worked as a flight instructor in Pančevo. By February 1945, constant provocations and insults directed at him by fellow JRV personnel owing to his service with the ZNDH prompted him to apply for a transfer. In April, he was posted to the 1st Pilot Training School in Zadar as an instructor. On 8 August, Dukovac commandeered a de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane, flew it across the Adriatic and defected again, this time to the Kingdom of Italy. He was first placed in a refugee camp in Modena, and then one in Bagnoli del Trigno. Later life and legacy Dukovac joined the Syrian Air Force in 1946. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, he was a captain in No. 1 Squadron of the Syrian Air Force, based in Estabal in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley. Following the end of the Arab–Israeli War, Dukovac emigrated to Canada. He settled in Toronto and started a family there. He worked for IBM and was a co-founder of one of the largest Croatian émigré organisations in Canada, the United Croats of Canada. He died in Toronto on 6 June 1990. Dukovac was the top-scoring Croatian pilot of World War II. During his life, there was much controversy surrounding the exact number of aircraft that he had downed. Croatian wartime documents discovered in the Military History Institute in Belgrade after his death show that the ZNDH credited him with 44 confirmed kills. At least one other source indicates a tally of 40 confirmed kills with five unconfirmed. The ZNDH total of 44 included 18 LaGG-3s, 12 Ilyushin Il-2s, three P-39s, two DB-3s, two Yak-1s, and one each of the following aircraft; II-16, MiG-3, Spitfire, La-5, Yak-9, Pe-2, and A-20. The ZNDH records also noted one unconfirmed claim. Notes Footnotes References 1918 births 1990 deaths Croatian World War II pilots Croatian military personnel of World War II Yugoslav emigrants to Canada Luftwaffe pilots Military personnel from Belgrade People of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Royal Yugoslav Air Force personnel of World War II Soviet World War II pilots Syrian Air Force personnel Yugoslav defectors Defectors to the Soviet Union Burials at Cataraqui Cemetery