Possible peculiar scenario idea

[Basil]

While looking for something else, I came across a fact that might make for a scenario/story arc idea. But it would be, well, a peculiar situation.

 

Now, the US miltary, like all militaries in the 20th and 21st centuries, has people sitting around doing contingency planning. That is, they go "Say, if we had to fight a war against the People's Republic of Svalbard, how would we best go about it?" And then they draw up plans (usually in broad, sweeping term, not in detail).

 

In the 1920's and 1930's, the US military was doing this. One of the plans was "What if we have to fight the UK?" The result was "Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan--Red". One of it's most important components was an invasion of Canada.

 

For more info, see http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcanadawar.html

 

OK, so why a plan for war with the UK? The article puts it best:

The plans were an outgrowth of military reorganizations that had led to the creation of the U.S. Army War College (1903) and the U.S. Army War Plans Division (1921). Planning capability having been established' date=' the military figured its planners had better get in some practice.[/quote']

 

Now, how would a GM use this info? I can see two ways:

 

1) War Plan Red (or just the invasion of Canada part) is put into effect. This is pretty flipping weird, but some GMs might want to go for it. I have no good ideas for how the PCs would be involved

 

2) Someone hostile to the US has stolen (a copy of) War Plan Red, and plans to (A) publish it or ( get a copy to the UK; all this in the hope of embarrassing the US govt. The PCs have to get the plans back, or at least stop the thief.

 

Well, there it is. Have fun with it.

 

BTW, that article has a lot of info re. earlier invasions/plans. The info would be useful as backdrop info for the characters to have/be given/find out.

[nytflyr]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

Darn, I misread that as a Possible Pellucidar scenario idea

[Mantis]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

It wasn't only the US that did this. There was a diplomatic incident in the '20s when RAF Fighter Command (then called "ADGB - Fighting Area") held an exercise. Since Germany was disarmed, the only nation close enough to launch an air attack on the UK with the types of planes in existence was France, so they were designated the "enemy" for the purpose of the exercise. The French were not happy about this and made an official complaint!

[shadowcat1313]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

hypothetical invasion plans abounded, and thats not even counting Hitler actually invading England, or Patton getting turned loose to continue east

after Berlin fell, or the Allies having to invade Japan, or what if Hitler left russia alone and concentrated westward

 

 

 

SM Sterilings Draka books comes to mind

Fox on the Rhine by Douglas Niles also comes to mind

[pinecone]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

Actaully as I recall many "experts" in both europe and the US considered a war between the UK and the US almost inevitable, suposedly it would be over controll of the trade routes (ignoring completely that they were major trade partners of course) The was real worry that the US's naval build up was going to be the start of the great "Anglo-american war".....The Washington navel treaty was given credit for heading this off (Japan was also a signatory)...I love the history channel...

[Basil]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

Actaully as I recall many "experts" in both europe and the US considered a war between the UK and the US almost inevitable' date=' suposedly it would be over controll of the trade routes (ignoring completely that they were major trade partners of course)[/quote']

Hmmm.... Whoever those "experts" were, they had no influence on the US military of the time.

 

From the site cited above:

The brass would have made better use of their resources planning for a war with Germany, but that wasn't politically expedient. They reasoned that planning for unlikely wars was better than no planning at all. War Plan Red was never intended to be put into action except in the event of a war with the United Kingdom, an eventuality that everyone would agree was highly unlikely after about 1900.

...

Apparently in the 1920s only certain scenarios could safely be considered: Japan because of the threat it posed to the Philippines, and Latin America because of U.S. interests there. But war against a European power could be contemplated only if such a war was so unlikely that it could be brushed off as a mere exercise if the newspapers got wind of it. That was essentially the case with War Plan Red

So, it looks like a war between the US and UK had zero chance of happening. Thus, it was a safe way to practice war-planning because it would never be more than practice.

 

Unless a GM wants to bend history.

[Badger]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

But, Mantis, France complains about everything.

 

Sorry, had to get my make fun of France once a day done:D

 

 

Course, never say 0% chance. Maybe it was 0.00000000000000000000001% chance. But, you never know if something (or someone) wacky will come along. Course the "experts" probably also thought Germany would never be a threat again. We all know how that turned out.

[Cancer]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

Part of the point of making war plans is that you don't get caught with your pants down even if something improbable happens. Not making plans because "those guys will always be our friends" is a form of negligence. And, it gives staff officers something to do in peacetime.

 

"Red", war with the UK and Canada, sounds like a sibling plan to "Orange", which was the plan for war with Japan. And that latter one turned out not to be very far-fetched.

[Basil]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

Part of the point of making war plans is that you don't get caught with your pants down even if something improbable happens. Not making plans because "those guys will always be our friends" is a form of negligence. And' date=' it gives staff officers something to do in peacetime.[/quote']

True. However, it's not always politically expedient to make plans dealing with some country or another. And if the press might get ahold of the fact that plans are being made re. some country, which would send fecal matter towards the air-circulator, the military may decide the wise course is not to make said plans.

 

"Red"' date=' war with the UK and Canada, sounds like a sibling plan to "Orange", which was the plan for war with Japan. And that latter one turned out not to be very far-fetched.[/quote']

Yep. Orange is discussed in that article. Interesting situation re. Orange and the US Navy, too.

[Haven Walkur]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

This is Superheroic, not Pulp, but it DOES involve a U.S./Canadian war and could easily be converted.

 

As a background for a Champions PC, my GM and I created a near future where the U.S. and Canada had been at war since an incident in 2016 where U.S. troops opened fire on fleeing U.S. citizens trying to escape into Canada, and Canadian border troops intervened.

 

Why were U.S. citizens trying to flee?

 

President James Milton Fisher of the America First! party was elected president of the U.S. in 2012, in what would turn out to be the last free American election. He promptly closed the nation's borders and instituted his Fortess America policy, ending foreign trade, cutting off all foreign aid and calling due all international debt, repatriating all non-citizens and interning (or later executing) "undesirables": unregistered metanormals, political dissidents, Catholics, Jews and anyone else whose loyalty "first and foremost" to the U.S. was not above reproach.

 

In 2014, a state of emergency was declared in response to activites by dissidents calling themselves the "Landlords of the Free". Martial law was imposed. It was an open secret that said dissidents had been metanormal heroes and (minor) villains prior to 2012. Two years of sporadic guerrilla incidents and increasingly severe governmental responses followed, with many metanormals attempting to flee the country and the government's sporadic attempts to exterminate unregistered metanormals and non-humans in America.

 

In 2016, these tensions culminated in the border incident between the U.S. and Canada. When Canadian border troops witnessed American refugees (listed as by the U.S. as 'documented undesirables') being gunned down on the U.S./Canadian border by U.S. troops., Canadian forces transgressed the international border and mounted a rescue. This humanitarian but reckless intervention led to the U.S. declaring war on Canada, and the beginning of the North American Continental Conflict.

 

The U.S. blockaded Canada by air and sea, drastically reducing Canada's ability to import food and materièls. The endless border wars between the two nations resulted in many of the U.S. "border states" changing hands several times; the breadbasket states of Idaho, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin -- and industrial Michigan -- were particularly hotly contested.

 

As the Continental Conflict wore on, Canada experienced critical shortages of food and manufactured goods. Their "Open Door - No Questions Asked" immigration policy where refugees from the U.S. -- and non-refugee fighters and metanormals -- were concerned brought Canada an influx of defenders, mostly of conventional metanormal types, from around the world. Other defenders, both metanormal and supernatural, were found closer to home. As an example of the latter, when a Québecois werewolf from La Verendrye volunteered his 'special talents' for the war effort, the Canadian government arranged for him to infect volunteers with lycanthropy, thus creating a small Ranger unit/pack that was the terror of U.S. soldiers patrolling the disputed border.

 

Aristocratic Montréal vampire Claudette Montrose also volunteered her efforts, though attempts to have her 'convert' others were not successful. Other unusual but effective Canadian military 'personnel' included two Wendigos, seventeen First Nations shamans and numerous witches, ghosts and fae. Non-native metanormals and supernatural beings fighting on the side of the Canadians included both typical and bizarre examples of their types, from non-native energy projectors, bricks, martial artists, mages and gadgeteers to entities like Norwegian Roland, the fabled "headless Thompson Gunner" of song...who fought in return for resupply of his ammunition.

 

Canada mounted an eclectic and heroic defense, but by 2020, they were fighting a losing battle against the superior numbers and resources of the United States. The threat of famine was greater with each passing month, and U.S. planes slipping across the disastrously-wide border took a mounting toll of irreplacable Canadian manufacturing and infrastructure. But the Canadians hung on, hungry but committed, fighting and praying for something to change....

 

*****************Insert player characters here******************

[Guest HeroPink!]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

Haven Walkur, could you please repost this as a "WWYCD" thread? It'd be soooo cool.

[Haven Walkur]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

HeroPink!, thank-you for your interest, but I think the U.S./Canadian war premise is too involved to make a good What Would Your Character Do? question. The situation requires too much set-up; most readers wouldn't be that interested.

[Publius]

Re: Possible peculiar scenario idea

 

emphasis mineThe U.S. blockaded Canada by air and sea' date=' drastically reducing Canada's ability to import food and materièls. The endless border wars between the two nations resulted in many of the U.S. "border states" changing hands several times; the breadbasket states of Idaho, Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin -- and [b']industrial Michigan[/b] -- were particularly hotly contested.

I live in Flint, there is no more industrialized Michigan. You have to go south of the border to find industrial pretty soon. Lotsa out of work guys that used to be industrial sure, got plenty of that.

 

Pulius "Post-Industrial my Heinie" I-wish-my-name-was-two-words

 

Actually nice post, cool scenario.