Miles From Our Home: 2018 Canada ISOTed to December 1939

Dec. 17, Mid Atlantic Ocean

Convoy HX-17 was rather odd. For one, it had fewer ships than most convoys. Its ships were decades apart from each other in design, weapons, technology and date that they were constructed.

The cargo ships Equinox, Brave and John Raame were from the ‘80s and ‘90s, while Anne-Marie, Roberta, Danger, Pullman, Truthful and Reckoning were ‘30s era. The Canadian frigates Toronto and Fredericton along with the British destroyers Grafton and Hyperion made up the escort force.

HX-17 had left Halifax on December 14th, and was due to arrive at Portsmouth on the 22nd. The merchant ships had a vast assortment of materials onboard. There was asphalt, bulldozers, steel, prefabricated barracks, fuel, generators as well as many other important items to support air and ground expeditionary forces. Making sure that this equipment made it to Britain was crucial, as it would go a long way to helping the Forces set up a supply base in the United Kingdom.

Cyclone helicopters from both Canadian frigates were in the air, hunting for U-boats. They were using various sonar systems to listen for submarines. Suddenly, a U-boat (U-29) was detected 18 km away from the convoy. The Cyclone from Toronto wasted no time. It sped over and dropped a Mk. 46 guided torpedo. It slammed into U-29 and tore it apart. U-29 was the first submarine to be sunk by the RCN in years.

It would not be the last, not by a long shot.

Dec. 17, Ottawa, Ontario

General Vance raised an eyebrow. “Only eleven of them can be used?”

Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Reford, Defence Research and Development Canada (Valcartier), nodded. “Yes, sir. We have assessed the Leopard 1’s, all of them, and have come to that conclusion. Most of ‘em can barely move and would be a huge drain on our resources.”

“What do you think we should do with them?”

“I would advise using most for parts honestly, and General Wynnyk supports that. We should also give some to Rheinmetall in Saint Jean.”

Dec. 20, Saint Jean, Quebec

Peter Williams, Director of Rheinmetall Canada sighed as he stared at the assembly area. He was in deep thought.

The Shift, as it was being called, had meant that Canada needed to rearm as fast as possible in order to fight the Axis Powers. This obviously meant that the various defence companies were receiving lots of attention from the public and the government; many had looked like idiots.

Sure, Bombardier, IMP and CAE were seeing if they could restart CF-5 production. Yes, General Dynamics had hired dozens of workers with more to come. However, all were hampered by the cessation of foreign parts shipments. Though it was true that the overwhelming majority of these parts could be manufactured in Canada, it would take months before this was possible as materials were shipped in and supply chains set up. This was made glaringly obvious in the case of Raytheon, who was currently attempting to see if they could replicate their various air-to-air missiles. Sure, it had only been a week since the Shift, but the fact that all of these companies were struggling with parts was an issue.

This was not helped by the now infamous Bell Tantrum, the heated exchange between the Defence Minister and the President of Davie Shipbuilding and the spat between Irving, Vard and BMT over the future of the AOPS and CSC programs.

His own company produced many of its parts at the plant he was standing in, but was still hurt by the loss of the more exotic parts and government demands. Williams snorted at the thought of replicating a Leopard C2. It could be done, but it would take a long time.

He gazed at the half finished TAPVs, produced by Textron and Rheinmetall.

Local Recruiting Centre Swamped by Volunteers

Toronto Star

December 27th, 1939

As news of the Shift spread, volunteers began to show up at this recruiting centre near Yonge and Sheppard.

Volunteers flocked to this usually quiet Canadian Armed Forces recruiting station on the morning of the 16th. There was a long line stretching outside the door. It took three hours for Michael Lisowski to finally enter the building, and one more to reach the desk.

“I had already been thinking of joining, but I made up my mind after the Shift,” he says outside of his North York apartment. “I’m half Polish and right now, the Nazis and Russians are both raping that country. I want to set things right.”

Lisowski is far from the only person to express similar views. Many other people of ethnicities and religions targeted by Hitler have signed up. Others have done the same simply to set a new course for history.

“If we stop Hitler a couple years sooner, he won’t be able to kill nearly as many people as last time,” remarks Lewis Carter, a Canadian Jew. “I know that a lot of people feel the same way.”

The government is having issues processing such a large amount of recruits. There are not enough people to recruit and train tens of thousands of recruits in a few short months. Veterans and reservists will help out in these aspects, but the entire process is rather clunky. Old training camps such as Cornwallis Park, formerly known as CFB Cornwallis are being requisitioned and prepared for a massive influx of trainees.

Dec. 28th, CFB Halifax, Nova Scotia

The base was bustling with activity today.

Most of it was centered around the submarines Windsor and Chicoutimi. The latter had transferred from MARPAC for a NATO deployment prior to the Shift. Despite the rather spotty record of the quartet of former British submarines, most were functioning in a state that could be described as ‘good enough.’ Navy technicians and civilian contractors overran both vessels in an effort to make sure that there was nothing wrong with them.

The six Kingston-class coastal defence vessels were being hastily repaired and refitted. Most of these were focused on the engines and electronics of the ships, which had a record for not working properly. The Kingstons were only armed with a 40mm Bofors and had a slow top speed of 15 knots. They had no anti-submarine capability whatsoever. These vessels would use their modular mine-hunting systems to search for any mines that might be in Canadian waters.

Unsurprisingly, the seven Halifax-class frigates were the most active. Two were escorting merchant ships to Halifax, four were undergoing last minute checks and one was sailing to Britain. Along with the soon to be transferred from the Pacific HMCS Calgary, they were expected to carry out antisubmarine, anti-air and anti-ship missions.

The supply ship Asterix was the newest vessel in the RCN. It would be tasked with resupplying Canadian ships at sea. However, there were doubts that a single ship could support warships all over the ocean.

Dec. 29th, 4.2 km West of Truro, Nova Scotia

The group of young schoolchildren eagerly pushed each other, trying their best to get a good view of the train as it rumbled along the track.

The train in question was a transport carrying dozens of armoured vehicles from 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade-Group (2CMBG) to Halifax, where they would subsequently be loaded onto ships and transported to Europe.

MFOHMFOHMFOH

Despite shifting most of their military resources to Europe and the Atlantic, the Canadians kept a watchful eye on the Asia-Pacific region. IJN movements were closely monitored, as it had taken little effort for all of their codes to be cracked by Canadian cyber warfare teams.

The Canadian Armed Forces were aware that they did not currently have the logistics capabilities or the troop numbers to commit to Europe and Asia at the same time. Many Army and RCAF units in Western Canada were slated for deployment to Europe. Thus, MARPAC and some of the RCAF and Army would mostly occupy themselves with patrolling Canada’s Pacific coast…and slightly beyond.

HMCS Calgary would reinforce MARLANT while Vancouver, Winnipeg and the submarine Corner Brook would take up patrol duties. In the meantime, Canadian intelligence officers prepared to visit British and French commanders in the region…

Dec. 29th, Near Marville, France

For the past two days, the man had contented himself watching Canadian and French engineers work on a long airstrip. A token amount of aircraft had landed, and what big aircraft they were! They were only transport planes, but the man was still impressed.

The Czech forces in exile across France were unorganized and suffered from a lack of modern equipment. The Free Czechoslovak Air Force barely had any planes, and most of its airmen were scattered across France and her Empire.

Sighing, the man continued to watch the construction. These men sure were efficient.

Jan. 8th, Mississauga, Ontario

Kent Helsburger swore as he paid for gas. Ever since the Shift, gas prices had soared. Sure, they had stopped rising, but the impact was still felt. Fewer cars were on the roads now. There were still plenty, but highways seemed less crowded.

As he returned to his 2016 Mitsubishi Lancer, he reflected on his task. Crossing the border wouldn’t be too hard. If he could not get past the guards, he would just find a road to jump. His car, arguably the worst in its class, was filled with gasoline and printed documents. He would do his best to get to Washington D.C.

Jan. 11th, Somewhere in Britain

Dozens of Canadian armoured vehicles drove down the country road. They were heading to Camp Maple, the area where most of the Canadian Expeditionary Force would stay until they were deployed elsewhere.

In the column were vehicles of all shapes and sizes. LSVWs drove amongst TAPVs and LAVs. Coyotes hid in the shadow of Leopards.

The column approached a bridge that was over a stream. Most of the vehicles crossed with ease. Not all would be able to do this. Most bridges in the ‘30s were not built to handle 60+ ton behemoths. Leopards began to cross the bridge one at a time. They drove slowly and carefully. Thanks to these efforts, most of the tanks were able to cross without too many issues. Three more needed to get across.

The first tank slowly crossed the bridge. Unfortunately, the structure of the bridge was stressed from taking extraordinary amounts of weight. Cracks appeared in the structure and an audible groan was heard. The Leopard, a 2A6M, sped up and reached the other side just as part of the bridge caved.

Oslo, Norway

Johan Nygaardsvold stared out of the window, thoughts swirling around his head. The up-time Norwegian Ambassador to Canada, the military attaché and a man from the Canadian Ministry had left hours ago, but what they had told him was startling.

The German invasion and its effects were the main topic. He had been dismayed to learn that Norway had its neutrality violated, and was unhappy with the fact that his country would have been occupied.

That would not happen this time, not on his watch.

Yep. I like the irony.

Mr. Helsburger is on his way to DC.. but he'll have some difficulties.

  Now that subtly dodged the question.  Is he a hard line German or possibly an American?  We will find out in time but either way it could be disruptive.

They sure have the power to beat anything the Germans can trow at them.

Nice to see it happening, Go Canada.

You are right, that raises a question, does Canada of 2018 need to build military hardware, like those which where used in the 1950s, as i assume they might be easy to build then 2018 military hardware.