Eugene Shabatura
S/Sgt. Eugene E. Shabatura served as left waist gunner aboard B-24J 42-100416 'Baggy Maggy' on the 18 September 1944 supply mission near Arnhem. Reported missing in action after the aircraft was shot down; status remained MIA on the original MACR.
Shabatura exited the wreckage through a break in the fuselage on the waist side, pushing the wing aside to get clear.
In September 1992, Shabatura initiated the reunion of the surviving crew -- 47 years after they had lost contact -- by tracking pilot Larry Hewin through the Veterans Administration, and separately made contact with Dutch researcher Jos van Roozendaal, who had been investigating the crash independently. He is named in one account as one of the survivors present at the monument's 1994 50th-anniversary dedication in Castelré, though sources on the exact attendee list conflict.
Sortie Log
18 SEP 1944
The sorties below are those we have been able to document for this airman, drawn from flight logs, mission records, and archival sources. It is not necessarily a complete account of every mission flown; gaps may reflect missing documentation, transferred assignments, or records lost to time.