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Sergeant William Humphrey Tucker, US 82nd Airborne, 505th PIR
Discovery of an ex-US 82nd Airborne, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Paratrooper’s correspondence
The photograph below of William annotated “Sgt. William H. Tucker, aged 20, taken just before D-Day” along with two letters were discovered by Helen Shacklock as she sorted through her late mother Pauline’s memorabilia. The letters are in response to Pauline’s request for information. They provide an insight into Camp Quorn and William’s role. The letters are also reproduced below.
William, known as Bill Tucker, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, a member of the 82nd Airborne 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment. He was born in Boston and joined the Army in 1942, making three combat parachute jumps with I Company, including a jump into Sainte-Mère-Église in the opening hours of June 6, 1944, the D-Day invasion of Normandy. He ended his military career a sergeant, after being injured during the Battle of the Bulge in Fosse, Belgium, in 1945. He received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman’s Badge and numerous other World War 2 campaign medals and decorations including the French Legion of Honor.
After the war he became a lawyer and remained involved in the military throughout his life, founding the 82nd Airborne Division C-47 Club, which has chapters throughout the United States and Europe. He also became leader of the 82nd Airborne Association until his death. He wrote several books on his war experiences including “Parachute Soldier”, published in 1994 and based on his 1942 to 1945 diary.
He was also a founding committee member for the Liberation Museum in Groesbeek, Holland, which honours the US paratrooper units that took part in Operation Market Garden, the 1944 effort to liberate the country. Every year, he returned to Ste.-Mère-Église on the anniversary of D-Day. President Kennedy appointed him to the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1960, after he had worked on Kennedy’s Senate and presidential campaigns.
He later served vice president of the Penn Central Railroad and was a special consultant to the board of directors of American Airlines. Mr. Tucker was appointed by President Carter to head the National Transportation Policy Commission in 1977 and later served as a US trustee for the US Department of Justice. He was married with two daughters and died in 2008 aged 84. He chose to have his ashes interred in France alongside his fellow troopers.
Helen could find no sign of a war time diary William mentioned in his letter, perhaps he had decided to write it all in his book instead. It is also not known if they ever did meet up.
LETTER 1
87 Kilby Street
Boston, MA 02109
April 5, 1982
Mrs. Pauline M. Shacklock
24 Paddock Close
Quorn, Leicester
Dear Mrs. Shacklock:
I have your letter of March 15 and appreciate your interest in the presence of the 82nd Airborne Division at Quorn during World War II. All of my group photographs were lost due to a ship sinking (LTS near the end of the war), but I do have a commercial photograph which was taken of me in Leicester in May of 1944. I am having a copy of that made and will send it along to you within the next week.
My stay in Quorn from January until June 5, 1944 and then from mid-July until September of that year will always hold the fondest of memories for me. Although I didn't get to know any of the people in the local population, I will never forget the friendly spirit that existed throughout the area and the very beautiful countryside of the Midlands.
My regiment, 505 parachute infantry, was the principal occupant of the camp at Quorn, and my tent was at the very end of the camp on a corner near the road going from Quorn to Loughboro. I have visited the camp site several times over the past 15 years, and actually flew over it in a light plane when I accompanied General Matthew B. Ridgeway in 1976 for the dedication of the 82nd Airborne Division monument at Leicester.
The last time I visited the camp site, about three years ago, I could still see the concrete slabs at the entrance which constituted the floor of the quonset metal buildings which housed the regimental head-quarters.
One of my most indelible memories was that of returning to Quorn after the Normandy campaign. I could recall my company numbering about 145 men marching out of the camp gates to board trucks for the airport about the end of May and, most vividly, marching back through those same gates in early July in a column of "two's" covering some forty odd out of the original company that left there. In spite of everything, I felt like I had come home!
Sincerely,
William Humphrey Tucker
LETTER 2
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Trustee
Districts of ME, MA,NH and RI
Office of the US Trustee
87 KiIby Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02109
May 26, 1982
Dear Mrs. Shacklock:
I finally have a copy of my photograph taken just before Normandy, which is enclosed herewith.
Thank you for yours of May 18--I plan to be in England in 1984 with veterans of the 82nd of WW II and hope to see you at that time, if not before.
In the meantime, I will make copies of my wartime diary covering the UK portions and send than along-- that is, when I can get a little time. This portion would cover the period from landing at Belfast in early December of '43 through the Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944; return to England July 20 and departure for the Holland jump on September 17.
Again, my days at Quorn were the happiest of all!
Sincerely,
William Tucker
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Submitted on: |
2024-11-02 |
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Submitted by: |
Helen Shacklock and Dennis Marchant |
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Artefact ID: |
2592 |
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Artefact URL: |
www.quornmuseum.com/display.php?id=2592 |
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