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SERGEANT HENRY L. FRANCIS,
23, of 530 Cedar Street in Camden NJ, was killed during the Battle for
the Colmar Pocket, in France near the Swiss Border, on December 12,
1944. The Germans had mounted major counter-attacks at Selestat and Riquewihr on
that day. Henry L. Francis was one of ten children. Raised in in the North Camden
section of Camden NJ, he attended Woodrow Wilson High School before
leaving in 1941 to work as a chipper's helper at the New York
Shipbuilding Company. Inducted into the Army in July of 1942, after
basic training he was sent, with many other local men, to Camp Gordon GA
to join the newly formed 83rd Chemical Battalion (later redesignated the
83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion). He shipped out to North Africa with the
83rd on April 29, 1943. After training in North Africa, he took part
with his unit in the invasions of Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Southern
France. At Anzio, three of his neighbors from North Camden and
many other men in his unit were killed when the landing craft they were
on was sunk by enemy action. Henry L. Francis Jr, was survived by his parents, of the Cedar Street
address, sisters, Mrs. Emma Byetheway, Mrs. Anna Moore, Mrs. Henrietta
Ward, Mrs. Florence Isaac, and Mrs. Jenny Collins, and brothers Charles,
an Army private then in France, Robert, William, and Frank. |
