Defense Scheme 1 and War Plan Red
In the 1920s both Canada and the United States developed elaborate plans for the invasion of each other. The Canadian plan, Defense Scheme 1, was a plan in which the Canadian Army would invade the United States to forestall an American invasion, and was designed around reinforcement from Britain and the empire. The American plan, developed by the US Army and Navy’s War Plans departments, was part of an overall plan of war against the British Empire. The Americans had similar plans for war against other nations, such as War Plan Orange in the Pacific against the Empire of Japan.
Defense Scheme 1 was largely the plan of a single Canadian officer, Lt. Col. James Sutherland Brown, known as Buster to his contemporaries. Brown served as the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence. In that capacity he made several visits to the United States to acquire first hand military intelligence and assess American defense capabilities. In developing the plan Brown did not coordinate with the British Military command, upon which the entire operation was dependent. The Royal Navy had considered the defense of Canada an impossibility so near the home bases of the US Navy, and Britain did not have viable plans for Canada’s defense.
Defense Scheme 1 called for a simultaneous invasion of the United States, with troops of the Canadian Western Command striking at Seattle and other cities of the Northwest. The cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul would be taken by troops from the Prairie Command, which would attack through Fargo. Troops from Quebec would strike Albany, just as they had in the days of the Revolutionary War and before, using the Hudson Valley as a highway into New York. The plan was to then execute a fighting withdrawal, destroying American infrastructure as the Canadians retreated to the support of arriving British troops.
War Plan Red described war against the British Empire, and another version of the plan had the United States at war with Britain and Japan simultaneously, called War Plan Orange – Red. In either case the capture of Halifax by American forces was critical, since it was the primary point from which Canada could be supported by the British Navy. The United States planned a three pronged invasion of Canada, again similar to the invasion during the Revolutionary War, capturing Montreal and Quebec, militarizing the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and capturing Winnipeg and Vancouver. Canadian ports were to be blockaded.
War Plan Red did not contain any attacks against the British Empire outside of the North American continent and the waters surrounding it. The planners were specific in what would happen to the seized Canadian territories, they were to, “…prepare the provinces and territories of CRIMSON and RED to become states and territories of the BLUE union upon the declaration of peace.” CRIMSON was the code name for Canada; RED for the United Kingdom; and BLUE for the United States. As late as 1935 War Plan Red was being updated and bases established for its support. It even designated the best roads to use between targets in Canada.