War Plan Red
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War Plan Red, also known as the Atlantic Strategic War Plan, was a plan for the United States to make war with Great Britain (the "Red" forces). It was developed by the United States Army during the mid 1920s, approved in May 1930 by the Secretary of War and the Secretary of Navy, updated in 1934-35, and officially withdrawn in 1939, following the outbreak of the Second World War, when it and others like it were replaced by the five "Rainbow" plans created to deal with the Axis threat. However, it was not declassified until 1974.
The war was intended to be a continental war, waged primarily on North American territory between the United States and the British Empire. The assumption was that Canada would represent the ideal geographic forum through which the United States could wage war against the British.
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[edit] Overview
War Plan Red was created because Americans knew Britain was locked in a strategic alliance with Japan, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902. American planners thought that Britain’s imperial reach would bring it into conflict with the U.S. In 1935 War Plan Red was updated and specified which roads to use in the invasion. "The best practicable route to Vancouver is via Route 99" (Carlson, 2005). Further, in 1935 Americans planned to build three military airfields near the Canadian border and disguise them as civilian airports. "In February 1935, the War Department arranged a Congressional appropriation of $57 million to build three border air bases for the purposes of pre-emptive surprise attacks on Canadian air fields" (Berlin Glasnost, 1992-2007). The airfields were to be kept secret but their existence was accidentally published by the Government Printing Office and reported on the front page of the New York Times on May 1, 1935.
In War Plan Red, the assumption was made that Britain would use Canada as a staging point; therefore, the U.S. planned to invade Canada in several areas. First, a joint army-navy force was to capture the port city of Halifax, thereby cutting the Canadians off from their British allies. The next objective was to "[s]eize Canadian Power Plants near Niagara Falls" (Carlson, 2005). Then, the plan was to invade along three fronts: from Vermont to take Montreal and Quebec, from North Dakota to grab the railroad center at Winnipeg, and from the Midwest to capture the strategic nickel mines of Ontario. Meanwhile, the Navy would seize the Great Lakes and blockade Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific ports.
War Plan Red was only one of a number of U.S. color-coded war plans developed at this time.
War Plan Red was declassified in 1974, and caused a stir in American-Canadian relations; Canada, named "Crimson" in the plans, was to have been the principal target of American forces. Additionally, the UK was "Red," India "Ruby," Australia "Scarlet," New Zealand "Garnet", and Ireland "Emerald."
[edit] Outline
The war plan did not go into detail regarding offensive or defensive naval campaigns against the British Empire, at that time still the world's dominant naval power.[citation needed] It primarily set out a description of Canada's geography, military resources, and transportation, and then proceeded to discuss a series of possible campaigns aimed at occupying key ports and railroad lines before British troops could reinforce Canada. This would prevent Britain from using Canadian resources, ports, or airbases against the United States.
The main zones of operation discussed in the plan are:
- Nova Scotia and New Brunswick:
- Occupying Halifax, following a poison gas first strike, would deny the British a major naval base and cut links between Britain and Canada.
- The plan considers several land and sea options for the attack and concludes that a landing at St. Margarets Bay, a then undeveloped bay near Halifax, would be superior to a direct assault via the longer overland route.
- Failing to take Halifax, the U.S. could occupy New Brunswick by land to cut Nova Scotia off from the rest of Canada at the key railway junction at Moncton.
- Quebec and the valley of the Saint Lawrence River:
- Occupying Montreal and Quebec City would cut the remainder of Canada off from the Eastern seaboard, preventing the movement of soldiers and resources in both directions.
- The routes from northern New York to Montreal and from Vermont to Quebec are both found satisfactory for an offensive, with Quebec being the more critical target.
- Ontario and the Great Lakes area:
- Occupying this region gains control of Toronto and most of Canada's industry, while also preventing Britain and Canada from using it for air or land attacks against the U.S. industrial heartland in the Midwest.
- The plan proposes simultaneous offensives from Buffalo across the Niagara River, from Detroit into Ontario, and from Sault Ste. Marie into Sudbury. Controlling the Great Lakes for U.S. transport is considered logistically necessary for a continued invasion.
- Winnipeg
- Winnipeg is a central nexus of the Canadian rail system for connecting the country.
- The plan sees no major obstacles to an offensive from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Winnipeg.
- Vancouver and Victoria:
- Although Vancouver's distance from Europe reduces its importance, occupying it would deny Britain a naval base and cut Canada off from the Pacific Ocean.
- Vancouver could be easily attacked overland from Bellingham, Washington, and Vancouver Island could be attacked by sea from Port Angeles, Washington.
- The British Columbia port Prince Rupert has a rail connection to the rest of Canada, but a naval blockade is viewed as easy if Vancouver were taken.
[edit] Canadian counterpart
Canadian military officer Lieutenant Colonel James "Buster" Sutherland Brown developed an earlier counterpart to War Plan Red called Defence Scheme No. 1 on April 12, 1921. Maintaining that the best defence was a good offence, "Buster" Brown planned for rapid deployment of flying columns to occupy Seattle, Great Falls, Minneapolis, and Albany. With no hope of holding these objectives, the idea was to divert American troops to the flanks and away from Canada, hopefully long enough for Imperial allies to arrive with reinforcements.
[edit] See also
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- Aroostook War (1838-1839)
- Canadian Bacon film
- Pig War (1859)
- Trent Affair (1861)
- War of 1812
[edit] Further reading
- Rudmin, Floyd W. (May 1993). Bordering on Aggression: Evidence of U.S. Military Preparations Against Canada. Voyageur Publishing. ISBN 0921842090
[edit] External links
- Rudmin, F. A 1935 US Plan for Invasion of Canada February 1995
- Carlson, P. Raiding the Icebox The Washington Post. December 2005
