George Robert Francis was born August 15, 1920 in Hennepin County Minnesota. His parents were Arthur B. and Mercedes Maxwell Francis. His father worked as a Salesman for a coal company. He had one older brother John. Both of his parents died in California and are buried there.

He was working as a Messenger in Minneapolis when he enlisted in the Army Air Forces. He served during World War II. He had the rank of Second Lieutenant. Occupation or specialty was Navigator. Service number was O-729613. Served with 92nd Bomber Group, Heavy, 407th Bomber Squadron.

Francis lost his life on September 6, 1943. His aircraft a B-17 #42-30010 was attacked by fighters on the way into the target at Stuttgart Germany. Between Abbeville, France, and Amiens France. The AC fell from formation with FW-190's following it's decent. The AC was seen to explode, most likely from a cannon round hitting the bomb load. Lt. Asher called for permission to pull out of the formation to check a smoke problem in his bomb bay. He slid to his left about 300 feet and all seemed to be okay, when suddenly his airplane blew up in midair. The parachutes, without the crew men floated down through the air like autumn leaves. It was a sickening sight, because we knew that the poor devils were falling to earth without a chance to survive. This is a statement from a book by Gen. J. Kemp McLaughlin, a leader of the 92nd BG in WW II

George R Francis is buried at Plot D Row 24 Grave 26, Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.

COMMENDATIONS

Air Medal

Purple Heart

B-17F #42-30010 "Schickelgruber Shuttle Service, LTD" September 6, 1943

Click on the name for the Find A Grave Memorial and the service# for their Fold3 profile.

6 Killed in Action

Pilot: 1st Lt. Colman Asher, TX - O-659631

Co-pilot: F/O Harvey Protzman, OH - T-190651

Navigator: 2nd Lt. George Francis, MN - O-659631

Bombardier: 2nd Lt. John S. Chapman, FL - O-728255

Flight engineer/top turret gunner: T/Sgt. James Jones, NE - 17037946

Waist gunner: S/Sgt. George Maerki, NY - 12066397

2 Prisoner of War:

Radio Operator: T/Sgt. Otto Pfannebecker, MO 1915-2006

Tail gunner: S/Sgt. Harvey Plyler

2 evaded capture:

Ball turret gunner: S/Sgt. William Rice,

Waist gunner: S/Sgt. James Wilson

Thank you for your supreme sacrifice in service to your country.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project _https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/. This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Sources:

https://www.ancestry.com/ - 1920, 1930, 1940 census, draft card

https://www.findagrave.com/

https://www.honorstates.org/index.php