picture of the commander of the mysteriously well armed and financed Second International Brigade, Commander Alexander, and La Passionara shaking hands in Madrid becomes legendary in the European Left.
But even these brief wars are not enough. By 1951, it is clear that Allied Command is not going away, and in fact becomes a more multinational affair as the commanders of newly freed nations take their time staring over the German border. As war begins to fade from immediate concern, it becomes a place for ambitious, talented generals who can't be trusted or executed to spend a few years cooling off. Zhukov, Hauteclocque, and Delgado, all too heroic to be allowed near their shaky governments, instead spent their time whipping the Allied forces into truly astounding shape, for the war they knew was coming, even if their leaders back home didn't.
It came in 1959, with the Budapest Spring. After 14 years of promised reform and devolution in one of the Reich's last puppets, the people had had enough. Taking to the streets in their thousands, they demanded freedom and democracy. The local tyrants and the sclerotic Rommel junta responded the only way it could. It sent in the tanks. In front of the eyes of the world, hundreds of civilians were mown down. It was too much. Never again would fascist massacres be allowed to blot Europe with impunity. The matter of what degree of authorisation Konev had remains a matter of debate to this day, but the results are not. Less than 24 hours of the news of the massacre breaking, Allied Command had crossed the Reichs borders on all fronts. They found an army starved of raw materials, whose slave made equipment was over-engineered to the point of absurdity while its soldiers often lacked even for boots. It took weeks for Budapest to fall, months for General Pilecki to be able to plant his standard on the Oder Niesse line. Meanwhile Maurice Challe bloodily but quickly overran the vast fortress complexes Rommel had boasted would hold of the might of the west indefinitely. In October of 1961 Konev's forces took Berlin. The Third Reich had lasted long past its natural lifespan. But it was dead now.
With the death of fascism in Europe, it seemed natural that Allied Command would be dissolved. The Hero Of Budapest would be the last to hold command. However, mistrust of the Germans was endemic. They had conned the Allies once before, and what had it gotten them? The trial and execution of Albert Speer, commander of the Reich's slave economy, had revealed what. No, what was needed was a permanant military occupation of the region, while its borders were suitably trimmed. And who better to lead that occupation than the heroes of the war, and what better organisation than the one they'd use to liberate Europe.
While Allied Command is now jokingly refferred to as "Prison detail" it remains a powerful organisation. Military leaders from across the continent travel to be a part of the organisation, and it retains a great deal of independence in action. Konev's maybe-mutiny has left long institutional memories. Now, with a well known British communist seconded to Allied Command at the request of the CPGB, now comfortably a junior partner in the Popular "Revenge" Front which has governed Britain since the mid 50s, talks are ramping up even more. What will come of these mysterious conferences in the dead of night, of how the world stood by till Allied Command acted, no one yet knows. Let us hope it stays that way.