This Sunday marks the centenary of the battle of Vimy Ridge. On this weekend we will, across both Canada and on the former battlefield, see commemoration ceremonies of the First World War Canadian victory fought in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. With justification, many consider the Canadian victory at Vimy a national historic event concurrent with our cutting many links with Britain.
It is widely acknowledged that Vimy Ridge is one of Canada’s most important military victories. Although the Canadian Corps Commander from 1915 to 1917 was the British Lt.-Gen. Sir Julian Byng, Vimy was the first time in the war that the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together.
The Canadian success is, with some considerable justification, still referred to as signalling “the birth of a nation.” It was, however, a costly one. Canadian casualties were 3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded in the three-day assault and victory over three divisions of the German Sixth Army.
Following the overwhelming Vimy success, Lt.-Gen. Byng was promoted to General. Byng had, however, groomed the talented 1st Canadian Division commander, Canadian-born Maj.-Gen. Arthur Currie, as his replacement.
With Byng promoted to army command after his Canadians had successfully stormed Vimy Ridge in April, Currie was promoted to lieutenant-general and appointed to head the Canadian Corps in June. The first and only Canadian to hold that appointment, Currie proved an excellent corps commander. His willingness to demand more artillery or preparation time prior to major assaults saved lives and proved consistently successful.
Under Currie’s leadership, the Canadians confirmed their reputation as an elite assault formation, with a string of major victories in 1917-1918 that included Hill 70, Passchendaele, Amiens, Arras and the Canal du Nord. Currie is widely considered to have been among the finest generals of the war.
Before the war, Currie had been a teacher in Sidney and then Victoria, and subsequently sold insurance. He was then as well a part-time lieutenant-colonel leading a few hundred militiamen in Victoria. In less than three years from his leaving Victoria and deploying to Europe, Currie had become a knighted lieutenant general and a national hero commanding 100,000 men.
Following the war, with the rank of full general, Currie was appointed inspector general of the armed forces. Unhappy with what he felt was a purposeful limitation of his authority by the government, he subsequently become principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in Montreal. Currie died in 1933.
General Currie will be long remembered as a national hero for his battlefield leadership. He was, unquestionably, a major contributor to Canada’s growing confidence and determination to shed its status as a British dominion and gain the true national independence that we now enjoy.
Ron Johnson
Saanich