Walter Joseph Hukezalie enlisted 16 January 1940 and was given the service number B73883. Interestingly, this is a 48th Highlanders service number. The family indicates he was with the Engineers. He may have transferred to the Engineers in the UK. Our records don’t show when he sailed to the UK. (Requires Service Records to complete.)
The next record shows then Sergeant Hukezalie being posted on 22 August 1944 from the 48th Highlanders X-3 List (hospital) to the battalion’s X-4 List (soldiers in theatre, available for deployment). He arrived at the 1st Battalion on 5 September 1944 when the battalion was in the midst of the Gothic Line battles, crossing the Melo River on 5 September and preparing the next stage, the crossing of the Marano River on 7 September. Sgt Hukezalie remained with the battalion for the balance of the Gothic Line, then the Rimini Line in mid September and action chasing the Germans north of Rimini through the mud of Lombardy in early October.
On 1 November, when the battalion was at rest at Miramar south of Rimini, Sgt Hukezalie was struck off strength of the battalion to the X-9 List (personnel held at Base Reinforcement Units, not available for reinforcement and disposition not decided).
On 30 April 1945 being taken on strength of the battalion from the X-4 list. The 48th Highlanders were then in Holland as the 1st Cdn Division had transferred from Italy in March to complete the liberation of Holland. The Canadian army, and the 48th, went out of battle permanently on 26 April as part of a truce with the German occupying forces there, to allow food to be supplied to the starving Dutch. Our records do not show him returning to Canada with the battalion. The family states he remained in Europe for the occupation. (Service Records required).
Sgt Hukezalie’s brother Michael (called Jack) was captured at Dieppe and escaped near the end of the war. His other brother, Joseph was with the Engineers in Europe, was wounded in the chest, sent to the UK for recovery before returning to the active theatre.
NOK: wife, Mrs. M.D. Hukezalie in Calder, Saskatchewan.