Newfoundland Special Forces?

Strategos' Risk

According to Wikipedia, it would seem many British Commonwealth states have special forces or at least special police units. The U.K., Canada, Australia, and South African do. Even New Zealand has an SAS, and so did Rhodesia. Catchy name.

So, suppose Newfoundland never joined the Canadian Confederation and remains its own separate Dominion, and later fully-independent nation. Would they eventually have a military with a special forces branch?
 
Magniac

Magniac

Strategos' Risk said:
According to Wikipedia, it would seem many British Commonwealth states have special forces or at least special police units. The U.K., Canada, Australia, and South African do. Even New Zealand has an SAS, and so did Rhodesia. Catchy name.

So, suppose Newfoundland never joined the Canadian Confederation and remains its own separate Dominion, and later fully-independent nation. Would they eventually have a military with a special forces branch?
Click to expand...

New Zealand isn't that surprising, they did contribute entire infantry divisions to fight in Europe & the South Pacific during WWII. That's a bigger military tradition than the Newfies ever had, I think.

An independent Newfoundland post-'49 would probably have a commando unit to operate with whatever maritime capability they had if they want any spec ops forces. After all, the ColdWar buildup of the fifties just won't pass them (though it--these hypothetical commandos--might be just a reservist unit). Maybe their defence planning is done in accord with the USN and NORAD, with the emphasis being on mounting raids/defending the airbases on Greenland?

Creating an SAS would be a late ColdWar era thing, probably after the rise of seventies terrorism.
 

Strategos' Risk

Ah, and as a necessary precursor to a viable Newfoundland independent nation (never mind military) let's say one of the PODs involved would be that they don't get the fruit of their youth killed in WWI's Battle of the Somme, and also when later WWII happens Newfoundland also doesn't get the bulk of their boys killed as well.

So there's a military tradition that develops from that, albeit from a rather small population.
 

Sachyriel

Banned
Would Nova Scotia have a unit of their own that fought alongside them in the Battle of St. Pierre against the Vichy French Forces?:confused:
 

Strategos' Risk

Nova Scotia's unit would be part of Canada's as a whole, but fighting Vichy French in St. Pierre and Miquelon would be amusing. The question is if Newfoundland had remained or became independent from the U.K. would they have a sizable military with its own special ops unit.

Anyone else care to weigh in? Melvin Loh?
 

Simon Darkshade

Not inordinantly difficult.
PoD would be not having the Newfoundland Regiment take such heavy casualties at the Somme.

Royal Newfoundland Regiment serves in the Second World War with a battalion; this force is perhaps incorporated into the 1st Special Service Force, or serves in the North African campaign - in the latter case, some men may join a commando. For Overlord, there is a small Newfoundland representation in the SAS of maybe a couple of sticks

In the postwar period, an independent Newfoundland keeps a small military force and deploys a platoon sized contingent to Malaya, which is later named the Newfoundland SAS. It would perhaps operate with Canadian forces based with BAOR in case of war.
 

Simon Darkshade

There are three current units with that name, and two previous units.

The Australian and New Zealand SAS come from the experience of the Malayan Emergency, which showed the utility of such a force, as did the subsequent Indonesian Confrontation. They were modelled on and named after the British unit which was recreated in Malaya from the Artists Rifles.

The Rhodesian SAS drew its lineage from a squadron of Rhodesian volunteers that served in the Malayan Emergency.

The common link is then easily identifiable - the experience of joint operations in the early postwar period under British command in South East Asia and the successful model of the British SAS, just as a number of militaries have 'commandos' due to past joint experience.

The Canadian SAS was a brief late 40s unit that transformed into a larger airborne battalion and not related to the other units.
 
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