War Plan Red

[Go4fun]

Yup all countries had War Plans between WWI's and II even though it had been the War to End all Wars. A cynical view is that the military had to have some enemy to ensure continued funding, the plausible one is that they were doing their duty and planning to defend the realm or republic whatever. Some of the US ones are rather odd to the modern eye (the British attack from bases in the Caribbean is one that stands out for me). Details on other countries plans can be rather more difficult to come by.

Prior to WWI as most European countries were usually involved in a war (major or minor)/getting ready for one/or getting over one there was no real need for these What If scenarios, although they were still produced to give the staff college something to do.

The US of course was involved in internal expansion/conflict until just about the turn of the century but had to keep a weather eye on Canada however implausible that was and Mexico which was perhaps slightly more plausible

Yeah, gotta keep an eye on those Canadians.  A guy never knows just wht they are thinking. You'd love my book "The Tractor Wars: The Battle For A free Kansas". I have a link to it in the appropriate place.

[Diamondback]

The other thing is, maintaining that library of plans is training for the planners... keep 'em revising and updating, you keep 'em thinking about new developments rather than sitting and stagnating.

IIRC, Orange-5 was the specific plan that went into effect in the Philippines with "delaying action and fall-back to Bataan and Corregidor".

[PR19_Kit]

ISTR Coonts's Fortunes of War in particular (which had an interesting WHIF, optically-cloaked F-22s), possibly Clancy's The Bear and the Dragon too.

Precisely! 

I've just finished re-reading 'Fortunes of War' for the 3rd or 4th time.

[Logan Hartke]

they were still produced to give the staff college something to do.

This really can't be overstated.  I was really blown away when I started studying the US exercises that staff were running in the 1920s and 1930s when the US Army was only about 200,000 strong.  You had majors and colonels practicing the movement of corps, army, and army group size formations.  It would have been ridiculous if not for the fact that those majors and colonels had names like Patton, Bradley, and Eisenhower and would be doing exactly what they trained for just a few years later.  It really was a good use of the very limited funding available to them at the time, as outlandish as it may seem.

Also, as far as the ridiculousness of the scenarios, I agree, but these things can definitely be hard to predict.  Things like the US building a highway through Canada to retake the Aleutian Islands, occupying British holdings in the Caribbean to hunt German submarines sinking South American shipping, or hard-fought battles over British protectorates in the South Pacific in order to put a stranglehold on Australian administered territories would have been difficult to predict in the 1920s with much certainty, as well.  Yet, these all became realities in WWII.

Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.

Cheers,

Logan

[Rheged]

I recorded the BBC programme on this for my younger son some time ago. I think I still have the tape  somewhere.

Didn't someone suggest that the Gibraltarian  war plan to invade Spain was nearly invoked when most of the Spanish air force were participating in the filming of "Battle of Britain"

[zenrat]

...Patton, Bradley, and Eisenhower ...

Why didn't Eisenhower get a tank named after him?

[Steel Penguin]

I think that as he got to be President he gets something better ( an aircraft carrier)

[PR19_Kit]

I think that as he got to be President he gets something better ( an aircraft carrier)

And a locomotive too!



Taken through the cab window of my own favourite 'locomotive', the APT-E.