It took 80 years to fit together the full story of Lt. Paul E. Chaufty, a U.S. Army Air Corps aviator from Carthage who was killed in France during World War II on Aug. 13, 1944, two months after D-Day.
Growing up, family heard stories about Chaufty. The lieutenant’s nephew, Richard Chaufty, now of Utah, remembers visiting relatives in Carthage and hearing stories about the brother of his father, Melvin, who died when Richard was about 4 years old. Richard’s wife, Elaine, said his grandmother kept a scrapbook with letters and news clippings about her son’s military service.
“Paul has been kept alive in memory,” said Mrs. Chaufty, who now keeps up the scrapbook.
A story published in the now defunct Carthage Republican Tribune, concerning the search for Lt. Chaufty’s family, details his life as pieced together through the research by volunteers at the Carthage Free Library Heritage Room and Watertown Daily Times librarian.
According to newspaper accounts, the Carthage native was born Jan. 3, 1915, the son of Charles and Carrie Chaufty. He graduated from Carthage High School in 1924 and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Forces on July 8, 1941, and following Pearl Harbor, transferred to the U.S. Air Force.
The lieutenant’s death was reported in the Nov. 9, 1944, edition of the Carthage newspaper. A telegraph had informed his family he had missing in action since August of that year. In August 1948, the remains of Lt. Chaufty were returned to the United States. He was interred in Fairview Cemetery in September 1948. According to a Carthage Republican Tribune account, full military rites were conducted by members of the American Legion Bassett-Baxter Post 789.
It is stated in his father’s obituary from the Watertown Daily Times, dated Sept. 18, 1944, that “First Lieut. Paul Chaufty, pilot of a P-47 Thunderbolts, was on Sept. 1, reported missing in action since Aug. 18, following an attack by U.S. Army Air Force planes over France. He had completed more than 40 mission.”
The senior Mr. Chaufty, son of Joseph and Amelia Keller Chaufty, moved to Carthage as a young boy living on a farm on the Carthage-Croghan state road then moved into the village, residing on South James Street. The Chauftys had nine children. Besides Paul and Melvin, there were Adelaide (Mrs. Charles Jenks), Helen (Mrs. A.L. Becker), Harold, Francis, Mason, Reuben and Robert.
When Lt. Chaufty’s mother, Carrie M. Brierton Chaufty, died in 1957, her obituary said he was killed in France while on a mission Aug. 13, 1944. Mrs. Chaufty was a native of Carillon, Quebec.
The family knew of 29 years of Lt. Chaufty’s life but only knew he was shot down in a rural area of France.
“The Germans got him,” his mother often said, according to the family.
People in Saint Ellier les Bois in Northern France, near Ciral where Chaufty’s plane was shot down, only knew of the lieutenant’s death. To them, Chaufty was equated with their liberation. Over the past 80 years, residents of the community have wanted to formally recognize the pilot who died as their homeland was being liberated.
On May 25, that recognition was held and the lieutenant’s great niece, Richard’s daughter, Nicole Chaufty Saunders of Kaysville, Utah, and her family attended.
Community members formed the Paul Chaufty Association and have set up a website that details Lt. Chaufty’s military career, has interviews, details about the preparations for the ceremony and the event itself.
The website points out Lt. Chaufty died “sacrificing his life for our freedom.”
“Its engagement took place during American aviation support for the troops of the 2nd Leclerc DB and the 3rd US DB, who were advancing towards Argentan and working to strangle the Falaise-Chambois-Montormel pocket,” explains the site. “This tribute ceremony is the most beautiful testimony that can be given to a person who gave his life so that we can live free and in peace today. This duty of memory contributes to the preservation of our collective history and to raising awareness among future generations.”
Marie-Thérèse Bastien, who was instrumental in honoring Lt. Chaufty, was 14 years old in 1944, when she saw Chaufty’s plane go down and the pilot parachute out.
The HonorStates.org website recounts, “On August 15, 1944 he was piloting his P-47 Thunderbolt during an armed reconnaissance mission to Argentan, France. Flames were seen coming from the supercharger of his aircraft. He bailed out however his parachute failed to open.”
Mrs. Bastien’s daughter, with the help of a genealogist, found Richard Chaufty which led to Nicole Saunders and family attending a ceremony this week in France.
Saunders described her first visit to France as an “awesome experience.”
“It was a great opportunity to be able to meet with the family who tried to rescue my great uncle,” she said. “For years my family had no idea he was remembered by people in the village.”
Saunders said that for years people in the French village had wanted to contact the Chaufty family but it took the internet to connect the two families.
Through conversations with Bastien’s family and those involved in the Paul Chaufty Association, Saunders learned of what happened on the last day of her great uncle’s life.
“He had completed his mission and was returning to base when he was hit by German fire,” she said.
The village had been celebrating the liberation, which was subdued when Chaufty’s plane went down and a search for plane and pilot ensued. They found the plane but it was not until the next day that Chaufty’s body was found.
“The townspeople kept him from the Germans until the American Army collected the remains,” Saunders said.
Chaufty was temporarily buried in France until his remains were returned stateside in 1948.
Richard Chaufty said he went with his father to the train station in Carthage to retrieve his uncle’s remains.
“I went to the funeral which I think was at my grandmother Chaufty’s house,” he recalled.
Although he was unable to physically attend the ceremony, Mr. Chaufty was connected to it via the internet.
“It was a great tribute to uncle Paul,” he said. “After 80 years it brought closure to how the plane crashed and what happened with Paul. It was very nice that my daughter and her family could attend.”
Saunders said she was impressed with the ceremony during which the Star Spangled Banner was played and her son Brian held the American flag. She noted that more than 20 dignitaries attended the ceremony including prefects, mayors, members of parliament and military leaders.
“It was a real honor that the United States Embassy in France sent a representative, Lt. Col. Gerald Patton, to speak and give flowers at the memorial,” she said.
During the stay in France, the family visited the fields in which the crashed plane was located and Chaufty’s body was found.
Both Saunders and her father said that originally the family had fled France due to religious persecution and settled in Jefferson County at the urging of an agent of LeRay de Chaument.
Saunders plans to keep in touch with the newfound friends in France who are now like family.
