The Old World is Dying
The Eagles Burning Autumn of '36
Through the remains of June and into July the situation south of the border carried on its slow decline, internationally the global situation was marked by 1936 of rapid fragmentation and radicalisation, with Canada's attention devoted south. Strikes were spiralling into running battles between syndicalists and the police, in the Deep South racialism reached new heights as the Ku Klux Klan and its links with the Southern Democrats and America First parties seen race riots erupt in major southern metropolitan areas, fearful southern whites suspected, not without good cause of the infection of syndicalism into the African American population. California and the West coast felt like a different country altogether, syndicalism and Long's populism had yet to make major inroads in the still rock-solid Republican-Democrat dichotomy west of the Rockies. There were rumours in New England of conspiracies of the state governors to reject the Federal government should it fall into the hands of Long or Reed and the influence of Canadian Royalists were of growing concern. In the industrial heartlands of the East, syndicalists were running the shop, having come to dominate local and state government, they overtly used the institutions they controlled to promote Reed's presidential bid, outside of the Red Heartlands, leftist rallies were met with violent confrontation from Longites or Federal authorities, there was little done to hide the fact that Federal officials were openly hostile to the Combined Syndicates. Rumours of succession were whispered in the shadows while the fear of significant disturbances or even an uprising were increasingly dominating the narrative of the press and Washington’s corridors of power. Such talk was increasingly drawing the attention of Canada and even the King himself. After consultation with the British exiles and Canadian military brass, but side-lining the Prime Minister, the King penned a deeply confidential letter in response to the brutal and bloody ‘Battle of the Overpass’ of late June and resulted in a state of emergency and deployment of the national guard in the state of Michigan. The contents of the letter are still shrouded in mystery and lore, delivered by a close confidant of General MacArthur after a meeting with a Canadian/British intelligence operative, the letter would have deep repercussions in American and global history, with the potential to spark a major international and diplomatic incident, the passing of the letter in some form assured the General of Canadian support in whatever actions he deemed necessary to undertake to stop the spread of syndicalism in the United States and defending peace in North America. The Monarch had effectively overridden the Canadian and Imperial governments in a major diplomatic action with no consultation or notification of the fact, something that would only become apparent in the months to come.
Douglas MacArthur was US Chief of Staff, a well-known and tried and tested anti syndicalist from his days in Mexico and the Philippines, his cadre of loyal officers and underlings had connections with Imperial intelligences contacts and was known to be deeply unsatisfied with the failure of democratic constitutional government to contain the rise of syndicalism and solves the crippling economic and social crisis affecting the nation
A raft of Liberal budget and economic legislation were passed and came into force through the remains of the Summer, with a large focus on aerospace as well as wider research and development and the military applications of it. A new wave of military thinking and strategic thought had seen a shifting in defence and funding priorities for the armed forces. While Canada's population had swelled extraordinarily in the past two decades from the exiles, to European migrants and now the influx of Americans seeking a better and more stable life had expanded the pool of manpower for military recruitment, Canada was still a nation with a small capacity for total mobilisation, the same with the Caribbean and Australasia. India was the only Dominion that had significant manpower resources to call upon, but she had not the industry, stability or the will to do so, and the White Dominions looked warily upon the idea of raising millions of Indians to base their defence upon. In the event of war, Canadian and Imperial strategists knew that they could not repeat the static warfare of the Great War and its drain upon the national reserves, instead with the appointment of George Vanier as the Chief of the General staff, a doctrine of ''Rolling Battle'' or ''Combined Arms''. Rolling battle was the idea of making each man count for the most he can in battle by assisting his task with the combined abilities of all the branches and weaponry that can be given. By use of portable radios, infantry could theoretically call in aircraft to bomb enemy hard points, fast moving motorised troops could flank enemy hard points to prevent their reinforcement or escape and lock them in position for artillery bombardment and defeat by heavier forces moving up from the rear. Experiments and experience with tanks was leading Canadian army planners in the direction of light cruiser tanks to work in tandem with mobile motorised troops and slower, but heavily armoured tanks to work as infantry support tanks for the slower moving dismounted infantry when it deals with enemy strong points, all the while under the support and cover of artillery support. Canadian troops were valuable because they were relatively few in number, so they needed to be valuable in their training, discipline and ability to hit the enemy in his weakest points, breakthrough, isolate and neutralise his opponent.
To see to the development of the weapons platforms to see this vision realised, the government founded the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment, a series of research and development operations and a centralised facility at Valcartier, a rocket range began to be constructed near Churchill Manitoba and Naval research arm at Halifax and Victoria, British Columbia. Highly secretive facilities and laboratories began to be constructed at Chalk River after Doctor George Laurence had delivered a highly confidential seminar to members of the government and Imperial defence establishment, the site was small in size but the security around was intense and scrubbed from maps. McGill University’s school of theoretical physics began to receive large influxes of funding from the army and its faculty and students carefully screened and vetted by the RMCP, mysteriously these developments rarely made it beyond the local press or campus rumours.
Canadian members of the exiled British Grenadier Guards Regiment evaluate and test prototypes of the Crusader Cruiser, a breakthrough tank developed to be fast and with a 35mm gun, while the tank itself would prove to be a failure, it was a vital source of testing and practical experience in Canadian and Imperial tank development
By August the formal opening and operation of the Imperial Air Training Scheme, a pan Empire with French participation for the joint training of aircrews and standardisation of aircraft types, armaments and engine parts between the Imperial Dominions to allow for cross operability and versatility of the various Royal Air forces, especially the rapid deployment and ease of operation of expeditionary squadrons that maybe required in the event a member state requires wider Imperial assistance. Largely the brainchild and pushed by the British government, with the formation of the IATS the concept of the Imperial Airforce began to emerge amongst discussions of an Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, in effect it was the coordination and merging of the separate military arms of the Dominion militaries into a pan Empire military force that was still autonomous to the Dominion governments, but unified with the wider empire by standard kit, ethos, operation and strategy. The IATS was the first manifestation of these efforts since pro Imperial governments had come to power amongst a deteriorating global situation and the Canadian government was impotent to resist the King, Conservative military and British establishment railroading them into closer Imperial Union, the Prime Minister too could see clearly that Canada was a nation of severe limitations in manpower. IATS would be primarily based out of Canada from Royal Canadian Air Station Borden in Ontario and RCAS Dundurn with detachment at Indian Air Force Station Cawnpore and Royal Australasian Air Force Stations Daly Waters and Learmouth. The initiative involved the setting of Dominion Air Cadet/Air Training Corps organisations, aimed at 10-18 year olds, like their army and naval cadet counterparts, these organisations sought to foster Imperial pride, scout out and train the future generation of Imperial military leaders, the young lad in the outback, the rootless girl in Delhi or the difficult teen in Vancouver, all could find adventure, life experiences, camaraderie and direction in the various cadet corps. India sent a total of 82 trainee cadets (adult, enlisted air force personnel as opposed to the youth cadets), the Caribbean sent 41, Australasia sent 393, National France sent 25 and Canada sent 836 recruits in the first cadre of the 36-37 eight month intensive IATS program. If successful the cadets would earn the coveted Eagle and Crown badge to display they were now qualified Royal Airforce pilots.
As well as training pilots, the IATS helped form the No. 525 Flight Royal Canadian Airforce, a special unit raised to test the latest experimental and prototype aircraft as well as examine and demonstrate the capabilities of foreign aircraft procured by the Dominions governments. Cadets, all of whom will have done a year and half at least of flight training in their Dominion air forces, would be extensively trained on the Bristol Bulldog before moving on to the ultra-modern Hawker Canada, Hurricane monoplane fighter
In tandem with the establishment of the IATS was the formation of the Royal Atlantic Aeronautics Corporation. shared venture between the Canadian and Caribbean governments and private investors, the RAAC was an initiative with many aims by the Canadian-British investors and powers behind it. With Anglo-Canadian influence on the Caribbean dominion reaching ever increasing heights and economic domination substantial, Kingston was circling ever more into Ottawa's orbit and was approaching the status of being a puppet of the British government in exile rather than an autonomous Dominion. Fostering closer links and ease of access would solidify Anglo-Canadian control of Caribbean resources and politics. Along with the establishment of the RAAC and direct airlinks between Quebec, Ottawa and Toronto with Bermuda, Kingston and Trinidad, the Federation government proposed that the Canadian government invest in the expansion of bauxite extraction in Jamaica and Guiana. The other desired goal of this project was to tap into market forces to train up extra pilots and develop the next generation of transport and passenger aircraft, a tempting offer for Canadian and American aircraft manufactures, the RAAC contracts were a tempting prize to push the limits of the size, durability, comfort, range and capacity of large aircraft. The American Douglas DC-2, Vickers Wellington-Toronto and Shorts-Vancouver Empire flying boats competed and began to ply the airways over the Western seaboard from August onwards, taking officials, investors, a smattering of tourists and loads of resources as experiments and testing the potential of airlifted freight. The RAAC's establishment also began the expansion of Canadian aerodromes and airbases in the central belt and the East Coast as well as on the larger and strategic islands of the Caribbean.
The Navy especially became very interested in the concept of flying boats and was a large investor in their development via the RAAC. The Royal Caribbean Navy especially was interested in their potential for littoral patrol and defence as a way to lower costs on expensive and resource intensive ships for aircraft and the Royal Canadian Navy sought to determine the possibility of long range flying boats for operations against the Union of Britain and anti-ship activity in the Atlantic. The RAAC was an example of the developing economic thinking that state investment and capital could be utilised by private enterprise to drive down production and operation costs as well as foster innovation and development, as well as allow the state an active role in the market, but not necessarily a dominant one.
Further tying the Imperial links together was the establishment of the Imperial Scientific and Academic Council was official formed with government support. A forum through which leading scientific figures and academic leaders from across the Empire could discuss ideas, cooperate on research, resource utilisation and dialogue to advance Imperial scientific progress and theory. In a fractured empire, it was essential for the limited resources available to the Dominions were utilised to their utmost potential, quality and professionalism was the hall mark in the Empire, from men, material and thought. As part of the ISAC, regular conferences would be arranged across the Dominions across the year and trailblazing graduates could be given generous ISAC sponsored grants to pioneer research and study in various member states. The ISAC was a major initiative to rebuild and rejuvenate the universities and academia across the Empire, the purges of the mid 20's had decimated many universities and schools of study in many remaining Dominions. Lecturers and academics had to prove their anti syndicalist credentials and loyalty to the Crown, in the developing field of Social Sciences, this made for the Anglo-Saxon School of Sociological Thought, or the Toronto School as it became known to European and the wider academic world. The Toronto School was the trend of British/Canadian academics and philosophers, first based out of Toronto University before rapidly spreading across Canada and then to the rest of the Dominion universities, the school of thought centred on a right wing, sometimes reactionary, at other times right wing modernist interpretation of social theory, cultural analysis and socio-economic-political relations, development and thought. Formulated by figures such as G. K Chesterton, Christopher Dawson, Michael Oakeshott, Henry Williamson, Vernon Bourke and Charles Cochrane, while they held many often conflicting views, their overall set of ideas would coalesce into a wider philosophical idea of Palingenetic Modernism/Culturalism, with many competing branches, the ideas encapsulated that the rise of Syndicalism was a result of the weakening of the unifying identities of the national population, either in the form of nationality or religion, in effect it advocated for the imposing of a new social order or the resurrection of an older order to quell class conflict, the petty social conflicts and outside threat under a cultural zeitgeist that encompassed the established national culture and traits. Widely associated with the development of this movement was the Imperial eugenics program and the racialist policies and thoughts ingrained in society. A more radical segment of Palinmodernism was Genetic-modernism, GenMods advocated the widespread use of eugenic policies to purify the Anglo-Saxon/Celtic race of genetic disorder, social undesirables, racial detritus and uplift the race. While a small dedicated group in Canada adhered to GenModernism, in Australasia it was fashionable to embrace the tenants to preserve the bastions of the White British race on the far side of the world, segments of the America First Party under Fritz Khun enthusiastically embraced the ideals, if he did not greatly distort them to fit into his narrative against African Americans and Jews. For the Empire, the result of this change in academia and thought on campus had led to the mid-1930s of Dominion universities becoming hotbeds of conservative, right wing and nationalism, often with students holding protests or denouncing fellow students and faculty they felt were lacking in their patriotism and loyalty.
Completely unintelligible to non-boffins, it could be the key to the most frightful weapon ever conceived, or it could just be the theory behind the latest recipe of Imperial Maple Lager Beer, whatever it is, all that matters is that was drawn up by British, Canadian, Australasian, American and even an Indian professors and doctoral students. The ISAC rapidly became the global standard for scientific excellence outside of Germany, a major competitor of German science, the ISAC was politically charged in its fierce competition with its German counterparts. When Albert Einstein gave a lecture tour of the US and Canada in 1936, he was closely monitored and tailed by Canadian intelligence his entire trip, being a German was bad enough but a known sympathiser with syndicalism was horrific in many Canadians eyes. His tour was subject to protests which coloured his view of Canada and British Imperialism, however he earned the grudging respect of his British/Canadian colleagues for his visionary mind. Little known was that Canadian intelligence had several plans to abduct Einstein to either convert him or force him to work for Imperial science, however in the end the plans were not carried out as they were deemed to be too unsporting and damaging to diplomatic relations.
On September 1st a Syndicalist election rally in Washington turned violent, rapidly the rally spilled out of control and central Washington turned into a pitched battle between Federal authorities, syndicalist mobs and gangs of AUS Minute Men. largely brought under control by the middle of the September 2nd, the riots had been put down, however the scene of violent mobs in front of the Whitehouse and Capitol building was too much to bear for the beleaguered outgoing President Herbert Hoover. With threats of major violence in the South and Central Belt the President in consultation with his various secretaries of state came to a history shattering decision. With many police forces under increasing strain and some states spiralling out of control, the President declared a national state of emergency and gave sweeping powers to General MacArthur and the army to reimpose order and stability to the nation. The election was postponed till the current period of national crisis abated and both Houses of Congress prorogued. However, the President rapidly lost control of the General he just entrusted with defending the constitution, within days the President had become side-lined as a shocked and bewildered nation attempted to come to terms with the major upheavals it was undergoing. MacArthur rapidly began issuing orders above his brief, he locked down Washington under an iron ring with loyal officers who ensured that the institutions of state answered directly to him, the President impotent to counteract MacArthur becoming in effective prisoners in his own Whitehouse.
US Army tanks move into central Washington on September the 8th as the President issued a state of national emergency which had just been approved by the bi-partisan support of the Democrats and Republicans despite fierce debate. The pacification of Washington was carried out by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of MacArthur’s closest confidants.
For years there had been rumours of factions within the Army top brass that saw the feebleness of the politicians as the cause and propagator of the crisis’s that had beset the nation. In 1932 rumours of a coup had flourished as a plot financed by very wealthy interests sought to install General Smedley Butler as a dictator in order to defend against the impotent governments mishandling of the syndicalist threat and economic collapse, however the rumours came to nothing and Butler was cleared by a Congressional hearing. MacArthur however, when given the chance grabbed it by both hands, he rapidly put loyal officers in key positions of the government and deployed the army to strategic and crucial national infrastructure. There were demonstrations in areas of heavy syndicalist influence, however they quickly petered out, however the CSA was known to be organising in response to the new military order that they knew was hostile to them and would in time come after them. When federal and police forces attempted to intern the CSA leadership, they were met with empty houses and only minor CSA leaders were interned with in the first days of the emergency being declared. The AUS and Long's movement were left unmolested as the focus of the army was in the North and against the syndicalists. California, Oregon and Washington voiced grave misgivings over the overturning of the democratic system for a military regime with no oversight. By the end of the 17th syndicalists began to stage strikes and civil dissent against the new authorities in their areas of influence, in the south the Minute Men began to be put on notice.
US soldiers securing Detroit railyard against agitating syndicalists and bemused locals
The Canadian response was a mild rebuke for the stripping away of the tottering democracy but a voicing of support for MacArthur and his efforts to quash the rebellious anti-constitutional forces in the nation and establish the United States as a 'Shining City Upon the Hill'. However there had been a small stream of people fleeing from the US across the Canadian frontier, fearing the future and the new regime, any syndicalists that attempted to cross the border and were apprehended were immediately handed over into Federalist custody. However, it was events across the Atlantic that would push things beyond a tipping point. The Syndicalist international was meeting in Paris to determine the future course of socialism internationally, and an entire day was dedicated to the American question, upon which the newly established Totalist leaders of France and Britain pledged their full support to the powers of international revolution, the CNT-FAI and the CSA. Naturally this was condemned by all non- syndicalist powers, but it pushed MacArthur to cut off all diplomatic relations with the revolutionary states and clamp down on all trade and traffic, as small as it was with France and Britain. Through October the situation slowly escalated as there were increasing demonstrations and strikes, however Jack Reed in hiding had announced that come November 8th, the former date of the election, there should be a national general strike which should be maintained until MacArthur was toppled from power. On October 22nd a ship flying the Norwegian flag was impounded in New York after it was discovered to be carrying thousands of weapons and ammunition from France destined for the CSA, it had long been known that the CSA had been mobilising armed paramilitaries, but the Federals had failed to ever nail down the foreign connection. It was sensational news and the excuse MacArthur needed, on October 30th, the Halloween battle ensued as Federal troops moved into Chicago to dismantle the CSA and totally clear the city of suspected arms caches and intern any and all persons suspected of syndicalist activity. Local militias rose rioting mobs to oppose the army and skirmishes with firearms erupted, the first soldiers killed occurred as they attempted to intern two suspected CSA members before being ambushed and gunned down by a militia. In response the Army called up reinforcements and brutally went about quashing any opposition. Believing they were closing in on Reed, the army began to brutally disperse the demonstrating mobs and rioters. Across the Red states, militias began to group together and communications sabotaged as well as vital infrastructure damaged in order to frustrate federal authorities, demonstrators began to flood the streets of the Northern industrial cities. New England deployed its national guards to the New England frontiers with the rest of the nation and into its cities to prevent any spread of the chaos, reluctant and obfuscating Washington and federal commands, the New English governors effectively ran the region as an independent entity from Washington. The US dollar plummeted and the Stock Market closed. November 3rd Reed emerged from hiding to a large crowd in Detroit and declared that a provisional government had been formed and that the United States government had been hijacked by a capitalist cabal intent on quashing the workers movement, Reed then proclaimed the Second American Revolution was now underway and called upon American workers to seize the land, factories and weapons and oust MacArthur and the capitalist process of exploitation. Canada and Washington reacted in horror while in London and Paris cries of jubilation and adulation echoed forth and arms and syndicalist volunteers were planning how to make their way to the collapsing United States. On the 4th sections of the US Atlantic fleet mutinied, with revolutionary sailors arresting their officers and seizing Newark and sections of New York, MacArthur immediately dissolved Congress, the presidency and proclaimed himself the Protector of American Liberty, and issued orders for a national draft and mobilisation of the country against the Red uprising. However, on the 6th Huey Long and a delegation of Southern governors announced the United States was dead, the Federal government was corrupt and decadent and established the American Union State across the American south, immediately Federalists and Minute Men clashed. Hawaii also declared independence before finally on the 8th itself, California and the West coast announced their succession from the now shattered United States. The 2nd American Civil War had begun
The Federalist faction mobilises its troops for war
