"Secrets Revealed" Takes a Look at War Plan Red

It seems War Plan Red is getting more ink. Britain’s BBC Channel 5 recently broadcast an hour-long documentary on the subject as part of its Secrets Revealed series, “America’s Planned War on Britain.”  It’s an intriguing look at what might have happened involving experts from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. and they attempt to wargame a most likely scenario. 

Although their conclusions are somewhat different from my own War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, it is definitely well-researched and presented which makes it well worth a watch. 

Setting the Stage for War Plan Crimson

I thought I would share with you some of the history elements that  underpin War Plan Crimson A Novel of Alternate History.

The first fact that War Plan Crimson rests upon was the so-called "Business Plot" of 1933. A largely forgotten piece of American history, it has only been left neglected because the idea seems so outlandish. Yet the facts are basically as I have presented them.

In the summer of 1933, Gerald MacGuire, a Wall Street bond trader, approached General Smedley Darlington Butler. Eventually, after some preliminary discussions, MacGuire told Butler the real reason for their talks: for Butler to lead a veterans' army of 500,000 men to Washington, ostensibly to head off another coup attempt. Butler would become the "Secretary of General Welfare" to take the worries off an ailing Roosevelt's shoulders. Roosevelt would become a virtual prisoner, kept on as a figurehead until he was forced to retire. The conspiracy was connected the conservative American Liberty League, which included such individuals as former presidential candidate Al Smith and industrialist Irénée du Pont, whom Butler claimed was backing the plot.

U.S. M-2 tank on parade, Washington, 1939.

However, Butler did not go along for the ride. Half-disbelieving what he told, he asked a reporter friend, Paul Comly French, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, to confirm the story. Incredibly, French was able to confirm with MacGuire the existence with of the coup plot. In 1934, the House of Representative's Special Committee to Investigate Nazi Propaganda Activities in the United States investigated Butler's and French's claims and found them warranted. But no charges were ever pressed.

Martin B-10s on exercise, late '30s. A radical advance in aircraft design, they could easily out-run any enemy fighters they might meet.

Once the story broke, many concluded this was some kind of elaborate joke. But both Butler and the Senate committee insisted otherwise. So why was this very real threat to democracy so downplayed? One major factor was that the people who allegedly backed the coup were the high and the mighty and may well have included figures in Roosevelt's own administration. So sleeping dogs lie.

The second fact that this novel rests upon is the existence of War Plan Red, which I've previously mentioned on this blog. War Plan Red was one of the colour-coded series of war plans the United States had in readiness to meet contingencies it might face. It was originally conceived in the late 1920s over a potential conflict between the British Empire and United States over trade. Canada, otherwise known as "Crimson," was seen as a probable battleground. In 1934 War Pan Red was amended to include the use of poison gas against the presumptive Canadian enemy. It also was revised to include strategic bombing against Halifax should that strategic port refuse to yield. As late as 1939, with war in Europe looming on the horizon, these plans were still being updated.

U.S. Nevada-class battleships at sea, during the 1930s.

How close did this plan come to fruition? Closer than you might think. In August 1935, the U.S. Army held a series of war games, the largest in its history, involving over 36,000 men manoeuvring just south of the Canadian border, near Ottawa. Another 15,000 men were held in reserve in Pennsylvania. The war game's scenario was of a motorized invasion of Canada by U.S. forces. The first attack would be repulsed by the defenders, only to be overwhelmed and defeated when American reinforcements arrived. Earlier, in February of that year, the U.S. War Department had gained approval for the construction of three military airbases budgeted at $57 million in the Great Lakes region. They could be handily disguised as civilian airports but could also be used to dominate the industrial heart of Canada.

The Armstrong-Whitworth Siskin was the main RCAF fighter of the 1920s and 1930s.

The Candian counterpoint was Defense Scheme One - also discussed elsewhere at length on this blog- which called for a plan for a series of pre-emptive raids into the United States by Canadian forces upon an state of apprehened war. The early 1920s saw a brief period of worsening tensions between the United States and the British Empire that culminated in the Washington Naval Conference of 1922, which resulted in, among other things, a friendlier relationship between the two nations. However, at the time, Defence Scheme One was an understandable response, given the context.  James Sutherland "Buster" Brown, who drew up the plan, was very cognisant of the apparent threat posed by Canada's southern neighbour. A staunch soldier of Empire, he took a hard look at Canada's strategic situation. Militarily and population-wise, the country was out-numbered 10:1 by the United States, with most of Canada's population and industry strung out along its southern border, all within easy striking distance. Help, from the Mother Country and the rest of the Empire, was a long ways off.

British Vickers Mk VII Tank, 1937. Also used by Canadian Army.

Brown saw the need to buy time until help could arrive. But an in-depth defence was impossible in Canada, so Brown looked south and found his answer. Defence Scheme One consisted of a series of preemptive strikes by "flying columns" – fast, mobile forces –on several different axes of attack. Relying on surprise, they would strike quickly into the United States, destroying bridges, power-plants, telephone exchanges and factories as they withdrew. They would be using American territory to buy time and slow down the American advance until Imperial reinforcements could arrive.

Of course, I am grateful that history worked out the way it did. The United States and Canada have had a long history of peacefully - with the occasional friendly bump - sharing the continent.  To think it could have gone otherwise is chilling.

In the meantime, you can purchase both War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 and  Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.

Alternate World War Twos

As I mentioned on an earlier blog post, one of the most popular topic for readers and writers of alternate history alike, is alternate outcomes of the Second World War. Most times, this means a Nazi victory in Europe, or sometimes the world, but not always. This is typified by a collection of sort allohistorical works edited by Peter Tsouras, Third Reich Victorious (2002), which is not to be confused with Hitler Victorious (1986), a collection of similarly-themed short fiction edited by Gregory Benford. As with Tsouras’ companion work, Rising Sun Victorious (2007), we are given a dizzying tour of a series of plausible, if chilling outcomes where the Axis comes out on top.

Two more books, which take a decidedly alternate twist on the later part of the war, are the hugely enjoyable Fox on the Rhine (2000) and its equally enjoyable sequel, Fox at the Front (2003), by Douglas Niles and Michael Dobson. Without giving away too much, the books hinge on the tale of a Battle of the Bulge that goes in a decidedly different direction. If you’re a fan of Second World War figures such as Erwin Rommel and George Patton, you won’t be disappointed.  Definitely worth picking up.

I wish I could say better about the authors’ next joint effort, MacArthur’s War: A Novel of the Invasion of Japan (2007). This one earned the dubious distinction of being thrown across my living room in frustration; an award only given once before to the odious 1945 (1995), by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen – another alternate history novel of World War Two. To be fair, MacArthur’s War does have some good points, but it’s marred by sloppy editing (in one case, in the paperback edition, a whole chapter is repeated) and an ending that looks like it was shoehorned in to fit a page limit.

If you’re in the market for a well-done novel of the invasion of Japan, you could do no better than Alfred Coppel’s The Burning Mountain: A Novel of the Invasion of Japan (1983). This novel is both a well-researched and a plausible look of how an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands may have gone, with a strong set of characters. If you spot this one in your local used bookshop, do yourself a favour and scoop it up.

In the meantime, you can purchase both Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.

More Alternate Histories...

I’m just barely squeaking this entry in at the end of April. However, here it is and here we are. This month, we’re looking at four more alternate-history novels that sit on my bookshelf.

 The first novel in our ongoing survey of the alternate history genre is Resurrection Day, by Brendan Dubois (1999). Dubois asks the chilling question, what if the Cold War got hot over the Cuban Missile Crisis? In his novel, the some ten years afterwards, United States is reduced to a crippled giant, ostracized by the rest of the world and limps by on what foreign aid it can get. In a nice twisty plot, an American reporter suddenly gets plunged into a conspiracy involving the military government that leads him to the real reaons behind the war and those who want to keep it covered up.

For the more academically inclined, the next book on our tour is Peter G. Tsouras', Gettysburg: An Alternate History (2007). Tsouras, who has written many scholarly military alternate histories is no slouch and manages to produce a convincing story of a Battle of Gettysburg that could’ve happened. The fact that it reads like a textbook - complete with fake footnotes -  is a further credit to him and adds to the sense of authority.
 

Speaking of things military, author Robert Conroy appears again in this space in 1901 (1995). It's based on war plans sketched out by the German Empire at the turn of the last century for a possible invasion of the northeastern United States. The action chugs right along with the dastardly Germans invading New York. As per other Conroy books, historical characters such as Teddy Roosevelt and James Longstreet interact in a pleasing and enjoyable way with the fictional heroes. 

Finally, I’m saving possibly the best for last: Voyage (1996) by Stephen Baxter. It tells the story of the follow on mission to Mars that was actually planned for after Apollo but never happened in our history. In Baxter’s timeline, JFK survives the assassination attempt and remains a force behind the space program, even after leaving office. Of course, history recorded that Richard Nixon decided on the space shuttle over the Mars mission, a decision many have lamented; in the novel, it’s the Mars trip that receives the presidential thumbs-up instead, partially thanks to JFK's moral suasion. The novel is well written, logically developed and is believable. After finishing the book, I genuinely felt a sense of loss over what we could’ve had.

In the meantime, you can purchase both Elvis Saves JFK! for just 99 cents and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (both are free to preview). Both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.

Look, Mom, I'm Reading Poetry!

Yup!  I would just like to point out that we're not just all alternate-universe and slam-bang action here on this website. I do poetry as well. (You don't write/read poetry, you "do" it. Go figure.) I would rate myself as a middling poet. But here's a picture of me in action at Planet Earth Poetry tonight at the open mic.  It's on every Friday night at 7pm at  The Moka House, #103-1633 Hillside Avenue, in Victoria, running weekly until sometime in May and monthly thereafter through to September. So if you're in Victoria or visiting and you "do" poetry, or just like to listen, come join us.

In the meantime, you can help out this struggling poet/author by purchasing  Elvis Saves JFK! for just $0.99 (free to preview) and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History, for $2.99 (also free to preview). Both War Plan Crimson and Elvis Saves JFK! are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.

Another Preview From Elvis Saves JFK!

Truth, Justice, and the 1962 War Against Evil

(As told to Michael Cnudde)

I'll never forget the time I met Duke Slade. October, '62. What a wild time that was. Seems so distant now, but what a wild, way out time. I mean here was JFK going toe-toe with Mr. K. over Cuba and no one knew how the chips would fall. But for us boys, it was the time of our lives: broads, booze, and bucks. Me, I was working the Sands in Vegas the night it all came down. I’d just walked off the stage from my last set with the audience, applause still in my ears when the stage manager passed me the phone. “Call for you, Mr. Bishop.”

I held the receiver to my ear. There was no mistaking the voice: "Hey Joey, how's it hanging?" It was Frank. Sinatra.

"Hey Frank, what's up?"

"I'm calling a meeting. Caesar's in one hour."

I smiled as I hung up. Good thing about Frank: even though it was his world, he still let us all live in it. I hopped into my T-bird convertible and drove up the Strip to Caesar's Palace where Frank had his secret penthouse pad. It was where Frank held all his meetings with us. I put the radio on as the cool night wind whipped though my hair. Everybody was keeping their ears glued to the Emergency Broadcast Network, but tonight it didn't matter. I turned the dial until familiar music drifted out of the dashboard speakers: "Let's Face the Music and Dance," by Frank. Hey: If the Reds attacked in the middle of one of Frank's songs, it was their tough luck.

When I got there, the rest of the gang was already sitting in the sunken living room, on the big U-shaped couch, all looking out the picture window at the Strip. There was Frank, the Chairman of the Board himself, then the others: Peter Lawford; Dino Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Donny Rickles who was in town doing a show at the New Frontier. Real cool guys. And God rest their souls, most of them are gone now. Me too, if you’re reading this now.

Frank looked at me, then his watch. "Alright if we're all here, let's begin. Early this morning, I got a call from Jack..."

From Jack? The thoughts rolled through my head on a conveyer belt. In the midst of footsies with the Soviets, JFK makes time to call Frank. Something big must be up. Big and bad. 

Frank lit a cigarette, turned to Lawford. "Peter?"
     Lawford, who was our Intel officer, stood up. He had one thing going for him, a connection: he was JFK's brother-in-law. Real, live member of Camelot. I think Frank always secretly envied him for that. Lawford pointed a remote control at the flagstone fireplace. Immediately, shades slid down over the windows, the lights dimmed and a projector screen rose from the floor. "Right, then," said Lawford, decked out in his Brooks Brothers suit, "I believe you all know what this is."

"Hey Frank," said Dino in that voice as smooth as the bourbon in his glass. "That's not what I think it is?"

"Hush up and let the man finish," said Frank.

As I looked at the screen, my mind went back to Berlin, at the tail end of the war. We'd jumped into the bombed-out city just ahead of the Reds: Frank, Dino, Lawford and me, fighting our way past fanatical SS eager to make a last stand and earn their wings in Valhalla. In a last-ditch attempt to hold the Red Army at bay and turn the course of the war, the SS high priests had attempted a death magic ritual harnessing the stored vril energy of over six million murdered souls to bring a pair of shoggoths over from The Other Side.

We stopped them.

And now I looked at the image on the screen and other memories flickered back: that last desperate, close-run firefight in the bunker, going down to bayonets and brass knuckles... the dark, the explosions, the smoke, the screams, the fire and the chanting... and now, this. I couldn't believe my ears what Lawford was saying.

"Do you want to repeat that, man?" asked Sammy. His one good eye widened. Sammy's other eye, the glass one courtesy of that car accident in '54, stared out into space. Used to spook me until I got used to it.

Lawford's eyebrows shot up like an annoyed schoolteacher. "I said, `They've stolen the Black Book.'"

Lawford let that little bombshell sink in.

"Who did it, Frank?" I asked. "Thought we had that... thing under lock and key, surrounded by armed guards."  Mentioned in the same hushed breath as the Necronomicon and the Voynich Manuscript, by those who knew the true ways of the world, the Black Book of Al’zaroth was legendary for the things that happened around it. Very bad things.  

Preview copyright 2010 Michael Cnudde

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You can buy Elvis Saves JFK! for just $0.99 and is free to preview. And of course, War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History,  is on sale for $2.99, and as always, it's free to preview.
Both War Plan Crimson and Elvis Saves JFK! are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.

A New Search for Amelia Earhart

According to media reports, the U.S. government is gearing up to resume the search for  Amelia Earhart, lost on the return leg of her around-the-world flight some 75 years ago.  Her disappearance, along with her navigator, Fred Noonan,  has been one of the great mysteries of the 20th Century. Was she secretly conducting a spy flight for the U.S. government over Japanese positions? Did she and Noonan survive? Were they shot down by the Japanese?

One of the more outlandish theories, besides the whole abducted-by-aliens thing, had Amelia being captured by the Japanese and forced to make propaganda broadcasts as the infamous Tokyo Rose (Never mind the fact that Iva Toguri D'Aquino was Tokyo Rose) and was recaptured by the Americans at war's end and placed in a sanatorium in New Jersey where she spent the rest of her days.

The new search will focus on and around the remote island of Nikumaroro, in what is now the Pacific nation of Kiribati. Searchers have found what may be fragments of aircraft debris and leather from a shoe Amelia may have worn. Most interesting is that an old photograph that some claim may show part of the lost Lockheed Electra's landing gear.

My connection with Amelia Earhart - besides my admiring her as a pioneer in many regards - is the fact that she was a major character  in both  Elvis Saves JFK! and War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History. Both books are available for just $0.99 and $2.99, respectively.  Of course, they're also both free to preview.  And both books are also available through such fine on-line retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Apple's iTunes Store.