18-19 and 22-23 Sep 1944
Click on image for full size

The Morning Report of 22 Sep 1944 shows Maj. Wells and T/Sgt G. D. Pritchett MIA as of 19 Sep 1944. (The NARA POW database shows T/Sgt Pritchett was captured 20 Sep 1944 and sent to Stalag III-C at Alt Drewitz. He survived the war. His MOS was 631, which was Intelligence NCO.) No other Morning Report shows retroactive entries for 19 Sep 1944.

The Morning Report of 19 Sep 1944 shows Lt Col Rosebro seriously wounded and evacuated to the 59th Field Hospital. It also shows Maj. Rankin KIA. (Rankin's remains were evacuated, and he was buried next to Rosebro at the temporary U. S. military cemetery at Andilly, France, 21 Sep.) The Record of Events entry for this day reads (bold names not bold in original):
"Co "B" the 38th in attack on Sillegny in conjunction with tank unit. Casualties heavy. Under heavy Arty fire entire period. Capt McAdams & Approx 40 Men left in town when forced to withdraw because of arty Inf dug in at edge of woods on high ground overlooking town to bold position pending arrival of reinforcement. Bn C.P. under remittent fire for fourth day"

Posthumously awarded Silver Star for his actions in France, 19 September 1944
7th Armored Division General Orders No. 62, 11 October 1944 - detailed citation from his Individual Deceased Personnel File (page 12):

Major Thomas H. Wells (Army Serial Number O392480) Infantry, while serving with the Army of the United States, distinguished himself by gallantry in action in connection with military operations against the enemy on 19 September 1944, in the area of Sillegny, France. In the assault on the highly fortified Metz sector, Major Wells' battalion had the difficult and dangerous mission of capturing the town of Sillegny. In addition to numerical superiority, the enemy had a precise knowledge of every detail of the surrounding terrain, having used it for four years as a proving and training ground for a nearby officer candidate school. The first attack upon the town was thrown back by concentrated artillery fire. During the second attack in the early hours of the morning, both the battalion commander and the executive officer were mortally wounded as they attempted to charge a line of enemy pillboxes. Though faced by withering frontal fire from automatic weapons, Major Wells with complete disregard for his own safety, reconnoitered the enemy positions and formulated a plan for a renewed assault on the enemy fortifications. Relentlessly, he pressed forward under heavy enemy artillery and succeeded in reaching the heart of the town. While attempting to remove a road block, Major Wells met his death. The epic gallantry of Major Wells in leading his troops agains almost impregnable enemy positions will be remembered by the remnants of the battalion who survived the assault of Sillegny.

NOTE: Page 13 of his IDPF contains the following in paragraph 2a:
Officer who prepared citation for award of Silver Star for Major Thomas H. Wells was Killed in Action 3 November 1944, therefore it cannot be ascertained what was meant by that part of citation as reads: While attempting to remove a road block, Major Wells met his death.

7th Armored Division Association Historian Wesley Johnston evaluation:

1. This is the earliest official document stating that Maj. Wells had been killed and was not just missing in action.
2. As will be seen below, he was with Capt. McAdams, S/Sgt. Clarkson, S/Sgt. Shenk and Pvt. Mack Harris of Headquarters Company, who were directing fire (artillery, mortar and probably the assault guns of Capt. McAdams' Assault Gun Platoon commanded by 1st Lt. Carl Mattocks). If the Silver Star account of attempting to remove a road block is correct, it probably refers to the road block at the main road junction, resulting from the concrete bunker (just east of the junction) supported by machine guns, which is evidence that the house (see personal account of Pvt. Mack Harris below) by which Maj. Wells was standing when he was killed and S/Sgt. Shenk was mortally wounded was not in the town but instead was near the road junction just south-southeast of the main part of Sillegny.
3. It is important to note that both the citation and the Morning Reports place the loss of Maj. Wells (and the also-unaccounted S/Sgt. Charles Shenk on 19 Sep 1944. As will be seen below, in later years Graves Registration investigators at some point started using 20 Sep and not 19 Sep and passed this mis-information on to survivors whose statements they were requesting, so that the survivor statements were polluted by the propagation of the erroneous date.
4. The only 7AD officer killed 3 Nov 1944 was 2nd Lt. Leslie O. Fulton, CO of the Anti-tank Platoon of Company "A" 38th Armored Infantry Battalion. Thus it appears that AT/A/38 may have been involved in the action at Sillegny when Thomas Wells was killed. Another explanation would be that since so few original 38 AIB officers on the line on 19 Sep 1944 survived the day, Lt. Fulton may have been the only officer available to research and write the citation. He was not the senior officer present, since at least one (1st Lt. Carl K. Mattocks CO of the Assault Gun Platoon of Headquarters Company) more senior officer was present.

Click here for the 45 page PDF file of the Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF) of Maj. Wells. The most significant record in his IDPF is the Silver Star citation (above).

The 54-page IDPF of S/Sgt. Charles W. Shenk actually contains the most important record of all for Maj. Wells -- the eye-witness account by Pvt. Mack Harris (PDF p 32) of the death of Maj. Wells, which is included in the personal accounts section below.

The IDPFs of dozens of combat dead who were evacuated from or whose remains were recovered from Sillegny can be found on the Sillegny Recoveries web page. However, none of those thus far obtained and posted contain any references to Maj. Wells.

Since all of the senior officers on the line were lost on 19 Sep 1944, the 38 AIB After Action Report was written at the end of the month by someone who was not there and had no access to most of the officers who had been there during the combat. But it is important to include the After Action Report for completeness, even though it fails to mention Maj. Wells.

Here is all that it recorded for the entire period 16-21 Sep 1944:
Artillery shelling of our area began on 16 September 1944 and continued throughout the day. Plans were made for an attack on SILLEGRY to the east, which began dismounted on 18 September 1944. From 16 September 1944 through 21 September 1944 the battalion suffered heavy casualties, with the Battalion Staff losing several of its senior officers and in addition those sent in as replacements. It was during this period of occupying former enemy positions west of SILLEGRY and the bivouac area south of MARIEULLES that the battalion's heaviest casualties for the month resulted. These positions had undoubtedly been zeroed in by the enemy, in view of the fact that they comprised fortified positions, i.e., pillboxes, well dug-in emplacements for guns, and trenchs. The battalion held its positions until relieved by other units of the division and on 21 September 1944 proceeded to a bivouac area south of ARRY on the east bank of the MOSELLE RIVER. While in this area the battalion reorganized upon receipt of approximately 400 replacements.

The CCR After Action Report also did not mention the 38 AIB officers lost 19 Sep:

ATTACK ON SILLEGNY PROGRESSED AGAINST ENEMY RESISTANCE. THE TOWN WAS ENTERED AT APPROXIMATELY 191500 SEPTEMBER 44. AFTER ENTERING THE TOWN, WE RECEIVED THE HEAVIEST ARTILLERY FIRE YET EXPERIENCED. FORCES WERE PINNED DOWN IN THE TOWN UNABLE TO PROCEED OR WITHDRAW. THIS SITUATION CONTINUED INTO THE NIGHT.

AN ENEMY COUNTERATTACK WAS REPULSED BEFORE DARK.

AT 191750 SEPTEMBER 1944 A DIRECT HIT WAS MADE ON A MEDIUM TANK APPROXIMATELY 15 FEET FROM THE COMMAND C.P., KILLING ONE TANK CREW MEMBER AND INJURING TWO (2) OTHERS. MAJOR LAUER (S-3 OF CC-R) SUFFERED SEVERE SHRAPNEL WOUNDS, AND WAS EVACUATED. T/5 MENDOSA (RADIO OPERATOR ON DUTY) WAS INJURED BY SHRAPNEL AND WAS EVACUATED.

DIVISION ISSUED INSTRUCTIONS AT 191600 FOR CC-R TO CAPTURE SILLEGNY AND SECURE CROSSINGS OF THE SEILLE RIVER, THEN REVERT TO DIVISION RESERVE WHEN PASSED THROUGH BY CC-A. THIS WAS TO BE A COORDINATED ATTACK WITH CC-A IF SILLEGNY HAD NOT FALLEN BY 192100 SEPTEMBER 1944.

The 17th Tank Battalion After Action Report explicitly mentions the loss of four 38 AIB commanders, although not giving their names:

During the morning of the 19th of Sept the tanks simply held their position waiting for the infantry to get ready to enter the town again. Since this operation at Sillegny had begun the 38th Inf Bn had had four different commanders due to the respective commanders being wounded or killed by enemy artillery fire. Three Bn Commanders were killed and one wounded.

At 1340 on the 19th two tanks from Company "A" of the 17th supported by what remained of the 38th Inf Bn entered the town of Sillegny and just inside the town they ran into a roadblock and mines. The infantry started removing the road block and called the engineers forward. As our troops entered the town the enemy started laying heavy artillery fire on it and there was very little enemy resistance in the town other than the artillery fire. Apparently the enemy had withdrawn so they could place artillery fire on our troops. The artillery fire became so dense and heavy that the infantry had gone forward behind our tanks had withdrawn or took refuge in building basements and our tanks were left in the town without protection. At 1644 a P.W. reported that about 20 enemy tanks were coming into Sillegny from the northeast. About this time the Division notified us that their air corps had destroyed a column of enemy tanks and armored vehicles on the road to Sillegny northeast of the town. At 1715 the assault gun platoon leader reported two enemy tanks approaching the town of Sillegny from the north and he fired on them as they came into range but did not stop them. However our Co "C" tanks knocked out one of the tanks and other one went into town. By 1830 the two Co "A" tanks had been pulled back out of the town because the enemy infantry was coming back into the town with Bazookas and there were no infantry around to protect the tanks. Approximately a platoon of infantry from the 38th Inf Bn remained in the town and barricaded themselves in a stone building in the southern part of the town. They had a radio and were in contact with C.C."R". Hq until about midnight when they called for artillery fire and reported that they were surrounded by enemy infantrymen. We tried to send a section of tanks into town from Co "B" but they could not get in because of anti-tank gun fire and artillery fire. One tank was knocked out.

The 33rd Armored Engineer Battalion After Action Report skips from 18 to 20 Sep 1944, with no mention of the events of 19 Sep.

This is the most important record in the case of Maj. Wells. It is the only eye-witness account of his death. It is not from his IDPF but from the IDPF (PDF p 32) of S/Sgt. Charles W. Shenk who was Supply Sergeant for Headquarters Company, 38th Armored Infantry Battalion. Pvt. Mack C. Harris was one of about 40 men cut off in Sillegny by German artillery, preventing their withdrawal or relief. They were all then captured. No 38 AIB personnel who survived the action, other than the captured men, saw what had happened to Maj. Wells, although 1st Lt. Carl Mattocks, CO of the Headquaters Company Assault Gun Platoon, apparently did see it about to happen and see it after it happened but could not be sure what had happened. (See his account below.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: The dates of events in the 1950 statements of Capt. McAdams and Pvt. Harris are clearly one day after the actual dates. Maj. Wells was definitely killed 19 Sep 1944. The statements 5 1/2 years after the fact seem to have been biased by some suggestion from a common source that erroneously believed that Charles Shenk was lost 20 Sep. But Shenk and Harris and McAdams all showed in the 22 Sep 1944 Headquarters Company Morning Report as MIA as of 19 Sep, along with T/Sgt. Hanson, S/Sgt. Clarkson, and Cpl. Cochran and Pfc. Mrozowski.

1950 Mar 29 Statement of Private Mack C. Harris

On this date Sept. 20 [sic] - 1944 Capt. McAdams S/Sgt Shenk and myself were directing artillery & mortar fire on Sillegny, France. Capt. McAdams was inside the house, useing [sic] the radio trying to contact help or aid, (Major Wells of 38 Armd. Infm Bn.) (S/Sgt Shenk) (1st Lt. White, & a Sgt. I never knew out of an Engineer outfit) were at the back of the house, I was at the side of the house, an enemy mortar shell hit the wall just over the heads of these men. Major Wells of 38 Armd. Inf. Bn. Hq was killed out right - 1st Lt. White & the Sgt. out of the Engineer outfit were also killed, S/Sgt Shenk was badly wounded, he was hit in the lower part of the body, the groin & stomache [sic], the wounds were severly. [sic] I helped to get him into the house, there was a medical aid man there but he had very limited sipplies. [sic] He did the best he could for S/Sgt Shenk in the way of aid - this was between 4 & 6 oclock [sic] in the evening. S/Sgt. Shenk was delirious. We did every thing possible to make him comfortable. So the Germans marched in on us some time between 11oo & 2oo oclock [sic]. We took down a door for a stretcher & took Sgt Shenk with us.

The German marched the group for about 3 hours - about 8 or 9 miles, we finaly [sic] were herded in to a barn, there was a German Dr. he was aksing if any one was wounded. Several of the boys and my self had minor wounds, we took Sgt Shenk in a small room and the Dr. sent the rest of us up stairs, in about an hour they the groupe [sic] together again to continue our treak [sic] into Germany. So we called for S/Sgt Shenk. The Dr. said he had passed away. So we had to leave him there - I am sure all of his papers & pay book & dog tags were on him -
I have never spoke of this before to any one, I had presumed the Germans had notified the U. S. Government.

7th Armored Division Association Historian Wesley Johnston evaluation:

1. As noted prior to the statement, the dates are one day after the actual dates.
2. The medical aid man may have been Pvt. Havery E. Malamud of the 38 AIB Medical Detachment, whose remains were recovered at Sillegny in November 1944. He is the only casualty listed for 19 Sep 1944 in the Med/38 Morning Reports. If he was the medic attending the men in the house, then he was killed at some point. His Report of Burial (19 Nov 1944 at Limey) shows that he had received a gunshot wound to the right chest. If he was indeed the one in the house, then it is possible that when he was recovered Maj. Wells was also recovered and taken to Limey as an Unknown. This would conflict with the statement of Captain Robert Kinoshita (below) who told his son that he had seen the remains of Maj. Wells which would indicate that they were evacuated during the events of the next couple of days at Sillegny, in which case they would probably have been taken to the temporary cemetery at Andilly.
3. There was no officer named White in 38th Armored Infantry Battalion. It is unclear from the account, but it seems that 1st Lt. White may have been in "an engineer outfit". I do not have the complete list of 33rd Armored Engineer Battalion personnel, but Company "C" of 33 AEB was the only known engineer unit involved in the attack on Sillegny, which was entirely a Combat Command "R" operation on 19 Sep 1944, and the CCR After Action Reports show no other engineer unit in the task forces. There was no officer named White who died in the war as a member of 7th Armored Division. So it seems that either Pvt. Harris mis-remembered (5 1/2 years after the fact) the name of the officer or else he thought that the officer was killed but he was not. The C/33 Morning Reports show only one 1st Lieutenant was on duty on 18 Sep 1944 and that he was killed 19 Sep 1944. He was 1st Lt. Thomas S. King, Jr. whose remains were recovered either the same or the next day (19 or 20 Sep) and buried at Andilly 21 Sep. If 1st Lt. King was the one identified as 1st Lt. White, then his recovery to Andilly would indicate a probability that Maj. Wells was also taken to Andilly.
4. Only one C/33 Sergeant was killed 19 Sep. Sgt. Eugene E. Stoesser (whose IDPF I do not have) was reported by C/33 buddy Howard H. Gregory (in a letter to his [Gregory's] sister) to have been wounded by the same grenade that killed Sgt. Stoesser, which would rule Stoesser out as being killed in the way that Pvt. Harris provided in his statement for the death of the engineer Sergeant -- unless Howar Gregory was wrong about the explosion being from a hand grenade. There was also a C/33 Tec 4 killed, who would have been referred to as Sgt. Tec 4 Canio Joseph Civita was recovered from Sillegny in February 1945 and buried at the temporary cemetery at Hamm, Luxembourg. However there were two Sergeants killed from Headquarters Company of 33 AEB. S/Sgt. Leo R. Worthington has never been found and identified, but he was seen to have died at the Seille River on reconnaissance for a bridge site so that he could not be the engineer Sergeant in the account of Pvt. Harris. The other is S/Sgt. Charles C. Panion, whose IDPF I do not have. But the HQ Co/33 Morning Report of 20 Sep 1944 shows Panion and Worthington KIA and states "2 EM KIA 1/2 Mi E of Sillegny, Fr on Seille River while on Rcn mission." So if the engineer Sgt. was from 33 AEB, it was either Stoesser (in which case Gregory was wrong that it was a grenade) or Civita.

Carl Mattocks at 1998 Reunion

1st Lt. Carl K. Mattocks commanded the Assault Gun Platoon of Headquarters Company, 38th Armored Infantry Battalion, at Sillegny. After his commandning officer Capt. Sam McAdams, CO of HQ Company, was captured at Sillegny, Mattocks assumed command of HQ Company and was later promoted to Captain and served as HQ Company CO for the duration of the war. Thus he was one of the few original 38 AIB officers to still be there at the end of the war.

After the war, Carl Mattocks made several trips to Europe and visited Sillegny. Thus he was familiar with the post-war configuration of the town as well as at the time of combat.

Immediately following the September 1998 annual reunion of the 7th Armored Division Association, Association Historian Wesley Johnston traveled to Europe to retrace the route of 7th Armored Division in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. So during the reunion, he met with Carl Mattocks for an hour or two, in order to learn about the places the Division had been, including precise locations of events. The following account is from Wesley Johnston's record of that meeting.

Wesley Johnston NOTE: The following account is from my memory and not from my notes. So when I do check my notes, it is possible that some parts of this may require change. But the essence of the account is correct, even if some specifics may change.

September 1998 Account of Carl Mattocks regarding Maj. Thomas Wells

During the combat of the afternoon of 19 Sep 1944, the Assault Gun Platoon was in position north of the east-west road leading from the woods down the slope to Sillegny. 1st Lt. Mattocks was able to see Maj. Wells (who at that time was acting CO of the battalion after the deaths of the CO and XO). Maj. Wells was by what in 1998 was the tennis court, nearer to the main road junction than was Mattocks. A shell was coming in, and Mattocks ducked into his turret for protection. After the shell had hit, he stood back up in his turret and could no longer see Maj. Wells. He never saw him again.

7th Armored Division Association Historian Wesley Johnston evaluation:

1. If the incoming round that caused Carl Mattocks to duck into his turret was the same as the round or came in at the same time as the round that killed Maj. Wells, then this account conforms with that of Pvt. Harris as to the circumstances of the death of Maj. Wells.
2. The account also conforms with the location of House A on the April 1946 recovery map (see Context section at top of this page for map) as the location where Maj. Wells was killed, since House A in 1944 was by where the tennis court (which by 2017 had been converted into a basketball court) was in 1998.

Robert Kinoshita during WWII

Capt. Robert Kinoshita was a medical doctor, serving as Battalion Surgeon of 38th Armored Infantry Battalion on 19 Sep 1944. The following account is second-hand. It is what he told to his son Richard Kinoshita who later told it to 7th Armored Division Association Historian Wesley Johnston.

Capt. Kinoshita did not stay behind the lines. He was up on the front lines and received Silver Star for his actions 16 Aug 1944 at Leves, France. He was recommended 18 Sep 1944 by Maj. Curtice Rankin, 38 AIB Executive Officer, for an oak leaf cluster for his Silver Star for his actions 17 Sep 1944 at Lorry, on the other side of the ridge west of Sillegny. (See the detail citations for his awards.) However, Maj. Rankin was killed the next day and the award was never made. Capt. Kinoshita also received the Purple Heart for both of the above actions and again for his action 21 Sep 1944 at Sillegny.

Capt. Kinoshita's awards are significant to his account, since the assumption that he was behind the lines at an aid station does not conform with him being up on the front lines, including at Sillegny.

Wesley Johnston NOTE: The following account is from my memory and not from my notes. So when I do check my notes, it is possible that some parts of this may require change. But the essence of the account is correct, even if some specifics may change.

Account of Robert Kinoshita regarding Maj. Thomas Wells

Capt. Kinoshita saw the remains of Maj. Wells by a building.

7th Armored Division Association Historian Wesley Johnston evaluation:

1. Prior to this analysis, I had not taken into account that Capt. Kinoshita's modus operandi was very much to be at the front lines and not in the rear at an aid station. But you do not earn two Silver Star citations and three Purple Hearts in just over a month's time at an aid station. So my prior assumption that the building at which Capt. Kinoshita saw the remains of Maj. Wells was at an aid station or collecting point where they had been evacuated no longer fits with Capt. Kinshoita's m.o. In particular, the fact that just two days later, 21 Sep 1944, at Sillegny, Capt. Kinoshita was again wounded places does not fit with him being in the rear at Sillegny. So it is very possible that the building by which Capt. Kinoshita saw the remains of Maj. Wells was the building by which Maj. Wells had been standing when he was killed -- which the evidence points to as being the building identified as House A on the April 1946 recovery map (see Context section at the top of this page for the image of the map).
2. In the days after 19 Sep, the Germans pulled back out of the town. On 22 Sep, 54 men of B/38 moved all the way through town to the Seille River, where they encountered strong enemy resistance and most of them were captured. The fact that they were able to move well past the location where Maj. Wells died clearly supports the interpretation of Capt. Kinoshita's statement as referring to the building by which Maj. Wells had been killed and still lay unrecovered.
3. Three recoveries on the April 1946 map were not very far from "House A", which was the only building in the area and thus most probably where Maj. Wells died. And recoveries from Sillegny occurred several times over the weeks and months after the combat. So it is not clear if Maj. Wells' remains were recovered when 38 AIB was able to move through and beyond his position. The entire area was still a combat area, with the safety of the woods a mile away to the west, so that recovery of remains from the earlier days of combat was not likely to be a priority. However, due to his rank and to the high regard in which he was held, it may have been that the remains of Maj. Wells were recovered but that he somehow became an Unknown. If this scenario of recovery within a few days was the case, then he would have been taken to the temporary U. S. military cemetery at Andilly, France, as an Unknown.

John Dean (Rcn/HQ Co/38), Lyle Zeutzius & Wesley Johnston at 1998 Reunion

Pvt. Lyle Zeutius was promoted 10 Oct 1944 to Tec 5 and transferred 13 Oct 1944 from Headquarters Company to Battalion Headquarters, in the S-2 (Intelligence) Section. On multiple occasions he told 7th Armored Division Association Historian Wesley Johnston the following account.

September 1998 Account of Carl Mattocks regarding Maj. Thomas Wells

After Maj. Wells was killed Lyle Zeutzius kept the helmet of Maj. Wells.

7th Armored Division Association Historian Wesley Johnston evaluation:

1. This is clearly secondary information, not directly relevant to the event of the death or possible recovery of Maj. Wells, but it does confirm that the position at which he was killed was later reached by 38 AIB men, possibly on 20 or 21 Sep 1944. This conforms with Capt. Kinoshita being at that position and seeing the remains of Maj. Wells where he had been killed.
2. Lyle Zeutzius could not recall how he had come to have the helmet nor how long he kept it, and I never asked him his reason for keeping the helmet.

Those dead evacuated from Sillegny on or immediately after 19 Sep 1944 were taken for burial to the temporary U. S. military cemetery at Andilly, France. (See the Sillegny Recoveries web page for specific cases.) Thus it is possible that Maj. Thomas Wells was also taken there as an Unknown.

Only ten Unknowns from Andilly remain unidentified, none of which appear to be Maj. Wells. Click here for the web page about these cases.

Those dead recovered from Sillegny in October and November 1944 (after 7th Armored Division had moved to the Netherlands and 5th Infantry Division continued the combat to take Sillegny, which did not succeed until Nov 1944) were taken for burial to the temporary U. S. military cemetery at Limey, France. (See the Sillegny Recoveries web page for specific cases.) Thus it is possible that Maj. Thomas Wells was also taken there as an Unknown.

As the Sillegny Recoveries web page details in the 1944 November 26 Recoveries (Limey) section's sub-section "Implications for DPAA and for other Limey-Related Searches", the digitized X-files labeled as Limey (France) are confused with those of Limay (Philippines) and those of Liège (Belgium) and some of the Limey X-files are missing from the digitized files.

Specifically, the files for Limey X-1 to X-14 (9 men) are all missing from the digitized files. These are important for Sillegny because the file for X-15 does exist and shows that he was delivered to Limey 30 Nov 1944 -- after all of the Nov 1944 recoveries of identified Sillegny remains. So if there any Limey Unknowns recovered from Sillegny, they would be numbered in the range X-1 to X-14. Cross reference sheets have been found for Limey X-3, 4, 9 12 and 13, so that we know that those remains have been identified. And the IDPF of Charles Budkin (C/33 AEB, KIA 19 Sep 1944 at Sillegny) reveals that he was Limey X-1.

Thus Limey X-2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 14 (9 men) all need to be checked to see if they are Sillegny recoveries, but these X-files are missing from the digitzed DPAA X-files.

Those dead recovered from Sillegny in February 1945 -- three months after combat had ended there but prior to demining of the area -- were taken for burial to the temporary U. S. military cemetery at Hamm, Luxembourg. (See the Sillegny Recoveries web page for specific cases.) Thus it is possible that Maj. Thomas Wells was also taken there as an Unknown.

....more to come in this section ........

Those dead recovered from Sillegny in April 1946 (and possibly also May 1946) -- after demining of the area -- were taken for burial to the temporary U. S. military cemetery at St. Avold, France. (See the Sillegny Recoveries web page for specific cases.) Thus it is possible that Maj. Thomas Wells was also taken there as an Unknown.

There are 333 digitized St. Avold X-files. I have begun a spreadsheet to abstract the information on all of these, which I will put on a dedicated web page. So far, I have completed 104, without finding any that are Maj. Wells.