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was a Canadian general during World War I. He had the unique distinction of starting his military career on the very bottom rung as a pre-war militia gunner before rising through the ranks to become the first Canadian commander of the four divisions of the unified Canadian Corps of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was the first Canadian to attain the rank of full general. Currie's success was based on his ability to rapidly adapt brigade tactics to the exigencies of trench warfare, using set-pieceoperations[1] and "bite-and-hold" tactics. He is generally considered to be among the most capable commanders of the Western Front, and one of the finest commanders in Canadian military history. Currie was not afraid to voice his disagreement with orders or to suggest strategicchanges to a plan of attack, something that his British Armysuperiors were unused to hearing from a former militia officer from the colonies. Often these disagreements were taken all the way up to BEFField Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. Haig sometimes agreed with Currie-allowing a strategic change to the attack on Hill 70outside Lens,[2] and approving Currie's audacious plan to cross the Canal du Nord[3]-but he also insisted on the Passchendaeleattack,[4] to which Currie, who was sceptical that the strategic value justified the expected casualties, agreed with great reluctance. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George claimed to his biographer that had the war continued into 1919, he would have sought to replace Field Marshal Haig with Arthur Currie, with Australian general John Monash as Currie's chief of staff

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12y ago

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