This month marks the ninetieth anniversary of Remembrance Day. At 11am on November 11, 1918,  the war to end all wars was officially ended. But for General Sir Arthur Currie, the highly respected commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the war wasn't over against the political forces he had been fighting since his appointment in 1917. Suzanne Harper reports ...
 
Arthur Currie, a farm boy from Strathroy Ontario, entered the First World War without any professional military experience under his belt.
Yet by using his brilliant tactical skills, Currie went on to lead the Canadian Corps to victory at Vimy Ridge, one of the bloodiest battles in recorded history. He was also credited with accelerating the end of the Great War.
ìHis slogan was pay the price of victory in shells -- not lives,î says Canadian historian Jack Hyatt. ìAnd if he did anything heroic it was that.î
Although a towering figure at six-foot-two, Currie was not what many people would consider a hero. Described as aloof by his troops, he even earned the nickname ìGuts and Gaiters.î Yet despite his lack of verbal skills, he found ways to inspire the best from his men.
Currie prepared thoroughly for every battle, including the unexpected victory by Canadian battalions at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917.
McGill University historian Desmond Morton said Canadians achieved the ìimpossibleî during that attack, in which all four divisions of the Canadian Corps advanced on the Ridge as they came under heavy fire from three German defensive lines.
ìImagine crossing a canal under every kind of fire the Germans could bring to bear on you,î said Morton. ìHow do you do that and not lose tens of thousands of men? Well, Currie did it.î
One of Currie's war strategies was a French-invented technique called the ìcreeping barrageî in which troops advanced behind a rain of artillery which would fall just ahead of the front line. From the French hilltop, the Canadian Corps swept into dug-in German positions, and the main position was in Canadian hands by the end of April 9.
Currie and the Canadian Corps were also successful at the Battle of Passchendaele (the Third Battle of Ypres) in November 1917, although it cost 16,000 lives.
But to Currie these battles were easier than the protracted political battle that began with his promotion to commander of the Canadian Corps in June 15, 1917. He became the first Canadian to lead the Canadian Corps, who had been led strictly by British commanders. The move earned him the permanent enmity of Major Sir Sam Hughes, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defense, who before the war had recognised Currie's unique talents after he took command of the Victoria (BC) Highland 50th regiment in early 1914 while still a part-time militia officer.
Although Currie's appointment was made on the insistence of Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, the move deeply offended Hughes, whose personal choice had been Sir Richard Turner, a more senior Canadian officer.
ìCurrie's appointment was sure to pose political problems, but Sir Arthur was clearly the superior military commander,î observes Mark Osborne Humphries in a new book of Currie's selected diaries, letters and reports.
The result was that Hughes spent the rest of his life trying to destroy Currie, particularly in the House of Commons where the general was smeared as a ìbutcherî by the Opposition Liberals, led by Wilfrid Laurier, much to the distress of Currie who couldn't comprehend why Canadian politicians would lie about his military record, methods and motives.
The truth was that an unwitting Currie had landed at the centre of the 1917 election campaign.
ìComing from a Conservative, Hughes' personal attacks took on the air of bipartisanship as Liberals jumped on the bandwagon, accusing Currie of being responsible for the high casualties at Hill 70 and Passchendaele,î Humphries writes. ìCurrie never really understood that he was caught in a political shooting match between the (Borden-led) government and the Laurier Liberals. He saw the attacks as personal assaults traceable directly to Sam Hughes and his cabal who he believed were further stirring up the Laurier Liberals.î
In the spring of 1918, Currie's leadership was put to the ultimate test with the temporary breakup of the Canadian Corps.
ìCurrie believed the Canadian Corps was the pre-eminent fighting force on the Western Front and he was not afraid to tell anyone who would listen,î Humphries writes.
In the end, Currie got his way and the Corps was reunited.
ìBeginning with the Battle of Amiens on 8 August and concluding with the capture of Mons on the morning of 11 November 1918, the Canadian Corps spearheaded the Allied advance during the war's final hundred days, earning Currie widespread praise.î
Hughes' attacks grew more vitriolic, fuelling rumours that Currie had wilfully sent Canadian soldiers to their deaths to cover himself in glory.
ìCurrie never understood why the Borden government did not support him against Hughes accusations or why he was allowed to return home in obscurity without an official vote of thanks from the House of Commons.î
Plus ca change ...
Why was Currie persecuted? According to Humphries and other historians, Hughes and his cohorts had plenty to threaten Currie with.
His pre-war story, it seems, was far from glorious. Before the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Currie was almost court-martialed for misappropriating $10,000 from a regiment in which he served, in order to pay off a personal debt dating back to pre-war days when an economic downturn threatened Currie and his beloved family with financial ruin.
The affair came to the attention of Canada's prime minister Robert Borden. But Borden refused to court martial the nation's best soldier.
Those blemishes may have been but a blip in the radar for many but they were grist for Hughes whose campaign against Currie initially succeeded: so much so that Currie's knighting on the battlefield by King George V and his lauding as ìbrilliantî by Britain's wartime leader David Lloyd George appeared to count for nothing as Currie returned to the private sector in 1920 in virtual obscurity.
ìPerhaps the Borden Government was wary about further aligning itself with Currie,î Humphries speculates. ìAfter all, who knew what other skeletons were in his closet? What is more likely is that it was not politically expedient for the Government to be drawn into a conflict about the conduct of the war effort. The 1917 election had been the most divisive election in Canadian history and it was best to allow sleeping dogs to lie. If the Government challenged Hughes' allegations it would be a matter of debate. Borden was content to allow Currie to bear the brunt of Hughes' wrath and, if one has a generous reading of the prime minister's lack of action, it would be to let Currie's report (on the conduct of the Canadian troops in 1918) speak for itself.î
Thus it was that Currie returned to Canada uncelebrated. In 1920, Currie became principal of McGill University, for which he is still warmly remembered.
But the propaganda war which began with Hughes, who in 1919 made his accusations under the protection of parliamentary immunity from libel suits, continued. Hughes died in 1921 but the matter finally came to a head in a legal battle in 1928.
Dubbed by the press as the Third Battle of Mons, the Currie Libel Trial unfolded in a media circus in Cobourg Ontario. Here a parade of important officers and compelling witnesses, including the father of George Price, the only Canadian listed as killed in action on 11 November 1918, staunchly supported Currie. In the end, Currie won a tiny cash settlement and secured his reputation, finally putting Hughes' ghost to rest.
Currie died in Montreal in November 1933, months after Hitler's ascent to power in Germany which sowed the seeds of another world war six years later.
Did Currie see what lay ahead?
As his diaries show, war was never far from his mind. By the end of his long, complicated and accomplished life, the optimism that fed Currie's prewar business speculations and wartime naivete had turned to pessimism. Yet personal failure had also become personal triumph.

* The Selected Papers of Sir Arthur Currie, edited by Mark Osborne Humphries, LCMSDS Press of Wilfrid Laurier University, £20.99 available through Gazelle Books, on www.gazellebooks.com