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Pvt Elwood E. Thomas was employed at Reading Railroad Company.

He enlisted in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on 13 January 1943. He was sent overseas in August 1944.

Pvt Thomas is one of the victims of the The Malmedy Massacre.

In the morning of 17 December 1944 from 6.00 until 9.00 AM, B Battery of the 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion closed their installation at Schevenhütte, Germany to go to their new position in Luxembourg. They departed in convoy about 9.00 AM and stopped for lunch at 11.45 AM just north of Malmedy, Belgium. After passing through Malmedy they moved south toward Ligneuville and St. Vith, Belgium. They passed the crossroads village known as Baugnez, approximately 12.45 to 1.00 PM. At that point they encountered the lead panzers of "Kampfgruppe Peiper".

At 1.30 PM the Germans began assembling their prisoners in an open field approximately sixty to eighty yards from the crossroads on the westside of road N23. There would be 111 Prisoners of War in the total group.

In the next few minutes one of the most horrible scenes of the entire war unfolded ... A German officer was standing in a SPW on the left, he raised his pistol and took a slow deliberate aim and then fired at the group. The Germans in the two SPW's started yelling and firing machine guns at the prisoners ...

'Fatal Crossroads' by Danny S. Parker: To [T/5 Mike] Skoda, the paratroopers of the 3rd Parachute Division looked to be only boys. He was a prisoner again, but at least not of the SS. His new captors even seemed kind. They took him to another barn just to the east. "One of your comrades is lying out there," they told him. He was still alive. Skoda asked them to take him there. "They took me to another barn and there was a fellow from my battery laying there badly wounded. His back was so bad, he couldn't move. His name was Private Thomas." Skoda recognized the boy and told the paratroopers to get his buddy some help, but the language barrier intervened. There was little to be done. The Germans soon headed east with Skoda - a captive himself. Michael Skoda was the last American to see Pvt Elwood Thomas alive. His remains are missing to this day, his fate a mystery.