Miles From Our Home: 2018 Canada ISOTed to December 1939

[redrobin65]

February 2018, Canada



It began as a normal day, but it certainly didn’t end in that way.



Across the country, millions of people rose and began their day-to-day activities. Some went to work, some went to school. Some went shopping while others stayed home. An unfortunate amount had nowhere to go at all.



Suddenly, blue lights flashed in the sky. It appeared insignificant at first, but people grew concerned as the whole sky glowed blue. From coast to coast, many people gawked at the sky. Others would never see this phenomenon in person, as they were fast asleep. Either way, nobody knew what was going on at all. They would find out soon enough.



A Lufthansa A350 was unceremoniously split in half as it crossed into Canadian airspace. The two halves plummeted towards the sea in different times as passengers were sucked out. No one survived. Many other aircraft crashed or were thrown off course.



In another time, a large convoy of ships was preparing to cross out of Canadian waters. Just before the last ship left, bright lights flashed all around it. The sailors and soldiers were astounded, but continued onwards towards Britain. This convoy had many troopships that carried most of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division.



In Latvia, there was a bright flash and a military camp disappeared. Similar flashes occurred in the Caribbean, Niger, South Sudan, Japan, Congo, Poland, Cyprus, Ukraine, Iraq and various locations on the high seas.



Eventually, the bright lights dimmed and questions were asked. Why can’t we contact NORAD or SHAPE? What happened to foreign TV networks? Why is the Internet missing several sites? How did my unit appear at its home base? What on earth did those lights do?

[lordroel]

Mar 15, 2018 13:34:17 GMT redrobin65 said:

In another time, a large convoy of ships crossed out of Canadian waters. Just after the last ship left, bright lights flashed all around it. The sailors and soldiers were astounded, but continued onwards towards Britain. This convoy had many troopships that carried most of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division.

Nice to see it is now here on Alternate Timelines.

Question, is this the first convoy departing Canada in 1939 ore the second as that would mean only halve of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division will get to their United Kingdom destination in 1939.

[James G]

A Canadian ISOT. Looking forward to where it goes.

[stevep]

A question. There is a small British army presence in Saskatchewan, which I found by accident when browsing some links. Not a large one but a few tanks and other such units and there might be other training bases and the like in Canada and probably some expats, tourists etc. Would they come along as well?

Once Canada realises what's happened then things change totally. They will be able to supply not only some very powerful modern forces but huge amounts of information and a massive increase in capacity for intelligence gathering. Whether they would tell Britain, or anyone else about nuclear weapons, although the information will leak and some details fairly rapidly. I can't see France falling in this TL and Nazi Germany will have a markedly shorter and less bloody lifespan. What happens with Japan, although a war is likely at some point, the Soviets and fascist Italy is more difficult to tell.

Also of course a liberal Canada with a fair number of non-white citizens and radically different social values will be quite a shock to the 1939 world, especially probably Britain and the US as they will have the most contact with them. What status they will take on things like the colonial empires, assorted forms of discrimination and how hard they push on those issues will be very important.

[lordroel]

Mar 15, 2018 20:51:34 GMT stevep said:

A question. There is a small British army presence in Saskatchewan, which I found by accident when browsing some links. Not a large one but a few tanks and other such units and there might be other training bases and the like in Canada and probably some expats, tourists etc. Would they come along as well?

You mean this one: British Army Training Unit Suffield

[James G]

Mar 15, 2018 20:55:39 GMT lordroel said:

Mar 15, 2018 20:51:34 GMT stevep said:

A question. There is a small British army presence in Saskatchewan, which I found by accident when browsing some links. Not a large one but a few tanks and other such units and there might be other training bases and the like in Canada and probably some expats, tourists etc. Would they come along as well?

You mean this one: British Army Training Unit Suffield

It's been bigger in the past but still important now.
If Canadian Army units elsewhere in the world are returning, does that mean those from the UK (maybe transiting US forces too and officers at NORAD's North Bay) will disappear or stay?

[stevep]

Mar 15, 2018 20:55:39 GMT lordroel said:

Mar 15, 2018 20:51:34 GMT stevep said:

A question. There is a small British army presence in Saskatchewan, which I found by accident when browsing some links. Not a large one but a few tanks and other such units and there might be other training bases and the like in Canada and probably some expats, tourists etc. Would they come along as well?

You mean this one: British Army Training Unit Suffield

  That was probably it.  I was wandering off one of the links, probably from discussions on this site, as I sometimes do and came across a light hearted article about some dispute between Saskatchewan and Manitoba and what would happen if it somehow came to a shooting war.  Manitoba would massively outclass Saskatchewan in just about every measure in terms of population, industry etc but there was a reference to a British training base there which might help them out.  Thought it was actually inside Saskatchewan but sounds like it wasn't.

  Those forces are markedly smaller than I was thinking, especially since with the ISOT being in February they will only have the winter teams there but even apart from what Canada will supply that force could have some impact, although probably more for what they can tell the down-timers than the military resources they have.

 

[stevep]

Mar 15, 2018 21:12:40 GMT James G said:

Mar 15, 2018 20:55:39 GMT lordroel said:

You mean this one: British Army Training Unit Suffield

It's been bigger in the past but still important now.
If Canadian Army units elsewhere in the world are returning, does that mean those from the UK (maybe transiting US forces too and officers at NORAD's North Bay) will disappear or stay?

  That's probably the most likely case, that the UK and other foreign forces disappear.  However if they don't they might help provide a useful intermediate between the Canadians and the down-time Brits.  As well as possibly some additional evidence to get the down-timers to accept what has actually happened.

[lordroel]

Mar 15, 2018 21:15:17 GMT stevep said:

Mar 15, 2018 20:55:39 GMT lordroel said:

You mean this one: British Army Training Unit Suffield

  Those forces are markedly smaller than I was thinking, especially since with the ISOT being in February they will only have the winter teams there but even apart from what Canada will supply that force could have some impact, although probably more for what they can tell the down-timers than the military resources they have.

 

It says on the link below that 400 permanent staff and 1000 temporary deployed staff provide highly demanding combined arms manoeuvre training for the armoured forces of the British Army and our allies.

THE BRITISH ARMY IN CANADA

[redrobin65]

Notes:

Date of the ISOT is February 7th, 2018 to December 10th, 1939.

All foreign citizens come along for the ride.

[redrobin65]

From the highest levels of government to the common worker on the street, confusion reigned. No one knew what was going on at all.

A large problem was the appearance of several thousand Canadian military personnel at their home bases. Aircraft appeared in hangars, ships in port and soldiers in barracks. The Department of National Defence had quite an experience tracking them all down.

The civilian side was no better. Most GPS and other satellite systems suddenly failed to work. It would take the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) weeks to connect with all of their satellites, and even some that were not theirs. Two GPS satellites and three communications satellites that were over Canada during the Dislocation came along for the ride. However, it would take the CSA a long time to get them to work properly and integrate with their equipment. Internet services crashed and would never fully recover due to the lack of many foreign websites. The stock market plummeted, having lost foreign business. Trade ground to a screeching halt, while the various fleets of Canada’s shipping companies stayed in port.

The government was desperate to find out what happened. The main problem was: what do we do first? The overwhelming majority of senior ministers wanted to re-establish contact with the outside world. The first country they would try to contact was the United States.

Radio stations along the border easily picked up radio broadcasts in the States. Something was off though. In addition to 1930’s music, they were broadcasting 1930’s news! Hosts talked about the Phoney War, Anglo-French mobilization efforts and suspected deployments. According to the broadcasts, it was December 10th, 1939.

Naturally, the government was skeptical. Was this some giant hoax? A hack? A trick? Eventually, they decided to try to send reconnaissance aircraft across the border. Hopefully, a USAF fighter would see them and the Canadians would finally be able to contact the Americans.

A CP-140 Aurora fitted with high resolution cameras took off from CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia and crossed into Maine without being hailed or blown out of the sky. It flew over Portland and Augusta, taking dozens of pictures of both cities. Other Canadian Auroras, Hornets and Hercules did the same to Seattle, Albany, Providence, Detroit and Cleveland.

The only visible response to the flyovers were when a pair of United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) Seversky P-35s flew within sight of a CF-18, as they could never climb as high as the Hornet. After looking over the images and listening to the broadcasts, the senior government officials concluded that they had somehow travelled through time back to 1939.

Next on their agenda was to tell Parliament, the population and contact ‘downtime’ US officials.

[lordroel]

Mar 15, 2018 22:05:21 GMT redrobin65 said:

A CP-140 Aurora fitted with high resolution cameras took off from CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia and crossed into Maine without being hailed or blown out of the sky. It flew over Portland and Augusta, taking dozens of pictures of both cities. Other Canadian Auroras, Hornets and Hercules did the same to Seattle, Albany, Providence, Detroit and Cleveland.

Must belong to the 404 Long Range Patrol and Training Squadron then.

[James G]

We have us a Canadian superpower.

[lordroel]

Mar 15, 2018 22:56:53 GMT James G said:

We have us a Canadian superpower.

It seems like it, wonder how Canada is going to fill the shoes of being the most advance power in the world.

[stevep]

Mar 16, 2018 10:09:57 GMT lordroel said:

Mar 15, 2018 22:56:53 GMT James G said:

We have us a Canadian superpower.

It seems like it, wonder how Canada is going to fill the shoes of being the most advance power in the world.

  With difficulty I suspect as their also in a much nastier world at this point in time.  Plus with the difference in social values and the fact that I think even the British will have trouble recognising them as the new No. 1 while just about all the other big players in 1939 are used to thinking of them as that large thinly populated place just north of the US.  Especially since their population is still smaller than the major European powers it will take the rest of the world a little time to accept in their gut so to speak [as opposed to their brain] that if it wishes Canada can now punch very much above their former weight.

  Looking forward to seeing how things develop.

  One other point that occurred to me.  After Nazi Germany is dealt with, which could still take a year or so, and the question of Stalin and eastern Poland comes up the Canadians know how bad the Soviet regime is, what a threat it posed to the west after 45 and more explicitly what happened at Katyn.  Plus they are currently attacking Finland although I think the Canadians will be opposing any idea of the western powers giving support to the Finns.