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Almost three decades after the end of the First World War, Filip Konowal, an Ottawa and Hull resident who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his valour during the Battle of Hill 70, joked that he had very nearly been shot for cowardice.

“I was so fed up standing in the trench with water up to my waist that I said, ‘The hell with it and started after the German army,” he told the Citizen in 1956. “My captain tried to shoot me because he figured I was deserting.”

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On that particular sojourn, Konowal would reportedly capture three German machine-guns and three prisoners. The prisoners might well have considered themselves lucky, though, for in the two days of battle that Konowal saw on Hill 70, until he was shot — non-fatally — in the head and sent home, Konowal killed at least 16 enemy soldiers. His Victoria Cross citation reads, in part:

“His section had the difficult task of mopping up cellars, craters and machine-gun emplacements. Under his able direction all resistance was overcome successfully, and heavy casualties inflicted on the enemy. In one cellar he himself bayonetted three enemy and attacked single-handed seven others in a crater, killing them all.

“On reaching the objective, a machine-gun was holding up the right flank, causing many casualties. Cpl. Konowal rushed forward and entered the emplacement, killed the crew, and brought the gun back to our lines.

“The next day he single-handed another machine-gun emplacement, killed three of the crew, and destroyed the gun and emplacement with explosives.”