SERGT. AUBREY COSENS KILLS 20 GERMANS, TAKES PRISONERS, BEFORE KILLED BY SNIPER
Announcement was made at Ottawa this week that a Timmins man, Sergt. Aubrey Cosens, was among the winners of the Victoria Cross. Srgt. Cosens, who was 24 years of age, was a popular employee of the McIntyre Mine before the war and hosts of friends here while taking pride in the honour to him and to the North in his winning of the V.C., will deeply regret that a sniper's bullet took his life in the same action. His father, Chas. F. Cosens, a railroader on the T. & N.O., and a veteran himself of the last war, resides at Latchford.
Despatches from Ottawa say that Srgt. Cosens, second Canadian below commissioned rank to win the V.C. in this war, single-handed killed 20 Germans and too 20 others prisoners before a sniper's bullet took his life. He had taken over the platoon when his officer was killed, and with four remaining men overcame fanatical resistance of an enemy strong point, making possible the early capture by his regiment of the village of Mooshof. Success of the action was vital to the future operations of the brigade. He had taken over enemy strong points by cool dashes and shooting from the hip. In part, the citation says: - "Single-handed he then entered the second and third buildings, and personally killed or captured all the occupants, although under intense machine gun and small arms fire. Just after the successful reduction of these important enemy strong-points, Srgt. Cosens was shot through the head by an enemy sniper and died almost instantly."
