During the following night (17–18 August 1943) the Royal Air Force launched a bombing raid of Peenemünde, Operation "Hydra". The Thiel family died in a slit trench in front of their home in Karlshagen. Thiel and his family (wife Martha, daughter Sigrid and son Siegfried) were buried at the war cemetery in Karlshagen. Martin Schilling replaced Thiel.