Cold War Hot: Alternate Decisions of the Cold War

by Tsouras, Peter

  SSEA: “Our diplomats in Moscow believe that the Soviets may soon call upon the communist world for a multinational force of transport aircraft to ‘relieve the besieged city of Montreal,’ sort of a reverse Berlin Airlift.”

  Finance Minister: “This is shocking. What would the Americans do?”

  Minister without Portfolio: “Can we negotiate? Perhaps develop some form of joint sovereignty like the British and the Palestine Mandate? Or Cyprus?”

  Justice Minister: “Look where that got them.”

  Chief of Defence Staff: “Sir, we recommended against the deep cuts to the armed forces, but we were cavalierly ignored. These are the consequences of a lack of preparedness. We insisted on having the capability and the numbers to fight across the spectrum of conflict, but you people denied us the resources. Our critical front line role with NATO in Europe was and is the keystone of our strategy in the Cold War and rightly so. Other armies are able to handle multiple missions, but you didn’t want us to, particularly after the TV footage of how the Americans are fighting in Vietnam. What would you have us do?”

  Justice Minister: “We can bring back our forces stationed in West Germany.”

  Chief of Defence Staff: “With all due respect sir, to do what? The CF-104s are equipped with nuclear weapons. We can’t use those here in this situation. 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group is equipped with Centurion tanks, Bobcat armoured personnel carriers, Bobcat self-propelled artillery, and Honest John nuclear rockets. It is designed to deter and defeat a Soviet attack against NATO in Europe, not crawl down sewers and alleys in downtown Montreal. SACEUR tells me that if we withdraw this formation from Northern Army Group, his defensive plans in that region will lack credibility; he has no other formations available, and the Soviets might exploit that. I recommend leaving it in place.”

  Defence Minister: “The intelligence coordination centre confirms that the revolution is spreading into the Quebec hinterland. We no longer have the propaganda resources to counter that since the CBC12 facilities in Montreal are all in the hands of the rebels. We need to act now.”

  Minister for Health and Welfare: “What are the options?”

  Clerk of the Privy Council: “I had my staff develop some ideas. May I present them?”

  Justice Minister: “By all means.”

  Clerk of the Privy Council: “There are three. First, we can request UN assistance under Article 51 to pre-empt the French proposal. The problem is that they have their hooks into the Chinese and Soviet reps on the Security Council and are ahead of us in that game.”

  Agricultural Minister: “That would be ironic: asking Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Israel for a peacekeeping force…”

  Clerk of the Privy Council: Quite. “There is the American option: we can request assistance under the terms of our bilateral defence relationship in the Military Cooperation Committee and Permanent Joint Board on Defence.”

  Justice Minister: “Once in, they might not leave. It would cause irreparable damage to our national psyche which is predicated on the fact that we are not American.”

  Clerk of the Privy Council: “We could also ask for assistance under NATO Article 5: An attack against one is an attack against all. Or the Commonwealth.”

  Health and Welfare Minister: “Somehow I think that Ghana, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Australia wouldn’t be crazy about deploying troops to Canada for the long term, particularly in the dead of winter.”

  Agricultural Minister: “What about Rhodesia? South Africa?”

 

  Postmaster General: “Nigeria is dealing with a separatist problem now with Biafra. Perhaps we could learn something from them.”

 

  Justice Minister: “The NATO option has promise. It keeps the Third World out of our affairs, it counterbalances predominant American power, and NATO is predicated on the UN anyway as a regional organization under Article 51. Let the Europeans come to our aid for a change.”13

  Canada Press, Brussels, July 14, 1968: “Canadian Ambassador requests NATO assistance to repel attack on Canadian sovereignty.”

  Associated Press, Brussels, July 16, 1968: “Canadian requests for collective defence fall on deaf ears: How soon they forget.”

  Ambassador Cadieux was furious and his first secretary knew it. “Those bastards!” he swore as he launched a glass ashtray across the room, “80,000 Canadians die for the protection of Western Europe in two world wars and they want to debate it?” The ashtray shattered against a framed Tom Thompson print on the wall.

  “Well,” his assistant noted, “We do have backing from the UK and the Americans. We can put the arm on the Dutch and maybe the Belgians: we helped them out in West New Guinea in 1962 and in the Congo in 1960. They owe us. Write off the Scandinavians. And Portugal, since we didn’t support them joining the Alliance in the first place. Forget Greece and Turkey: neither is impressed with us over Cyprus in 1964 and 1967. As for Italy and West Germany, the Canadian people will probably balk at allowing former Axis power troops on our soil. Italy isn’t too crazy about this anyway.”

  “20071967

  To: SACEUR

  From: CFHQ/CDS personal

  Ref: Canada’s NATO Commitments

  This message is to inform SHAPE that 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group will be withdrawn from NATO’s Central Region within one week. Furthermore, the other two brigade groups dedicated to SHAPE’s Strategic Reserve are as of this point removed as earmarked NATO forces. The ACE Mobile Force commitment provided by two Canadian battalion groups to Norway and Turkey is also withdrawn.

  We deeply regret these moves but the nature of the national emergency in Canada and the unwillingness of NATO nations to come to our aid dictates this action. 1 Canadian Air Division will remain in Europe as it constitutes 23 percent of SHAPE’s aerial nuclear striking force in the Central Region.

  ”14

  “21071967

  To: Canadian Minister of National Defence

  From: SACEUR

  Ref: Canada’s NATO Commitments

  The withdrawal of 4 CMBG will open a serious gap in the main defensive position of NORTHAG. With little or no warning Warsaw Pact forces have the capability to attack in the I (British) Corps with a minimum force of five divisions. By moving Warsaw Pact forces forward, this capability would be increased to 12 divisions. Should forward forces not be capable of containing an attack, a withdrawal to more favourable main defensive positions would be mandatory. 4 CMBG is tasked with organizing this position. Without this force in prepared defensive positions, the forward units in contact would not be capable of being reinforced to allow orderly transition to the main defensive battle. This could increase the likelihood of the early use of nuclear weapons.

  ”15

  CFB Trenton, Ontario

  The first troops from West Germany were arriving by Yukon strategic transport at CFB Trenton, Ontario. It would be some weeks before the vehicles, artillery, and heavy equipment showed up and until that time 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group’s personnel were crammed into every nook and cranny in eastern Ontario with their personal weapons and equipment. They replaced the men from 2 Canadian Infantry Brigade Group, who were then deployed to re-take the St Lawrence Seaway so that American shipping from the Great Lakes could gain access to the Gulf of St Lawrence and thus the Atlantic.

  The base at Trenton was overcrowded. The Quebec People’s Militia (QPM) had overrun CFB Bagotville airbase north of Quebec City the preceding week. It was only by sheer luck that the nuclear MB-1 Genie air-to-air rockets for the CF-101 Voodoos were evacuated in time by American C-141 Starlifter transports. Most of the Alouette Squadron escaped, but their ground crews were not so lucky. After a pitched battle, the base security force was overrun by superior numbers and most of the base was seized intact. The NORAD-tasked radar stations in the region were also abandoned, which left a huge hole in radar coverage behind the DEW Line. If the Soviet bomber force attacked, NORAD would be unab
le to direct interceptors against them until they were much further south. By that time they would be in range of the SAC bases at Plattsburg AFB and Griffiths AFB in New York, or Loring AFB in Maine.

  The officers and men from the 1st Battalion, Royal Highland Regiment of Canada (The Black Watch), were quartered at CFB Kingston, east of Trenton, almost half way to Montreal. Captains John Llambias and Deryk Gravelle pondered their lot. The Yukon flight had been bone jarring and sleep had been impossible. Several gin and tonics at the Vimy Officer’s Mess eased their pain. The Watch were without their Bobcat APCs and were adapting to light infantry tactics once again.

  “What’s the word? Where to? Straight downtown?” Llambias asked. “You still know those Int people?”

  “Yeah, but they’re tight lipped as usual.”

  “So what is B Company training for?”

  “We keep loading onto the Hercs, fly around a bit at night, and then land at some old British Commonwealth Air Training Plan airfield near Gananoque, pour out and run. Nobody knows nothing.”

  The colonel stalked in. “Gentlemen, it’s on. Return to your platoons. We are on two hours notice to move as of now.”16

  Gravelle and Llambias were loaded into separate C-130s. Their men lounged the best they could around several jeeps equipped with 106mm recoilless rifles. After a sickening drop, the Hercs thumped down. As the engines screamed and brakes screeched, the ramps were down and the men of 1 RHR of C poured out into a dark occasionally studded with green tracer fire. The former RCAF station Lachine, in the process of being converted to an international airport, was on the southern outskirts of Montreal. Gravelle and his men, assigned to seize the terminal buildings, roared up on their jeeps and engaged the FLQ fighters with 106mm fire at near point-blank range. The bulky infrared gear, some of it mounted on the weapons with reams of black tape, gave them the advantage.

  Two FLQ-manned 40mm Bofors guns posed serious problems, however, once their stunned crews recovered. A Buffalo transport in the process of landing was turned into a smoking ruin on the runway, as were the 30 men aboard. Llambias’ platoon had an SS-11 ATGM mounted on a jeep. The gunner brought the specially stabilized binoculars up to his face and gripped the joystick. “Firing now!” The French-made anti-tank missile peeled off the rail mounted on the back of the jeep. The shaped charge made contact with the makeshift shield of the Bofors (they were scrounged from a naval depot and destined for one of the Navy’s aircraft carriers) and detonated with a thump, destroying the crew with the gun.

  As day broke, the men of the Black Watch surveyed the situation. They held the field and its facilities. There had been no felquists in the area beyond those who were manning Lachine, and all of these had been killed or captured. A throng of Montreal suburbanites blocked the main gate, but they were dispersed with machine-gun fire directed over their heads. Anybody who threw a rock was shot to deter further aggressive activity.

  Gravelle was talking to Captain Theo Heuthorst, one of the Here pilots: stray machine-gun fire had severed several of the aircraft’s vital organs and it was stranded for the time being.

  “What have you heard?”

  “The Dutch have flown in a marine battalion. They’re holding the Ottawa-Hull area to free up troops for Montreal. The Americans moved parts of the 82nd Airborne Division to Plattsburg and mobilized the New York, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire National Guards to patrol the border. I was talking to a C-141 crew after the Bagotville affair. They tell us that there aren’t enough American forces, that they’re so committed to Vietnam, Laos, and elsewhere, that its going to take time for them to put something together. There’s a lot of rioting in Los Angeles and Detroit. The US Air Force wants to solve the whole Quebec thing with fighter-bombers, but Ottawa won’t let them use napalm or any of the other assorted weapons they’re employing in Southeast Asia.”

  “What about the British? We hear they’re in New Brunswick.”

  “Yeah, we caught that, too. They’re stretched pretty thin as well: all over the Persian Gulf, Northern Ireland, Biafra, and Malaysia. I saw some at Fredericton when we dropped off 1 Canadian Guards at CFB Gagetown. They looked like airborne guys, but they had a beige beret, not a maroon one, and it had this dagger with wings on it. We heard from the Argus anti-submarine patrol boys that they bagged a Soviet submarine trying to land shit to the FLQ forces operating near Quebec City. 5 Brigade was evacuated from CFB Valcartier north of Quebec City. The insurgency seems to be centred around Montreal, or so the CF-5 jocks say. We hear weird stuff, like the Soviets sending in a special team to strip the radar sites near Bagotville and get int on our air defence system. Or that they’ve given the Felquists chemical weapons or worse…”17

  The roar of jet engines drowned out Heuthorst’s words. Without warning, five C-141s landed in succession and taxied to the unfinished hangar area. Men wearing camouflaged uniforms and sporting green berets with a Trojan Horse insignia ran up to Gravelle and Heuthorst.

  “I’m Major Tannenger. Who’s in charge of security here?”

  Heuthorst gawked as several unwieldy objects were extracted from the insides of the C-141s and then moved into the hangars. Llambias met some of the Special Forces personnel in the makeshift ops room. “Bear any burden, eh?” he grinned. They gave the thumbs up.

  Within hours, a complete US Army Ranger company had been flown in. Centurion tanks and Lynx reconnaissance vehicles from 8th Canadian Hussars moved in from their staging areas near Oka and secured the Lachine perimeter. Brigadier-General David Soper briefed the senior officers commanding the activities at the airport.

  “Gentlemen, this is the outline plan for Operation Grab Bag: the seizure of the political leadership of the separatist movement and the destruction of the FLQ/QPM command complex. Intelligence sources indicate that they are co-located in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in downtown Montreal. The combined US–Canadian force, using the element of surprise, will proceed by air, secure the operations zone, raid the offices and extract or kill all personnel on the fourth and fifth floor. Any obviously foreign support or liaison staff are to be captured for interrogation. A ground force based on a truck-mounted Dutch parachute battalion will proceed from CFB St Hubert east of Montreal to the hotel and extract the prisoners. Detailed orders will follow within the hour. I know there isn’t the usual amount of planning time, but the target is fleeting and the opportunity must be seized. Go prepare your men.”

  The objects delivered by C-141 were US Army helicopters, a mixture of UH-1 Iroquois and AH-1 Cobra gunships. The Cobras were equipped with 20mm and 7.62mm Gatling guns, while the Iroquois were stripped down for speed. The force flew off just before dawn, low over the suburbs and swooped down on the QE hotel. Things started to go wrong immediately. The FLQ, it was later discovered, were equipped with experimental SAM-7 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles. Examples had been used by the Viet Cong against American forces in Vietnam, but security prevented wide distribution of the knowledge. In minutes, the radio net was jammed with reports of “Iroquois down!”

  Several squads were scattered all over the area. The survivors regrouped and stormed the QE to find that most of the FLQ leaders had evacuated. Cobras prowled the urban canyons looking for targets, but were unable to find any masses of enemy forces for their weapons. The Dutch, however, had a tough time. They were ambushed trying to get to the downtown core by FLQ teams armed with RPG anti-tank weapons and masses of civilians hurling Molotov cocktails hastily made from the Esso and Shell gas stations along the route. After suffering heavy casualties, the Dutch withdrew into another ambush and, after losing more men, eventually limped back to St Hubert. Gravelle’s platoon scored a success, however. A team of three Algerian advisors was apprehended, while the Rangers caught a Cuban who claimed his name was Chabot. Moving from alley to alley, the force’s remnants were eventually extracted by helicopter from the roof of a hockey rink.

  In the boiler room of the Lachine terminal building, one of the “Algerians” broke after hours of intense
interrogation. “I am Major Pierre Langois of the French Army…” he gasped. Langois proceeded to spill his guts into a microphone for the benefit of the intelligence unit’s reel to reel tape recorder.

  “5 August 1968

  Top Secret (Canadian Eyes Only)

  To: Justice Minister

  From: Minister of National Defence

  Ref: LANGOIS interrogation

  My dear colleague,

  The following points emerge from the interrogation:

  1) A French covert unit which included OAS persons committed the murders in Gatineau and elsewhere. The Black Guard organization does not exist.

  2) Soviet Bloc equipment is trickling past our naval forces but not in large quantities.

  3) The FLQ has expanded its cell structure to Metis areas in Manitoba and Acadian areas in northern New Brunswick.

  4) The QPM continues to expand guerrilla operations in the hinterland but does not have enough trained manpower even to conduct small unit operations. The blockade prevents them from acquiring enough heavy weapons to equip such forces.

  5) Former Militia personnel have been consolidated into three light infantry battalions and possess enough equipment and ammunition to conduct effective defensive operations in Montreal. Another battalion is in Quebec City.

  Sincerely,”18

  Canadian Cabinet Foreign Affairs Committee: August 15, 1968

  Secretary of State for External Affairs: “Our attempts to use the Langois transcripts in the North Atlantic Council to force NATO members to censure France have failed. We cannot, obviously, use the taped recordings…”

  Justice Minister: “Clearly, no…”

  Secretary of State for External Affairs: “The McGovern administration is in the process of extricating itself from Vietnam and trying to maintain peace in the continental United States. The demonstration in Washington, DC, yesterday required an entire infantry brigade to contain.”