Clifford John Ernest Cousens was born and raised in Rawcliff, Quebec, the son of John Thomas and Margaret Cousens.

Clifford enlisted in Ottawa, Ontario on 18 June 1942 and was sent to Number 31 Basic training Centre in Cornwall, Ontario. On 26 August, he joined the Royal Canadian Engineers at A5 Engineer Training Centre in Camp Petawawa. By late December, he was on his way overseas, arriving in England on 7 January 1943. He was classified as Pioneer Group ‘C’ and posted to the Engineer Reinforcement Unit. On 6 May, he was assigned to the 1^st Field Company, RCE for a short time before being re-assigned to the 16^th Field Company in August 1943 when the 1^st Field Company deployed on Operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily.

For the next year, Clifford’s training focussed on combined operations, bridging, demolitions, small arms, route and mine clearance, water supply and other field engineering tasks in preparation for the invasion of Europe in the following year. 

On 6 June 1944, the first beach clearance parties of his company landed at Bernieres-sur-Mer and St-Aubin-sur-Mer with the Queen’s Own Rifles and North Shore Regiment. They touched down at H-Hour and the infantry landed five minutes later. In those first five minutes, the Sappers were expected to have cleared most obstacles to allow infantry to advance with a minimum of casualties and then to continue working their way forward with the incoming tide preparing the way forward for successive waves of landing craft carrying more engineers, infantrymen, guns and tanks. They were off the beaches by mid-morning and led the infantry inland through the town clearing booby traps and mines along the roadways.

The Battle of Normandy continued until late August when Canadian and US forces closed the Falaise Gap.  The 16^th Field Company had supported the 3^rd Division throughout these battles and continued with them over the Seine in early September. Over the next month, they worked to capture and re-open the Channel ports. By the first week in October, Clifford and his company were near Adegem in Belgium with orders to prepare for the 7^th Brigade’s assault over the Leopold Canal in the coming week.

Early on the morning of 6 October 1944, the 3^rd Infantry Division launched Operation SWITCHBACK, the assault over the Leopold Canal, as the first step in clearing the Breskens Pocket. The article The RCE Role in Operation SWITCHBACK describes the work of the 16^th Field Company, among other RCE units.  For the first week, they were in direct support of the 7th Brigade building and maintaining bridges and rafts essential for the troops struggling to hold a very tenuous bridgehead.  In the next week, they moved northeast to the Terneuzen area to support the amphibious crossing of the Braakman Inlet. Although there was no direct contact with the enemy, there was shelling and on 14 October, Sapper Clifford Cousens was wounded, He was evacuated and later died of his wounds two days later. He is buried in the Adegem Canadian War Cemetery, along with over 800 other Canadians killed during the clearance of the Breskens Pocket on the south bank of the Scheldt.

Return to Part 5: Tributes to the Fallen Sappers of the Scheldt