The Story Of Sir Arthur Currie: From Gunman To General | The Great War With Norm Christie | Timeline

my name's dan snow and i want to tell you about history hit tv it's like the netflix for history hundreds of exclusive documentaries and interviews with the world's best historians we've got an exclusive offer available to fans of timeline if you go to history hit tv you can either follow the information below this video or just google history hit tv and use the code timeline you get a special introductory offer go and check it out in the meantime enjoy this video [Applause] [Music] we're in strathroy in southwestern ontario and today the town is going to unveil a statue to a local boy made good the man they are honoring was an amateur soldier in 1914 and became the greatest general of the great war a man with unparalleled victories if you don't know who he is you're not alone [Music] general sir arthur curry was a natural leader a brilliant general and a giant of a man who changed the course of canadian history this statue is a heartfelt tribute by his hometown and that is appropriate for arthur curry was the most famous canadian of his time we're going to go back to europe and we're going to find the battlefields and the places where arthur curry won his great battles and where he became the foremost general of the great war and we're also going to find out why he was forgotten i'm military historian norm christie i've been touring the old western front for 30 years by visiting the famous and not so famous cemeteries and battlefields you'll get a unique perspective on the war and the men and women who fought it on the great war tour [Music] this is the first leg of our journey into the life of sir arthur curry he's one of our most famous people and this is the curry homestead [Music] wow this house has seen better days let's see what it's like inside wow paints on the walls broken glass everywhere what a mess it's hardly a fitting monument to a great man it's hard to imagine that arthur curry spent his first 18 years in this house in fact this staircase looks original you can well imagine a young arthur running up and down these stairs as a little boy [Music] arthur curry's grandparents emigrated here from ireland in the 1830s and they were two of the original pioneers of this area curry himself was born in this house in 1875 and he lived here for about 20 years but the change in his life came after his father died when he was only 15. he no longer had enough money to go to university so like many young men he chose to go west to seek his fame and fortune [Music] when arthur curry moved out to victoria british columbia he first became a teacher and he did that for a while but it just wasn't lucrative enough so he got involved in insurance sales then he got involved in real estate and he was reasonably good at this but where he really excelled was as an officer in the canadian militia curry joined the militia in the 1890s a lot of businessmen did this to increase their political contacts to add to their business however a lot of them didn't have a natural affinity for war arthur curry did and within 10 years he rose to become lieutenant colonel of a garrison artillery militia regiment in 1914 with the outbreak of the first world war all these militia officers had to stop playing at war for now it was the real thing and for arthur curry he would find his greatest challenges on the bloody battlefields of the great war [Applause] [Music] all my men in my first division are from the west hearty men from the plains the interior of bc and the coastal cities they will fight like billy be damn [Music] [Applause] we're retracing arthur curry's first steps in the great war from early 1915. we're heading towards the city of yp in belgium eep is a beautiful medieval city but already in 1915 it has been severely scarred by the war the allies fought desperately to keep eep because it was the last bastion defending the channel ports [Music] this is yeap belgium and this is the first important location in arthur curry's war in mid-april 1915 20 000 inexperienced and enthusiastic men of the first canadian division marched through the grand place here out to the front line within days they'd be fighting for their lives [Music] this farmer's field is east of belgium and we're standing on what were the front lines of the first canadian infantry division commanded by sir arthur curry in mid-april curry's second brigade came into this position and arthur curry came down to inspect it and he didn't like what he saw he didn't see complete trenches he saw a little discontinuous uh half-mooned entrenchments there was no barbed wire and there was dead bodies everywhere and he immediately told his men to dig in to get ready already they were receiving rumors of a german attack there is an attack coming they say expected at night to be preceded by the sending of poisonous gases heavy shelling up to midnight but no attack but he also noticed something very interesting behind the canadian line was a very large ridge and he automatically perceived this as the backbone to the canadian position so he went up there to inspect it we are not aware of actual fighting conditions which can only be guessed at one could learn it from books but i knew that the rest was not to be learned from any book i had to find out for myself and if i could master it this is the high point on gravenstaffel ridge and when arthur curry came up here he immediately saw how important it was you can see the germans were over in paul capel his front lines were midway in the field over here and he could see yeap only a few kilometers away on his own initiative he chose to create a defensive position here a fallback position just in case the germans attacked and within two days the germans attacked the third brigade original trenches are undergoing terrific bombardment reports of shells giving off stupefying fumes being used by the enemy i saw a great many french soldiers a few of whom were wounded come running past crying that all was lost and the germans were coming unless a strong counter-attack is delivered the brigade trench will have to be abandoned and a new position taken up on graven staffel ridge [Music] this is per cemetery near yeap and it contains the graves of 50 men of arthur curry's second canadian infantry brigade all killed at graven stafford ridge on april 22nd 1915 the germans launched the gas attack against the french and broke through but two days later they launched a major attack on the canadians using gas and infantry reserves and this time they tried to encircle the canadians by driving up graven stafford ridge the rifle machine gun fire and shell fire was terrific we can only hang on our fellows had absolutely no protection but they had stout willing hearts and a firm determination not to give in they preferred death to retreat or dishonor curry's decision to build a defensive perimeter here actually saved the day and they were able to stop the german attack it is remarkable that a man who had never been in battle before and after only one month at the front could make such an important decision he used his intuition and common sense and it was a sign of things to come [Music] we're driving down a country road in france like the one taken by the canadians and arthur curry in 1916. i'm heading towards the city of albert in the region of the psalm a lot of change since 1915 the canadians are now three divisions strong and arthur curry was in command of the first canadian division it is a great honor to be considered capable of commanding what is universally regarded as one of the best fighting divisions in the british army i pray that god will always guide me to do the right thing at the right time there had also been a change at the head of the canadian corps and now the canadians were commanded by julian bing [Music] julian bing and arthur curry immediately struck up a very special relationship they had a common sense of camaraderie and this would lead to very big things in the future and now the canadian core 60 000 strong was making its way south to the song to one of the bloodiest battles of the great war and it was here that arthur curry would get a real taste of british generalship this is adenac military cemetery north of corsolet and from here you get an incredible view of the attack on regina trench from october 8 1916. regina trench ran across the fields just in front of the cemetery for another mile and a half in the other direction and it was arthur curry's first division that was supposed to make the assault and take the trench the problem was advanced warnings indicated that the artillery bombardment had failed to cut the barbed wire in front of the german trench curry had advised headquarters that the preparations were insufficient for the attack but nonetheless the general in charge hubert goff had ordered it forward and the men attacked it was hell proper hell our casualties very severe and trench is very bad what none of us like is sitting still and getting blown to pieces once the attack started and the men crossed no man's land they had no choice but to try to get through the wire and there's many stories of the men trying to cut the wire as they went through or men throwing themselves down on the wire while other men ran over them and you have to think the german machine guns are trained on these positions so once you got stuck once you slowed down once you missed your artillery barrage you're a sitting duck [Music] by the time the canadians withdrew from regina trench on october 9th 1916 their casualties were enormous and there's more than 400 of these men buried in adenac military cemetery the majority are from arthur curry's first division this is howard letty third battalion from toronto he was killed october 8th 1916. another one here william logan 16th battalion canadian scottish he was killed at regina trench almost in this position and here's the grave of major sydney gilroy 13th battalion blackwatch of canada canadian infantry killed in action at regina trench october the 8th 1916. the battle of the psalm cost the canadians 24 000 casualties that's killed wounded and missing the men were demoralized by the heavy losses for such a small gain but they weren't the only ones general curry and general bing were also disturbed by the impetuous attacks the lack of preparations they decided on the next sector they were going to get it right and that next sector was vimy ridge [Applause] [Music] in mid-october 1916 arthur curry and the canadians were ordered north we're following their path from the psalm to the village of aquav near vimy ridge vimy had a reputation of being the most formidable german sector on the western front [Music] this was the old chateau at aquav and in 1917 it was arthur curry's first divisional headquarters today the chateau is gone it's burnt down and all we have are the gates and the wall around it but in 1917 this was a hive of activity this is where the first canadian division went in and out of the line and this is where curry and bing planned vimy operations the psalm had been a disaster and they developed a healthy disrespect of the british generalship what they found is the attacks were impetuous there wasn't enough artillery and they were driven ahead without the proper planning when they were given the objective of vimy ridge they worked together to develop a system by which they could guarantee success that meant organization training and execution this time they were going to do it right this time they're going to plan it and they're going to win every feature of the german defense was studied and definite plans made for the overcome of every obstacle the men had rehearsed the attack many times and each and every man knew exactly where he was going in the attack and what he was going to do when he got there the resourcefulness the self-reliant initiative of the canadian is most marked these are men accustomed to solving their own problems every day quickly and accurately they size up the situation and find the solution the attack was carried out exactly as planned stiff fighting every battalion doing equally well the first division penetrated over six miles into the enemy's defenses capturing all our objectives none went further none killed more germans than the first division [Music] here are a few relics of the battle of vimy ridge you can see shrapnel balls and this is a nice find this is an 18-pounder fuse cap and when we clean it up we may find it was fired by a canadian gun and down here is the first division memorial raised to honor their comrades killed in the battle of vimy ridge the victory of the canadian corps at vimy ridge is universally regarded as the finest feat of arms performed by british troops in the whole war you get a great view from up here you can see harass and you can see the battlefield of the first canadian division april 9 1917 curry's division had performed brilliantly they're on schedule they took all their objectives and they smashed the german army the overall victory at vimy bought a claim and promotions and the first promotion was julian being being sent to command the third british army arthur curry got knighted but by bing's movement there was a vacancy ahead of the canadian corps and there was some debate as to who was going to get it but finally pressure from the canadian government from sir julian bing and even the commander of the british army sir douglas hague forced the change in command and arthur curry became commander of the canadian corps julian bing had transformed the canadian corps from average troops in 1916 on the psalm to elite troops at vimy arthur curry inherited this elite force and their reputation and that meant he was going to be called upon to do tasks that other men could not do [Music] oh in the fall of 1917 the canadians now under the command of sir arthur curry are ordered north to return to belgium we're following in their footsteps from vimy to a position near the village of paschendale in the eep salient the eep sailing was really a bulge in the german line and the problem was any troops stationed here will vulnerable to heavy artillery fire coming from all three directions the invitation to return to the salient was something that the canadians dreaded [Applause] this is the passchendaele battlefield it's the most infamous battle of the canadians during the great war [Music] today this is really really quite pretty little farmland but this little territory was almost impassable to an army in 1917. the shelling had been so severe that all this area was reduced to a lunar landscape of mud and shell holes dead bodies the towns and villages had been reduced to rubble the passchendale offensive or third battle of veep started july 31st 1917 and there was an attack launched by two british armies they had a little bit of success at the first couple days and then the rain had come in the shell came in and after that it was just a bloody mess they had not achieved any of their objectives british casualties and australian casualties had numbered over two hundred and fifty thousand so they had to show something for all those losses and now it's getting october 1917 the winter is coming the offensive is going to have to end hague wants to show some form of victory and that victory is going to be the taking of passchendale village and the high point on passchendale ridge so the canadians with their record of success and the fact they're at full strength they're able to make the move meant that curry was going to get the call but of course curry didn't want the call passion dale what's the good of it a name for a lot of mud and grief for a lot of crack-brained fools in london to play with what do they care do they get killed or wounded or choked in the mud let the germans have it keep it rotten it isn't worth a drop of blood but this time they've been able to put enough pressure on him to force him to bring the canadian corps up to fashion day one general hubert gough was notorious for being an impetuous general and one who drove his men into disaster and a lot of the failure that took place around passchendale was under goff's command the canadian corps will not fight under general goff my own lack of confidence in goff comes from our experience with him in the summer in 1916. i don't want to repeat that again i carried my protest to the extreme limit which i believe would have resulted in my being sent home and i'd been other than the canadian corps commander i pointed out to general plummer what the casualties were bound to be sixteen thousand and i asked if a success would justify the sacrifice plumber was sympathetic but there was nothing he could do my orders are clear he shrugged hague came up to him and said i'll tell you later why you have to do this there was a mutiny in the french army morale on the british side was going down and they needed some victory at passchendaele to keep the war going the commander in chief general hague has called on us to do a big job it is going to be your business to make the final assault and capture the ridge it has got to be done one of the most important strengths of the canadian corps was the coordination between its artillery and its infantry during an attack some of the most famous photographs of the battle of passchendaele are the artillery pieces being dragged through the mud 6th of november 1917 at six o'clock am the first and second divisions attacked fighting fierce both were eminently successful taking all of their objectives on time i did not know which branch of the service is entitled to the most praise all gave evidence of the highest soldierly qualities and the determination to win it is true that at passchendaele our casualties were heavy i'd given the authorities an estimate of what our casualties would be and i was within 200 of the right figure [Music] the runes of this church are one of the iconic symbols of the great war this is the church of passchendale village it was destroyed by concentrated artillery fire in november 1917. and on november 6 1917 the canadian corps captured this position the high point on the passchendaele ridge and this added a little bit of light to what had been the worst british campaign of the entire great war arthur curry's planning and the execution and tenacity of the canadians allowed for a small victory in the bleakest year of the war by capturing passchendaele curry had bailed out the british high command hague's chief of staff asked me if he might announce in the london press tomorrow morning that passchendaele had been taken when i assured him it was in our possession he uttered a fervent thank god we're driving through france near the city of ammuns we're heading to the site of a battle which is one of the turning points of the great war nothing remains of the great battle except the small cemeteries in the farmers fields that contain the graves of the canadians who died there this is toronto cemetery and it's one of a dozen war cemeteries that marked the battlefield of amiens it was at amiens that arthur curry had his first great victory of the last hundred days of the great war a lot of change since passchendaele in 1917 under the leadership of arthur curry the canadian corps became different with a new attitude they became a uniquely canadian force from over here you get a great view of the battlefield in 1918 the british army decided to reorganize its divisions in fact they reduced their strength by 25 percent arthur curry thought this was not the right way to go he kept the canadians at full strength and reorganized the battalion's adding men he added more engineers and more machine gunners so a canadian division was completely different than the british division secondly there was a change in the culture of the canadian corps they became very proud of their national heritage they became proud of the core they had a sense of pride that was unique to the canadians the type of discipline in canadian armies varied from that in european armies where all classes were brought up with respect for rank amounting almost a veneration this is an attitude totally foreign to canadians who are unaccustomed to showing deference to anyone who could not stand firmly on his own two feet without the artificial support of wealth or titles and this is why they were so strong when they attacked ambience the germans had faced the canadians throughout 1917 and they had never won a battle the canadians had pushed them back at vimy at our lord at franwise at hill 70 at passchendaele the canadians had won every time the germans knew in 1918 the canadians were out there somewhere that meant there was a counter-offensive coming amiens was arthur curry's first great victory and what he did here was simply amazing he managed to sneak down a force of one hundred thousand men from morass here to amiens without being detected and he used a number of techniques to do this including sending some man up to yeap sending out false radio signals he really deceived the germans because he knew they were watching his every move so the fact he could get a hundred thousand men down here in secret was simply spectacular what worried me more than the actual operation itself was getting the troops and guns into position without arousing any suspicion on the part of the bosch all movement for many miles behind our lines had to be carried out at night the move was so hurried and the necessity of secrecy so urgent that many things which are normally done in preparation for an attack had to be left undone on the morning of august 8 1918 the canadians completely surprised the germans they advanced 12 kilometers on the first day and broke all the german lines in fact the germans called it the black day of the german army or the catastrophe of the german army it was after this the generals who were demoralized thought they should sue for peace later on they changed their mind and they would fight it out for the next few months but amiens certainly was the turning point sixteen german divisions have been identified of which four have been completely routed ten thousand prisoners have passed through our cages and casualties stations twenty-five towns and villages have been rescued from the clutch of the invaders [Music] two weeks after the battle of amiens curry's canadian corps were ordered to make another assault against the formidable german positions east of arras now curry was moving them up closer to the front this is the location of canadian corps headquarters in the battle of arras in 18. but you can imagine this area that guns are moving up because they got to get much closer for the next phase of the operation the battle of harass began on august 26 1918. this was a huge battlefield when you compare this to other canadian battlefields and they're moving and moving and moving and the germans can't stop them the first phase of curry's offensive broke through a series of german lines but casualties were heavy five thousand canadians were killed or wounded after six days of heavy fighting the canadians were preparing the last phase of the battle the assault on the dro court queen line i'm near the arrascambre road and i'm looking for artifacts of the battle of harass 1918. and here's a surface find over here this is a big hunk of shell and it was probably fired during the last phase of the battle of harass it was to be arthur curry's greatest victory the battle for the drokor quiantline the drill car create line was a massive trench system built as an extension of the hindenburg line it had two trenches 250 yards apart and belts and belts of barbed wire in front of it it ran across this field just near the horizon across the field and over curry's plan was to attack with his fourth division between the village of jury and the main road south of the road it was going to be the first division and his idea was to break through this massive fortification curry's rule was you had to be within 500 yards of the trench before you'd make your attack a wide no man's land was death so what he had to do is get his men in place and beat back the germans because the germans realized this position was critical they were moving up specialist battalions to try to stop the canadians curry's tactics which he had formulated in the spring and early summer of 1918 was to deploy his engineers and his artillery to support his infantry you have to remember their experience against the british in 17 these positions had held up for months now you've got the canadians coming through here in hours and at some point the germans who had the canal dinor behind them had to make a decision stay and fight and risk losing their artillery or pull the artillery back and evacuate second of september 1918 this morning at five o'clock the drill cor chao was assaulted on a frontage of 7 000 yards the first division have pushed on all our first objective was captured on time and by september the fifth the germans had pulled back to the canal donor as a result of our victory yesterday the hinge of the german system has been broken it is a question whether our victory of yesterday or of august 8th is the greatest but i'm inclined to think that yesterday's was [Music] it was a glorious victory and i am sure the people of canada will be proud words cannot express the pride one feels and being associated with such splendid soldiers the only regret one has and it is a very sincere one is that one has lost so many gallant comrades men whom a young country like canada could ill afford to lose it was during this operation that curry showed a part of his personality nobody had ever seen perry was a very aloof individual to some he was shy to others he was six foot three he was overweight he was the only british general not to have a mustache he didn't fit the symbol of a gallant major general and to some extent that affected him but during these operations when he was getting the casualists and thousands and thousands of his boys were being killed and wounded he came to the correspondence hut and broke down we were seated one disastrous day in our armstrong hunt working our typewriters when the door opened and general curry stepped in i saw in his face a story of tragic suffering without a word he dropped into a chair and buried his face in his arms his heavy body shook with sobs after about five minutes he regained his self-control rose and walked out once again the grim soldier he had to be [Music] within three weeks of the battle of ras curry and the canadians are once again asked to attack a formidable position we're driving from jury to the canal donor towards the final decisive battle of the last hundred days of the great war [Music] this is the canal de noir and after the canadian victory at the drokor kuiant line the german army pulled back behind this position with the objective of protecting cambray their most important transport and munitions hub they had three or four lines at the fence and this is what arthur curry was faced with when he was given the objective of taking cambray and now against the canal de nor he had another problem his line was blocked by a canal and 28 german divisions more than 300 000 men so he was outnumbered and he had a terrible obstacle in front of his advancing troops so he came up with the strategic plan which is probably his most brilliant of the entire war and that was the crossing of the canal dinor what happened in this area for about a mile and a half the canal bed was under construction prior to the war and it was dry so curry's plan was to use sixty thousand men hide them in the trees in behind here and then in the middle of the night launch an attack over the dry canal bed pierce the german positions fan out and drive on cambray he had a discussion with julian bing his mentor and bing said man it's magnificent but do you really think you can do it curry had such confidence in his man that he knew that they could execute this during the night of september 27 1918 the canadians launched their attack across the dry canal bed and drove towards cambray the attack on the canal dino began at 5 30 a.m troops and guns and tanks have succeeded in crossing the canal the fighting was quite severe in the spots we captured a german battery among the prisoners was a count he paid a great tribute to the attack as carried out this morning and stated further that in the german army everyone agreed that the canadian troops were most to be feared in all the allied armies we've overcome the obstacle of the canal and in a few days should take cambray but like any battle there was terrible costs associated with the victory [Music] this is canada cemetery and it contains 240 men killed in the final attempt to capture cambray at the end of september october 1918. arthur curry's campaign had started off extremely well crossing the canal donor and pushing close to cambray but as he got close to encircling it the germans threw in reserve at reserve finally on october 1st 1918 he threw in his depleted battalions in one last attempt to encircle the town and to drive the germans out a week later under pressure from the south and the canadian advance the germans withdrew from cambray and arthur curry had his third great victory of the hundred days the germans have fought us here very very hard where we were counter-attacked by eight german divisions all quite willing to die coming right at us determined to kill everyone if they could get through and we were determined that we would kill every one of them rather than let them get through i want you to understand what war is and you cannot have war without the inevitable price this is the grave of land sergeant gm matthew military meddling bar that means he won it twice and he served with the 52nd battalion northern ontario canadian infantry and he was killed in action in the final attempt to encircle cambray october 1st 1918 and he was 28 years old it says a beautiful life stainless and brave cambray was the last great battle fought by the canadians during the great war and for arthur curry it was his third major success for the canadians at home all they saw were the casualists forty 000 names including 12 000 dead for in the newspapers these were all listed as british victories they never understood the importance played by the canadians and by sir arthur curry during these battles so back home in canada he remained unappreciated [Music] [Applause] after the fall of cambray the canadians were ordered to pursue the germans by the first week of november they were on the outskirts of mons in belgium the capture of mons would be the crowning achievement of the canadian corps [Music] the corps had continuously gone against difficult german positions and drove the germans back again and again to a point that they were in full retreat now the canadians had to keep pressure on the germans up to the very last moment to make sure they signed the armistice german military power must now be irretrievably crushed that is the end we must obtain if we have the will and the guts to see it through we do not want to have to do this thing all over again in another 15 or 20 years during the assault on mons the germans continued to put up a stiff fight and 30 canadian soldiers were killed on the last day of the great war and it's always difficult in the great war where you have just thousands and thousands of soldiers being killed that the last few hold such significance no one wants to be the last one killed in a war this is mons communal cemetery and the canadian graves are at the top of the hill 10th of november 1918 both divisions reached mons where they encountered heavy machine gun fire i gave instructions that if the town could be captured without many casualties the pressure should be continued shortly after midnight the 42nd battalion entered the city some fighting took place through the streets where i saw dead bodies later in the day the german machine gunners defending the positions remained at their posts until they were either killed or captured this is the war graves plot in this impressive cemetery and most of the canadians buried here were killed at mons november the 10th 1918. this is the grave of tommy mills 42nd battalion blackwatch of canada canadian infantry and he was killed november the 10th mills was a friend of will byrd and in his memoir ghosts have warm hands bird recounted how mills died the last night of the war bird it was the voice of the company sergeant major harsh as a whip saw get your section at once battle order we're going to take mons tom mills and his brother jim are on their feet the war is over tomorrow and everyone knows it what kind of rod is this the sergeant major's face is pale and set he was not speaking in his normal voice at all orders are orders get your gear the hun began to shell with shrapnel and tear gas there was a despairing cry behind me i swung around to see tom mills falling his brother caught him but he had to let him down i'm hit tom said and held out his arm but as he sank back on the floor i saw he had a fearful wound on the stomach he died as we looked at him jim mills is wild-eyed he says he's gonna shoot whoever arranged to have his brother killed for nothing he really means it he's hoping curry comes here today if he doesn't he's gonna shoot the next hire up he says his brother was murdered an officer says take jim and get him drunk so drunk he won't know anything for 24 hours then it'll be too late and he'll forget all about it the capture of mons was the crowning achievement for the canadian corps and by great war standards casualties were few but there's something different about the men who died the last day of the war and those men would haunt arthur curry [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is the town of coburg along the shores of lake ontario and in the months after the war arthur curry stayed in europe where he was fed by kings royalty and all dignitaries treated like the great general that he was in august 1919 he sailed for home and when he arrived at halifax there was no hero's welcome the docks were empty there was nobody there and unfortunately it was a sign of things to come this is the war memorial in coburg and was raised by the citizens of coburg to honor their fallen of the great war most of those men would have been killed in the victorious campaigns serving with the canadian corps under sir arthur curry when arthur curry returned from europe there was a very strange reception from the government they didn't treat him the same way as other generals most british generals got cash rewards they gave him a lesser job in the military rather than the top job which he had deserved and they didn't give him any official praise it was a strange silence for a man who had done so much for canada and so much for the canadian government the question is why did the canadian government treat curry so shamefully and we don't really know why but we can speculate that the government and the canadian public were war weary and they wanted nothing more to do with the war in loving memory of those who died for king and country in the great war this is a typical sentiment you find on war memorials all across canada and it reflects the immediate post-war period by the mid-1920s the great war was already fading from memory and in 1927 arthur curry who was then principal at mcgill university was deeply disturbed by the way his reputation and the reputation of the canadian corps was being denigrated or being ignored he saw an article in a small town ontario newspaper and this article infuriated him so much he decided he had to fight to defend his reputation and that's why he came to coburg there was much waste of human life during the war enormous loss of lives which should not have taken place but it is doubtful whether in any case there was a more deliberate and useless waste of human life than in the so-called capture of mons [Music] this is the courthouse where the greatest libel trial in canadian history took place arthur curry was so incensed by the article in the port hope evening guide that he wanted a retraction they accused him of taking mons for his own glorification and of wasting the lives of his men it was the last day the last hour and the last minute when to glorify the canadian headquarters staff the commander-in-chief conceived the mad idea that it would be a fine thing to say that the canadians had fired the last shot in the great war he felt this was vicious and untrue and he wanted a retraction for some reason the men in charge of the porthole paper refused to do so and arthur curry was forced to sue for libel and the trial started here april 16 1928. the trial was a huge media event and on the 11th day of the trial arthur curry was called to the witness box he was cross-examined for almost seven hours straight and nonetheless he held his ground i don't know how we would have had the temerity to stop fighting on the ninth we had done much and we would have been the only corps to lie down and quit canadians do not lie down and quit within two days of victory when the trial finally ended the jury went to deliberate and after three and a half hours they found in arthur curry's favor he had won another victory [Music] arthur curry returned triumphantly to montreal there was much celebration and many congratulations and there's actually a beautiful speech he wrote at this time talking about how he had won his case but he'd also defended his beloved canadian corps ten years have passed since we came home and we have never been more united once more we've come through a dirty fight and once more we've won the core is once more united as it was in the fields of france and flanders arthur curry was always a man of fragile health and this trial took a great deal out of him he was sick for almost a year afterwards and he never truly recovered arthur curry died november the 30th 1933 [Music] after a short illness of three weeks he died in the royal victoria hospital montreal his body has been lying in state in christ church cathedral all day long thousands of mourners filed past the bear to gaze for the last time upon the face of the dead [Music] this is christ church cathedral on saint catherine street in montreal and it was here on december the 5th 1933 that arthur curry had his funeral service after the service his casket was brought through these doors [Music] loaded in a hearse and taken on up to mcgill university it would have been his 58th birthday procession moves slowly up university street the students and the graduates are taking the body of their principal to the campus of miguel in front of the gun carries is a full military escort for a general and for the last time the devoted corps commander is in the midst of his devoted men [Music] the procession come down sherbert street and throughout there was a tremendous sense of affection and sadness for arthur curry more than two hundred thousand montrealers lined the streets they came up to this area stopped here at the cashier monument to procession halts the bare heads the students the veterans and civilians take their leave [Music] and then proceeded up to mount royal and the sad journey to the place of burial on the slopes of mount royal is resumed the gun carriage passes through the gates of the cemetery [Music] and the body is born to grave and then it came time for the committal service then as the body is committed to the ground i heard the solemn words of the service for the burial of the dead we therefore commit his body to the ground earth to earth ashes to ashes dust to dust arthur curry was the most outstanding general of the great war no one came close to his successes yet he remains unknown and ignored to me he was a military genius and he was our genius and it's about time he got the credit that is due to him his countenance upon you and give you peace now forevermore [Music] you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 299,801

Keywords: Armistice, Battle strategies, Battlefield accounts, Canadian Corps, Canadian military, Conflict analysis, Distinguished service, Documentary filmmaking, General Sir Arthur Currie, Historical archives, Memorial sites, Memorialization, Military biography, Military heroes, Military operations, Norm Christie, Timeline - World History Documentaries, Video series, WWI, War commemoration, War museums

Id: 1ZuDsmR-wtE

Length: 52min 14sec (3134 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 28 2021