The Supreme War Council was a central command based in Versailles that coordinated the military strategy of the principal Allies of World War I: Britain, France, Italy, the US and Japan. It was founded in 1917 after the Russian revolution and with Russia's withdrawal as an ally imminent. The council served as a second source of advice for civilian leadership, a forum for preliminary discussions of potential armistice terms, later for peace treaty settlement conditions, and it was succeeded by the Conference of Ambassadors in 1920. Formation British Prime Minister David Lloyd George had grave concerns regarding the strategy of Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Sir Douglas Haig, the Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, in response to the Allied losses at the Somme and Flanders. Also, following the Italian defeat at the Battle of Caporetto, in which the Germans and Austro-Hungarians surprised the Italian forces, Lloyd George proposed the formation of a Supreme War Council at the Rapallo Conference of 5–7 November 1917. Japan and Russia were not to be included, and the Italians and French, worried that Salonika (and with it the only chance of liberating Serbia) might be evacuated, wanted issues confined to the Western Front. Permanent Military Representatives Each Allied nation would be represented by their head of government, and an appointed senior military officer known as the Permanent Military Representative (PMR). The French PMR was Ferdinand Foch, later replaced by Maxime Weygand and Joseph Joffre. The British were represented by Sir Henry Hughes Wilson. Italy was represented by Luigi Cadorna. The United States, which was "an Associated Power" of the Allies, was not involved with the political structure, but sent a Permanent Military Representative, General Tasker H. Bliss. General Wilson and his staff conducted numerous research projects into offensives against Turkey, culminating in "Joint Note# 12". Meetings Although the military council sat about once a week (90 meetings took place between November 1917 and November 1919), formal Interallied Conferences with Prime Ministers in attendance took place ten times during the lifespan of the Supreme War Council (SWC). Those meetings are listed below. Wartime meetings 5-7 November 1917 At the Rapallo Conference, the formation of the Supreme War Council was approved by the Allied war leaders in the town of Rapallo, Italy (close to the French border). The idea was thought up by the British, accepted by the French,