England bound

3 months before Francis would participate in the largest amphibious assault ever done in history he landed in England, March 7, 1944 and he began his training for this mission as soon as his boots hit Englands soil. England was one big training ground for the upcoming assault on the French coast and there was much that Francis had to do to prepare since he was trained as an anti tank gunner.

One of his stories he spoke about was one of the few times they were allowed out and about the town they were stationed close to. Francis never drank or smoked and kept a pretty clean and safe lifestyle, so when he was asked to come to the bar with some of his buddies he hesitated but went along anyway. At the bar there were many different soldiers from around the world but mostly American GI's who had a tendency to want to pick fights with British and Canadian soldiers. As it turned out a drunk American GI started in on a couple of Francis's buddies and a fight broke out - now Francis was a quiet lad of 19 and just backed away and watched the action between a dozen or so Yanks and their intended victims of British and Canadian soldiers.

There was about 5 or 6 Yanks left standing after the brawl and they turned their attention to the one Canadian who wasn't in the fight thinking that he was a coward or weak or something like that. This was their biggest mistake as one Canadian soldier put it who had just been beaten and was watching the action (this soldier later became Francis's brother-in-law after introducing him to his sister). Jim said that he looked up and in the matter of seconds Francis had floored 3 of the Yanks and was in the process of destroying 2 more - the last Yank wanted nothing to do with him and took off running. Francis never said anything, in his shy way he just shrugged it off and helped his brothers up and they went on their way talking about the silent fighter who's fists were quick as lightning