- Contributed by
- Dave Thacker
- People in story:
- Leonard Stanley Thacker
- Location of story:
- Porto Vecchio, Corsica
- Background to story:
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:
- A6196773
- Contributed on:
- 18 October 2005
Len Thacker, extreme right, with shipmates from HMS Thruster, at "their awimming pool", the bay of Porto Vecchio, Corsica.
This story is submitted to the People's War Website by David Thacker, a volunteer from BBC Radio Northampton, on behalf of his Mother, Isabella, wife of the late Len Thacker, and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands and accepts the site's terms and conditions.
Here are Len's words written in a W/T Operator's Log book, about visits to Corsica in 1944. He is believed to have written this soon after the war's end:
"After the Anzio landings, we had a very long and tedious job: that of building Corsica. At first we carried equipment and implements for building airfields. Then, as they were built, we took over many Squadrons of RAF and American Airmen, also large numbers of troops and equipment. Altogether we made nineteen trips, and, by this time, Corsica was just like one terrific airfield. Throughout these trips the monotony was relieved by swimming in the lovely bay of Porto Vecchio."
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