WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Noel E. Shoup, 25, of Dublin, Texas, killed during World War II, was accounted for April 6, 2023.
In February 1944, Shoup was assigned to the359th Bombardment Squadron, 303d Bombardment Group (Heavy). On Feb. 28 Shoup was piloting a B-17F “Flying Fortress,” that was struck by anti-aircraft after a bombing raid on German rocket sites in France’s Pas-de-Calais department. His body was not recovered, and the Germans never reported him as a prisoner of war. The War Department issued a finding of death on July 14, 1945.
According to witnesses before the B17F crashed near the village of Le Translay, France, three airmen parachuted successfully, seven crew members were killed, five were recovered and identified and the remaining two including Shoup were not identified. At the time of the crash, German forces recovered six sets of remains, near the village of Wiammeville, France and were buried in the English World War I Memorial Cemetery at Abbeville on March 2, 1944.
In 1945 an American graves registration team disinterred the six sets of remains from Abbeville and reburied them in the United States Military Cemetery at St. Andre (USMC St. Andre), France. Graves registration personnel designated one set of unknown remains as X-452 St. Andre.
Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), Army Quartermaster Corps, was the organization tasked with recovering missing American personnel in the European Theater. In March 1947, following unsuccessful attempts to identify X-452, AGRC investigators transferred X-452 from USMC St. Andre to the Suresnes American Cemetery. He was declared non-recoverable on Dec. 26, 1950
In September 2017 two French researchers led a DPAA Investigation Team to an aircraft crash site in Wiammeville, France. Which resulted in subsequent investigation and recovery efforts in 2018, finding material evidence and osseous remains.
In October 2019, X-452 St. Andre was disinterred from the Suresnes American Cemetery and transported the remains to the DPAA laboratory for forensic analysis.
To identify Shoup’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Y chromosome (Y-STR) analysis.
Shoup’s name is recorded on the on the Tablets of the Missing at Ardennes American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Neupré, Belgium, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Shoup will be buried in Dublin, Texas, on Sept. 11, 2023.
For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.
DPAA is grateful to the American Battle Monuments Commission for their partnership in this mission.
For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil or find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or https://www.linkedin.com/company/defense-pow-mia-accounting-agency.
Shoup’s personnel profile can be viewed at: https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001DKIqmEAH.