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War on the 'Red Empire': How America planned for an attack on BRITAIN in 1930 with bombing raids and chemical weapons

Emerging world power feared British reaction to its ambitions
Plan Red was code for massive war with British Empire
Top-secret document once regarded as 'most sensitive on Earth'
$57m allocated for building secret airfields on Canadian border - to launch attack on British land forces based there

Full story here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039453/How-America-planned-destroy-BRITAIN-1930-bombing-raids-chemical-weapons.html

So, your 2 pence worth is?

We also have plans to invade Canada if we eve need to as well. We are like Batman, ever vigilant, even against allies.

I also imagine that the UK has military plans drawn up in case of a conflict with the US were to crop up for some reason. It is what military strategists do. This isn't one of those things you want to think about after you need it, to some degree.

The US throughout the 20's and 30's actually was really vigilant in their military planning (too bad we weren't so vigilant in our hardware ). There was also Plan Orange, which was the scenario for war with Imperial Japan which almost to a tee predicted the events and outcome of the later Pacific War minus the atomic bomb.

If you want an interesting read on this subject, try and find a copy of Carrying War to the Enemy: American Operational Art to 1945 by Michael Matheny. I believe he's still a professor at the US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks. The book is pretty much nothing but an analysis of the operational evolution of US military planners.

EDIT: Oh and you do get this from history books. Plan Red wasn't really much of a secret even when it was used as a training tool in the 20's. Just happens to be one of those things most people never hear about.

It's the daily mail, this is instantly invalid.

Gotta say I agree with Corpses, but for different reasons. That article is so sensational its absurd. Plan Red was just that. A Plan. It was an exercise in military theory used to train potential officers for the Army and Navy. No one ever thought that Plan Red would actually end up being used after the mid-20's. Calling this, which most military historians have known about for decades, some kind of recently revealed super secret is yellower than a sunflower.

LordofHats wrote:Gotta say I agree with Corpses, but for different reasons. That article is so sensational its absurd.

I think we have the same reason my friend, sensationalism is precisely what the daily mail fills every page with.

If you watch the movie "War Games" you can see all the various nuke scenarios predicted by military stratagists.

Ribon Fox wrote:War on the 'Red Empire': How America planned for an attack on BRITAIN in 1930 with bombing raids and chemical weapons

Emerging world power feared British reaction to its ambitions
Plan Red was code for massive war with British Empire
Top-secret document once regarded as 'most sensitive on Earth'
$57m allocated for building secret airfields on Canadian border - to launch attack on British land forces based there

Full story here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039453/How-America-planned-destroy-BRITAIN-1930-bombing-raids-chemical-weapons.html

So, your 2 pence worth is?

Be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
It's the American way.

AustonT wrote:
Be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
It's the American way.

The first two parts are optional...

Gotta admit though, that definition belongs in Urban Dictionary

AustonT wrote:
Be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
It's the American way.

"Snipin's a good job, mate. It's challengin' work, out of doors, and I guarantee you'll never go 'ungry, 'cause as long as there're two people left in the world, one's gonna want to kill the other."

Isn't that from Team Fortress 2?

AustonT wrote:Be polite, be professional, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
It's the American way.

well... that sounds more like Canadians..... most Americans are not polite.

AustonT wrote:Isn't that from Team Fortress 2?

And the sniper is an Austrailian to boot.

Dunno what history books you've been reading, I certainly knew about this. It was one of many, Plan Crimson dealt with a Canada, Ruby with India, Australia was Scarlet, etc. etc. There were also plans for France, Germany, Philippines, Cuba, Mexico, Central America, South America, China, Japan, domestic Civil Unrest, etc. etc. etc. BTW, to the poster that said that they were abandoned in the 20's thats actually incorrect, as the plans were last updated in the mid 1930s, and IIRC, they were dismissed as unnecessary only upon the US entry into WW2.

The irony, no not irony, hypocrisy of the Daily Mail pointing out that Lindbergh was a Nazi sympathiser is not lost on me.

helgrenze wrote:well... that sounds more like Canadians..... most Americans are not polite.

Canadians are also boring, guess you can't win em all.

Melissia wrote:

AustonT wrote:Isn't that from Team Fortress 2?

And the sniper is an Australian to boot.

Pretty much how OZs roll init?

"That's not a knife, THIS is a knife"
I kind of imagine the guys who work Thunder Down Under in Vegas unzipping and saying
"That's not a penis, THIS is a penis"






no homo.

Oh you imagine it, all right. All night long.

Not actually a surprising story, as it turns out. (The article, not Auston and the Thunder Down Under dudes. That one was mildly surprising to me.)

chaos0xomega wrote:Dunno what history books you've been reading, I certainly knew about this. It was one of many, Plan Crimson dealt with a Canada, Ruby with India, Australia was Scarlet, etc. etc. There were also plans for France, Germany, Philippines, Cuba, Mexico, Central America, South America, China, Japan, domestic Civil Unrest, etc. etc. etc. BTW, to the poster that said that they were abandoned in the 20's thats actually incorrect, as the plans were last updated in the mid 1930s, and IIRC, they were dismissed as unnecessary only upon the US entry into WW2.

I didn't say abandoned, I said they were not seriously considered to be used in reality (Red anyway). All the plans were developed simply as theoretical exercises and to perfect operational planning. Only a few of them, Orange in particular, were actually considered to eventually become a reality at the time.

I've dealt with Canadians who loved to talk smack about their "Southern Strike" plans vs the USA.
Most all countries have plans for any kind of contingency its what planning is for.

It's not surprising that governments spend a load of time and money on things which turn out to be pointless an unecessary. It's not worth worrying about. What's more noteworthy is when government funding is put into things which appear pointless and unnecessary in the first place. Like the US and Japanese research into cold fusion in the eighties and nineties. I'm all for covering all angles when they don't deny the unquestioned basic laws of physics.

We New Zealanders have plans to invade Australia if they ever get to "Powerful". You know what I mean you dirty Ozzies! lol

The UK doesn't have invasion plans of this kind. The queen has a nice collection of jewels and a T-shirt that says invaded the world and got the bling! Love Vicky.

Sonophos wrote:The UK doesn't have invasion plans of this kind. The queen has a nice collection of jewels and a T-shirt that says invaded the world and got the bling! Love Vicky.

Respect.

Considering what was happening in Europe at the time, it's perhaps not impossible that an all-out war with America could have fructified the ground for Adolf Hitler to make a pact of allegiance with Britain - which was one of the madman's long-term goals; could be an interesting plot line for an alternate history novel/movie/SF episode.

George Spiggott wrote:The irony, no not irony, hypocrisy of the Daily Mail pointing out that Lindbergh was a Nazi sympathiser is not lost on me.

Why is that hypocritical? Or ironic?

I would understand if you were referring to a French publication.

helgrenze wrote:well... that sounds more like Canadians..... most Americans are not polite.

Yeah, most americans are.

Daily Mail is a couple of months behind the times. There was an hour long documentary on this on either c5 or c4. Was very interesting.