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Our mission on March 19th was over a district South West of Berlin, and our first target was to have been Ruhland, but the visibility was so poor that we were unable to drop any bombs, however, the enemy flak was quite heavy and finally was successful in hitting one of our wings and set it afire. The ship was maneuvered to take it out of formation so that it would not interfere with the other ships. When a wing is on fire it is hard to steer, and it was but a short time until it was out of control, and went into a spin. The navigator 1st Lt Howard O. Brown and myself were the only ones who were able to jump before it went into the spin. When a ship is in a spin, it is practically impossible to move. We left the ship at about 22000 feet and landed in enemy territory, and were held over night in a very small village, the name of which I do not know, about 25 miles S.W. of Ruhland at our rally point.
T/Sgt Steele M. Roberts, the engineer was captured. He was taken to a small church yard outside of a small unknow town and was asked by his captors to identify the bodies of eight men. He did not tell his captors that they were members of his aircrew but satisfied himself beyond a doubt that they were. He positively identified 1st Lt Thomas as one of them.

Lt. Thomas was buried in a local cemetery in the village of Wormlage, Germany. In 1952, he was moved to the Ardennes American Cemetery.