Lt. John Francis, 9 Commando November 1944

John Francis?s sons Noel and Patrick would like to contact Gregor Ferguson, son of Lt. Angus Ferguson and Alex Mckenzie son on Lt. Alex Mckenzie.
We believe our fathers were friends, as they appear together in the River Strymon crossing Nov 1944

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 21/08/2021 00:08:53

Noel
I have sent an email to Gregor advising him of your message. Hopefully he will still be using the same email. Can you advise me more about your Fathers commando and any other military service.
Pete

Hi Pete
thank you for contacting us and helping us. My brother and I were very close to our Dad, and we still miss him lots even though he died a few years ago. His military exploits were rather secret, but on occasions after a nice dinner and a few glasses of wine he used to recount some of his exploits. He volunteered and became a paratrooper with the 1st airborne division. His mother was French and his father of Greek origin , but worked in Canada so had an English passport. He went to school and university in France and so his first language was French. From what we are slowing gathering, after he got his wings he was sent to North Africa and joined ISLD which was MI 6 in uniform. He undertook various operations which were secret, and his military records are very limited and he appears as being under the ? General List? and the ?Catering Corps?. We have many photographs that he left us, and there are a number of facts we have been able to establish. He was parachuted into the Macedonian Thrace to take over from a captain that had been killed. He had a small troop of men and one of his missions was to organise left and right wing guerrilla groups against the Germans. One of his guerrilla leaders was Shawish Anton ( Greek name was Fosteridis). I know that GHQ Cairo ordered him to go to Drama and accept the Bulgarian surrender, but he had to take a number of American soldiers with him who were being parachuted to him. We know this is fact because we have been in touch with the Americans ( one of whom is still alive) and were sent pictures of their operation and pictures of my Dad and their CO. I have various pictures of them in Drama, but it appears that things started to get out of hand in Drama, so 9 Commando were sent to Drama to help out. The 2 pictures of our Dad on the 9 Commando website were of our Dad in 9 Commando uniform taking 9 Commando across the river on their way to Drama to help keep the peace. We have many other pictures of various operations, but we know he ended up in Athens as ? Town Major Athens ?, and was awarded the Greek Military Cross by the Greeks. Little by little we hope to discover some of his operations that he told us about, but a lot of WW 2 operations were secret and most of the documentation of these operations was destroyed after the operation was completed
Noel and Patrick

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 25/08/2021 18:35:36

Hi Noel and Patrick
Do you have the service number of your Father. In the photos below your Father looks as if he is in an Officers uniform rather than Commando but has placed a No.9 Commando hackle in his peaked cap. We have a couple of other photos in the No.9 Commando gallery with similar attired soldiers. Have you checked them to see if your Father is any of them. For ease the No.9 Commando Gallery can be accessed here: http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/9/

and for the benefit of others here are the photos of Lt. Francis that were in the gallery and already identified as Lt. Francis.

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/9/Lt+Francis_+guide+interpreter+9Cdo+Greece+November.jpg.html

and

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/9/greece+nk.jpg.html

One such photo below.

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/9/ron+_ken_+young+and+others.jpg.html

The above photo is annotated on the rear

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/9/rear+of+greek+officers+photo__ken+young.jpg.html

Hi Noel

Gregor has given me permission to pass his email address to you. I have sent you a pm on here with the details.

Pete