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Text continued in link.A 1935 US Plan for Invasion of Canada
Submitted by F.W. Rudmin
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario Canada
Email: rudminf@qucdn.queensu.ca
FAX: (613) 545-6611
The following is a full-text reproduction of the 1935
plan for a US invasion of Canada prepared at the US Army
War College, G-2 intelligence division, and submitted on
December 18, 1935. This is the most recent declassified
invasion plan available from the US archival sources.
Centered pagination is that of the original document. The
spelling and punctuation of the original document are
reproduced as in the original document, even when in error
by present-day norms.
This document was first identified by Richard Preston
in his 1977 book, "The Defence of the Undefended Border:
Planning for War in North America 1867-1939" (Montreal:
McGill-Queen's University Press.) Preston's reference
citation (p. 277) identified this to be archived at the US
Military History Collection, Carlisle Barracks, Pa., coded
AWC 2-1936-8, G2, no. 19A. It was located by the US
National Archives and supplied on microfilm.
The military planning context of this document is War
Plan Red, which was approved in May 1930 by the Secretary
of War and the Secretary of Navy. War Plan Red and
supporting documents are available from the US National
Archives on microfilm, in the Records of the Joint Board,
1903-1947, Roll 10, J.B. 325, Serial 435 through Serial
641. In War Plan Red, the US Army's theatre of operations
is defined to be: "All CRIMSON territory" (p.80), and the
US Army's mission, in bold type: ULTIMATELY, TO GAIN
COMPLETE CONTROL OF CRIMSON (p. 84). CRIMSON is the
colour code for Canada. In 1934, War Plan Red was amended
to authorize the immediate first use of poison gas against
Canadians and to use strategic bombing to destroy Halifax
if it could not be captured.
In February 1935, the War Department arranged a
Congressional appropriation of $57 million dollars to
build three border air bases for the purposes of
pre-emptive surprise attacks on Canadian air fields. The
base in the Great Lakes region was to be camouflaged as a
civilian airport and was to "be capable of dominating the
industrial heart of Canada, the Ontario Peninsula" from p.
61 of the February 11-13, 1935, hearings of the Committee
on Military Affairs, House of Representatives, on Air
Defense Bases (H.R. 6621 and H.R. 4130). This testimony
was to have been secret but was published by mistake. See
the New York Times, May 1, 1935, p. 1.
In August 1935, the US held its largest peacetime
military manoeuvres in history, with 36,000 troops
converging at the Canadian border south of Ottawa, and
another 15,000 held in reserve in Pennsylvania. The war
game scenario was a US motorized invasion of Canada, with
the defending forces initially repulsing the invading Blue
forces, but eventually to lose "outnumbered and outgunned"
when Blue reinforcements arrive. This according to the
Army's pamphlet "Souvenir of of the First Army Maneuvers:
The Greatest Peace Time Event in US History" (p.2).
The following document is a declassified public
domain document and may be freely reproduced. This should
be of particular interest to people in the Halifx and
Quebec City regions, then considered to be the most
strategic cities in Canada.
