Memorial

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Eugene Shauvin worked in a paper factory. He joined the Air Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve in Portland, Oregon on 9 June 1942.

He also took part in the invasion of Normandy.

The mission took place on 17 September 1944.

Lt Shauvin was a specially trained volunteer member of the provisional Pathfinder Group, that trained at Chalgrove Air Base in England. He piloted one of the six lead planes, ahead of the advancing airborne armada. On board was a small stick of volunteer Pathfinder paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division who carried special equipment to set up the drop zone for the folowing aircraft.

German anti-aircraft artillery opened fire in the vicinity of Retie, Belgium on the low flying planes. De left engine of plane 42-100981 was hit and the fuel tank in the left engine caught fire. The plane crashed in a ball of flames causing the farm of a local farmer, Jan Adriaensen and a barn of another farmer, Peer Franken, to burn to the ground. All five crew members were killed. The remains of Lt Shauvin were never recovered. The plane carried ten passengers of which six survived the crash.

1st Lt Charles M. Faith, who was one of the passengers, gave the following statement: "I went into Operation Market as a pathfinder flying in no. 2 ship. This ship took off from Chalgrove. As we crossed the front line in the vicinity of Retie, Belgium, our ship was shot out of the air. To my personal knowledge, only myself and Pvt Lester R. Hunt, 501st Prcht Inf, were able to clear the ship before it crashed. In addition to myself and Pvt Huntl, the following men were in the ship: Pvt Robinson, Pvt Hawks, Pvt Rofar, Pvt Everly, Cpl Brazzle, Cpl Stephens, Pvt Sarlas and Cpl Bevar. All of the men, with the exception of Cpl Stephens, were from the 501st Prcht Inf., Cpl Stephens was with the 502nd Prcht Inf."

The pilot of the airplane was 1st Lt Shauvin, Co-pilot 2nd Lt Greene, navigator 2nd Lt Richards, the radio operator S/Sgt Bloomfield and crew chief S/Sgt Stanley A. Fischer.

A few days after the crash, several area residents recovered eight bodies from the crash site and buried them in a nearby common grave. German forces left the area on 23 September, and on 25 September, the Belgian Red Cross exhumed the remains from the common grave and reinterred them in the Retie village cemetery. In June 1945, the Army’s 3049th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company disinterred 22 sets of American remains associated with numerous air losses from the Retie cemetery and transported them to the U.S. Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, for processing.

By October 1951, everyone from Shauvin’s aircraft had been identified and accounted for except for Shauvin. He was declared non-recoverable on 29 October 1951 and was declared dead one day and one year after he was reported missing in action.

On 2 March 2022, The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced 2nd Lt. Eugene P. Shauvin was accounted for.

The crew and the passengers of this airplane are remembered on a statue that was erected at the place of the crash.

Note about the family name of his daughter: Mrs. Linda Chauvin wrote to us that her family name became corrupted after her father was born.

He had four brothers serving overseas.