OK, helmets on
:
In the 1970s there was a process (and a joint Army/Air staff branch) called "combat development." The "combat developers," I was one of them, were told, by the Chief of Land Operations (
in NDHQ, the commander of the Army was Comd Mobile Command) that there were three armies:
- Army 1 consisted of 4CMBG in Europe plus 1 and 2 CIBGs which were to -
- Replace 4CMBG's initial combat losses, and
- Bring it up to full CMBG strength - we were never going to put a Div in CENTAG, and
- Provide a base for further mobilization;
- Army 2 consisted of 5 CIBG - it was to be the Defence of Canada Force, specially organized, equipped and trained for medium-intensity operations anywhere in Canada but specially in the Arctic. No one was ever, ever to say this in public because it meant that the R22R was to be "fencible" force; and
- Army 3 was to be based on the remnants of 1 and 2 CIBGs and on the Militia and was to form 1st Canadian Division and, eventually 1st Canadian Corps.
Dreaming in
technicolour you might say but, at the very least, there was an embryonic mobilization plan - in Ottawa, NOT in Mobile Command which was the current "operator" - and a small staff, heavy on a
bunch handful of G1 and G4 majors which actually went out and talked to the Militia units.
In the 1970s and early '80s the Army was seized with the idea of 1st Canadian Division and the RV series of exercises followed, but there are, I remind you all, seven stages to any and all military endeavours:
- Initial Enthusiasm;
- Disillusionment;
- Panic;
- Search for the Guilty;
- Punishment of the Innocent;
- Destruction of All Useful Documentation; and
- Honour and Awards for Senior Non-Participants.