Jan Hałucha was born to Jakub and Anna (nee Pilip) Hałucha in Młodów, Lwów province, Poland, on 11 April 1915. His siblings were: Jakub, Władysław, Mieczysław, and Waleria.

 

Jan was working as a railway clerk in Brody when he was called up as a corporal in the Polish 52nd Infantry Regiment, 12th Infantry Division (52 Pułk Piechoty Strzelców Kresowych, 12 Dywizja Piechoty, Armii Prusy) and mobilized on 27 Aug. 1939.

 

Jan was captured in uniform by the Red Army on 20 Sept. 1939. Because he was a corporal as opposed to an officer in the Polish Army, he was briefly released and thereby escaped the fate of more than 22,000 officers and other high-ranking Poles who were murdered by the Soviets at Katyń and other locales near Prisoner of War holding sites in 1940.

 

However, Jan was soon re-arrested, tortured, and sentenced to five years of hard labour in the Gulag slave camps. He was taken to the Abez' region of the Pechora-Vorkuta Gulag system, where he worked principally on railroad construction until "amnesty of the innocents" in late 1941. The "Kwestionariusz Osobisty" obtained from the British Ministry of Defence describes him as a "civilian" in Russia from 1940 to 1942, although he was captured as a prisoner of war and enslaved in the Gulags.

 

On release, Jan journeyed to the southern USSR to join the Polish army being formed there. He evacuated to Persia with the army and served in the Middle East until his transfer to the 1st Polish Armoured Division in Scotland.

 

Jan’s service record is as follows:

• Army service in Poland from 27 Aug. 1939 to 20 Sept. 1939 in the 52nd Infantry Regiment.

• Army service in the USSR on 30 March 1942, connected to Headquarters 8th Infantry Division.

• Date of incorporation into Polish Armed Forces under British Command: 1 April 1942 in Persia.

• He transferred 28 Aug. 1942 to the Polish 1st Polish Armoured Division led by General Stanisław Maczek and trained in Scotland prior to participating in the European Campaign as of August 1944.

 

He participated in the following battles:

September campaign in Poland (1939-09-01 - 1939-10-06)

France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany (1944-06-06 - 1945-05-07)

 

Jan was awarded the following medals:

Poland: Army Medal,

 UK: 1939-45 Star, France and Germany Star, The War Medal 1939-45

 

After the war, Jan served with the Polish Forces under the BAOR (British Army on Rhine) as part of the occupation forces in Wertle, Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany.

 

He then joined the Polish Resettlement Corps in England. He sailed to Canada on discharge from the Corps on 1 Dec 1947, working as a farmhand in Manitoba before moving to Wawa, Ontario as a miner. Ironically, he returned to a variation of his first career in Poland by operating trains - albeit under ground - before retiring to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

 

In 1950 he married Józefa (nee Jurek), who survived wartime enslavement in Nazi Germany much as her husband had survived enslavement in Soviet Russia. They raised 3 children (John, Kris, and Barbara) in Wawa, Ontario..

 

Jan passed away in Sault Ste. Marie on 7 February 1994, at the age of 78 years. He was buried at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

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Copyright: Hałucha family

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