The Rise of a Hero World War 1 was unlike anything that was expected from the previous wars fought. Besides the sheer amount of combatants, the advent of technology resulted in a “trench warfare”; a battle fought with powerful weapons, destructive environments, and deadly surprises. Expecting beautiful lands and a promising new experience, thousands of soldiers were instead met with unimaginable amounts of grief and sorrow. As a result of this, experienced tacticians who could navigate the battlefield and direct their soldiers became an absolute necessity. While the Canadian Corps were small, they were home to talented and promising young soldiers from all walks of life, and Sir Arthur Currie was no exception to this. While he was a lowly …show more content…
Currie proved that he was capable of becoming a leader by due to his vast amount of prior knowledge on the battlefield. Due to this, he was then promoted to a position of leadership, and Arthur chose to lead his soldiers as an authoritarian. He chose this leadership as his orders were of utmost importance; since his plans would result in huge victories for the Allies. This was heavily reinforced during the battle of Vimy Ridge, where his intricately engineered plan resulted in victory for the Canadian army. In fact, the strategy was so innovative that it was adopted by the rest of the Allied Forces for the duration of the war. Furthermore, the harsh autocratic leadership style Arthur enforced meant that his soldiers were severely reprimanded if they disobeyed his orders. As a result of this, the soldiers showed a general disliking towards him. However, his determination to lead the Canadian army to victory inspired others to listen to his orders and advice. Likewise, after Currie received the complete control of the Canadian army after the Battle of Vimy Ridge, he became much more blunt and demanding with his orders. While it initially seemed as if he was corrupt and power hungry, his actions resulted in the salvation of his soldiers’ lives. Therefore, while he may have used a very extreme version of the autocratic leadership style, Arthur’s
Introduction. Common Attributes of military leaders are just that, common. The accomplished Generals, Colonels and Majors that contributed to the most successful wars of our country have been molded a certain way. They are molded through vigorous training both in scholastic training and in the field along with rigorous mentorship. Colonel Lewis McBride was a rare exception to the rule. As a renowned Chemical museum curator so distinctively puts it, he was, without a doubt, one of the most interesting and industrious officers in the history of the US Army Chemical Corps.
Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie was the most capable soldier that Canada has produced. Certainly, he did not look like the great soldier he had become. A very tall man, at six-foot-four, he was also somewhat overweight. Through his successes as the Commander of the Canadian Corps, he knew how to delegate authority and stand by the decisions of his subordinates.
After the Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge, other counties immediately started to view Canada as a strong and determined army. In earlier years, many British and French attacks had been made against the ridge, as it was the barrier preventing the allies from getting to Lens-Douai Plain. The French has lost 150,000 men at Vimy, while the British also suffered heavy causalities. Before the battle at Vimy, Canadian forces were not recognized for any significant military contributions, and a Canadian had never been commander of more than a single division of soldiers. After their victory, however, both Britain and France viewed Canada and their soldiers as a military force to be reckoned with. In fact, Sir Arthur Currie became commander of the entire Canadian corps after his performance in commanding the first Canadian division at Vimy. This showed that the British commander...
Canada was one of Great Britain’s empire who fought under British units or in the Canadian Corps, formed by the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. These Canadians who fought aside with Great Britain earned a recognition of becoming an independent strong fighting force. They earned this reputation through one of World War One’s battles called, Vimy Ridge. Canadian soldiers who were in the Canadian Corps had an awful General named, Sam Hughes who preferred to use the Ross rifle. This type of weapon was too heavy and often jammed too many times to be used as a rifle for upcoming horrific battles. Thus, a new general replaced Sam Hughes and that was, Arthur Currie. General Currie had the desire for the Canadian Corps’ four divisions to fight together to take hold of Vimy Ridge. Arthur Currie made precise plans of military tactics that no general had done to their troops. General Currie gave his troops maps and had a duplicate model of Vimy Ridge so that troops are able to have an ideal look of what they should be taking hold of. Als...
chance, every stage of the attack was planned to the very last detail. General Currie
In conclusion there were many contributing factors as to why the Canadians were successful in capturing Vimy Ridge. Their innovative attacking strategies like an artillery barrage to create a defensive curtain in front of its troops allowed them to overtake land in great speed while their platoon system aided to more efficient attacks. Their preparedness in terms of knowing exactly where to go and how the attack was to unfold let their innovative strategies be put to good use. Last but certainty not least being able to unite as a team and fight as Canadians, an elite army, contributed to their success at Vimy Ridge. The Canadians had won the first battle of the Great War while at the same time established a national identity, the Canadian identity.
The First World War saw a new form of warfare known as Trench warfare which involved trenches which were deep long dugouts made by the soldiers that lived in these trenches. The trenches proved useful as they protected the soldiers from artillery and bomb fire and were most likely situated in the eastern and western fronts of Europe. However the conditions of the trenches were far from exuberant but were in fact severely terrible. There was bad hygiene throughout the trenches, for example soldiers bathed probably only once a month and as such were prone to diseases such as trenches fever (which were due to the lice attracted by the bad hygiene). The weather was no exception as well, in the summer it would be too hot and in the winter it would be too cold and due to the nature of the trenches, when it rained the trenches would be filled with water, and due to such conditions welcomed the disease known as trench foot which was due to prolonged exposure to water and claimed the foots of many soldiers. There was also the constant danger of bomb fire and snipers would always be on the lookout for any movement. Latrines, which were toilets used in the trenches also sprouted fear as the enemy could see them in this area of the trenches and therefore were in constant danger of death. Soldiers also had to follow a strict code of conduct which was known as trench etiquette which ordered them to respect higher officers and they would have to be punished if the trench etiquette was ignored.
Life on the Western Front During World War One A dispassionate look at the numbers of the horrendous casualties sustained by the armies of the Allies and the Central Powers on the Western Front in WW1, clearly indicate that these casualties figures are far inferior to what might be anticipated if, indeed, total war had reigned in every location, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and along all the 475 miles of trenches that extended from the North Sea to Switzerland. A couple of simple examples will readily make the case. Imagine two front-line trenches separated by only 20 to 30 yards of ‘No Man’s Land’ (in some extraordinary situations, distances were even less). A determined and prolonged effort by a few hand-grenade bombers on either side could make any hope of a sustained tenancy quite impossible. Again, given the accuracy and rapidity which trench mortars could be deployed against routinely manned trenches (one battalion per 1,000 yards) and their associated dug-outs, a quite short, but determined, and mutually hostile, barrage could readily reduce both trench systems to total ruin.
Trench warfare was going on the whole of WWI, yet the the bigger battles only occurred at specific times. In the book, Trench Warfare 1914-1918, Ashworth focuses on trench warfare since he believes that it is “the larger part of the total war experience” (p. 2).
By December 1914 the First World War had reached a dilemma on the western front that neither the triple entente nor the triple alliance had expected. The war had reached a stalemate, a state where both sides are so evenly balanced that neither can breakthrough against the enemy. The advances in Technology played a big role in creating the stalemate through strong defensive weaponry such as Machine Guns and Artillery, this caused ‘trench warfare’ (BOOK 48). Trench war is when troops from both sides are protected from the enemy’s firepower through trenches. Many advances in technology also attempted to break the stalemate throughout the war with tanks, gas and aircraft, these however failed. Eventually the stalemate was broken through a combination of improved technology, new strategies and the blockading of the German ports.
"First World War.com - Feature Articles - Life in the Trenches." First World War.com - A Multimedia History of World War One. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. .
One of the most important traits that Captain Miller had was his intellect. He was smarter than the average person was. He came up with brilliant ideas to stop the enemy. His troop listened to him and obeyed him because they knew that he was knowledgeable in what he was talking about.
The First World War introduced a new type of warfare. New weapons were combined with old strategies and tactics. Needless to say, the results were horrific. However, a new type of warfare was introduced: trench warfare. In the movie War Horse, the character that owned the horse originally while he worked on his farm, Albert Narracott, finally was old enough to join the army. His first sight of battle was the Battle of Somme which took place in France near the Somme River. During this battle, the British troops start out in trenches, which were pretty much tunnels dug strategically to avoid gunfire. The soldiers would wait until they were told to advance, and they would run from one trench to the next. Trenches and the area between trenches were muddy and the trenches themselves were poorly conditioned (http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/chapters/ch1_trench.html). Many of the soldiers who fought in trenches succumbed to a foot disease called trench foot and if not treated immediately, gangrene could infect the foot and an amputation would be necessary for survival. Commanding officers ordered one or t...
“[B]oth sides had seen, in a sad scrawl of broken earth and murdered men, the answer to the question….Neither race had won, nor could win, the War. The War had won, and would go on winning.”1 These are the words of Edmund Blunden, a British soldier who survived the Battle of the Somme, who came to the realization that nobody could claim victory in the twentieth-century mass warfare, because both winners and losers paid a high price. The new type of warfare launched in the twentieth-century had a great impact on the modern world that went beyond the immediate cost of casualties.2 The psychological, social, economic and technological effect these wars had on those who survived earned this type of conflict a new name: total war, which encompassed all aspects of life. Before 1914, Western society believed in progress, peace, prosperity, reason, and the rights of the individual. During that time, people believed in the Enlightenment, and industrial developments and scientific breakthroughs were a daily reality apparent in the rising standard of living. But World War I crushed all hopes and dreams. It plunged society in an age of anxiety and uncertainty in almost every area of human life. The social impact of total war was also profound. The role of women changed dramatically as the war greatly expanded their activities and changed attitudes towards them. This change was brought about by the total national readjustment and the mobilization of the home front. In order to wage unrestrained warfare, belligerents had to intervene in the economies, diverting production from peacetime goods to the manufacture of munitions and military equipment. Technological advances also took place, which increased the number of “mechanical contrivances”3 such as heavy artilleries, tanks, submarines, and airplanes, which made war an “untrammeled, absolute manifestation of violence”4 as Carl von Causewitz so eloquently put it.
Read Chapter 1 in Northouse. What does leadership mean? Justify your response. Explain the following components of leadership: process, influence, group context, and goal attainment.