Anno
20th September 2011, 22:00
I saw a docu earlier on Channel 5 talking about how the US were planning a war with the UK in the 1930's (just before WW2).
The US called their plan : War Plan Red.
The general gist is that the American Civil War was just the start and skirmishes continued right up until the First World War which America refused to enter at first then entered in 1917 but as an "Associated Power" rather than an Ally.
After WW1 America demmanded the repayment of War Debts and things got 'sticky' again with both sides expecting to end up at war with eachother.
America built a huge military base just outside Canada and filled it with the most men/equipment that had ever been gathered by them before. The idea being that they could easily take Canada before the Brits got any large number of troops over there.
They also agreed the use of Chemical Weapons against the British.
The American Nazis (pre-war) wanted Hitler to join them (Lindberg of the missing baby mystery was a top nazi apparently and went to ask). Hitler said no, he wanted a war between them but he wanted Britain to win as he thought they'd get on better. I didn't even know there were public Nazi supporters in America in the 30's.
In the end they decided that it would reach a stalemate as the British Navy would effectively beseige the US and in the long run, just getting Canada wouldn't be worth the effort.
Then WW2 happened and in the face of the common enemy (who was previously good mates with both sides) they developed the "Special Relationship".
The most interesting part for me is that in the Plan, the British are refered to as the Red Race and America as the Blue Race. Hence War Plan Red.
It's that old, Red vs Blue again. Ofcourse, after WW2 the Russians became the Reds.
Oddly, none of this was in my GCSE History textbooks.
If you want to watch it, it's here: channel5.com americas-planned-war-on-britain-revealed (http://www.channel5.com/shows/revealed/episodes/americas-planned-war-on-britain-revealed)
The US called their plan : War Plan Red.
The general gist is that the American Civil War was just the start and skirmishes continued right up until the First World War which America refused to enter at first then entered in 1917 but as an "Associated Power" rather than an Ally.
After WW1 America demmanded the repayment of War Debts and things got 'sticky' again with both sides expecting to end up at war with eachother.
America built a huge military base just outside Canada and filled it with the most men/equipment that had ever been gathered by them before. The idea being that they could easily take Canada before the Brits got any large number of troops over there.
They also agreed the use of Chemical Weapons against the British.
The American Nazis (pre-war) wanted Hitler to join them (Lindberg of the missing baby mystery was a top nazi apparently and went to ask). Hitler said no, he wanted a war between them but he wanted Britain to win as he thought they'd get on better. I didn't even know there were public Nazi supporters in America in the 30's.
In the end they decided that it would reach a stalemate as the British Navy would effectively beseige the US and in the long run, just getting Canada wouldn't be worth the effort.
Then WW2 happened and in the face of the common enemy (who was previously good mates with both sides) they developed the "Special Relationship".
The most interesting part for me is that in the Plan, the British are refered to as the Red Race and America as the Blue Race. Hence War Plan Red.
It's that old, Red vs Blue again. Ofcourse, after WW2 the Russians became the Reds.
Oddly, none of this was in my GCSE History textbooks.
If you want to watch it, it's here: channel5.com americas-planned-war-on-britain-revealed (http://www.channel5.com/shows/revealed/episodes/americas-planned-war-on-britain-revealed)