Douglas Gordon Hawkins Hall trained in Brampton and Long Branch, Ontario. On 30 December 1943 B75371 Private Hall, DGH was taken on strength of the 1st Battalion, 48th Highlanders, from the X-4 list (48th soldiers available for reinforcement). The battalion at that time was west of Ortona, chasing the Germans who had retreated from the town. He would have sailed from the UK, landed in North Africa (possibly Oran), sailed across to Italy and travelled by train or truck to the regiment’s location. In March 1944 he attended the 1 CIB (1st Canadian Infantry Brigade) NCO school and Qualified “A” – Excellent. On 10 May he was appointed A/L/Cpl and confirmed as L/Cpl on 20 July and then made Corporal on the 25th. On 19 September 1944 he was sent to Hospital (the X-3 List). Four days later, on 22 September, he was transferred to 16 Cdn Special Employment Company.
During the time with the 48th from 30 December 1943 to 19 September 1944, the battalion was: In the Arielli River area from January through March conducing large patrols into the German defences of the Gothic Line to determine their strength and positions; then across Italy to the Liri Valley in mid May, advancing up the Liri Valley and attacking the Adolph Hitler Line, which Hitler had declared could not be breached. The 48th broke the Hitler line alone and without support. In June and July the battalion was out of battle at Piedmonte d’Alife and then went back across to the Adriatic to attack the Gothic Line beginning on 26 August. On the 19th of September, the day Cpl Hall was sent to hospital, the battalion had completed the advance through the Gothic Line and was attacking the Rimini line.
Hall had married in England and his wife, as a war bride, came to Canada, landing in Halifax in 1946 on the Queen Mary
NOK: Mother – Mrs. Sybil Mae Lowther, 22 Lyndhurst Rd. Cross Roads, St Andrew, Jamaica. B.W.I.