Memorial

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Cpl Robert T. Cahow enlisted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 8 April 1941.

Being 6 foot 7 inches tall Robert stood out from his comrades.

The units target was Schmidt and K Company was assigned to execute a diversionary assault on a bunker in the forest. Many of the soldiers in Company K were new to combat. Anti-personnel mines and enemy fire killed and wounded many. Several men volunteered to recover the wounded, Robert Cahow was one the volunteers, his friend Harvey Jorgensen was another. Jorgensen recalls: "We made our way slowly through the shattered undergrowth, snow falling steadily. We were spaced about 50-75 yards apart so as not to alert the Germans, who were all around in trenches and log emplacements. At once the silence was shattered by a detonation. Robert had hit a booby trap". The resulting fire from the alarmed Germans threw the survivors back. The confusion that followed meant that Jorgensen and his comrades couldn't locate Robert. Later the Germans found and buried him near the bunker that had been his units objective.

In April 2001 German engineers were clearing the forest area around Vossenack prior to returning it to farmland. Remains of an American soldier were found, nearby two German soldiers. The Americans ID tags appeared to read Robert Cahow, but research and examination of the tags and the physical size of the remains implied this was a giant of a man, 6 feet 7 inches tall ... Robert Cahow had been found.

Robert Cahow has his final resting place at the Reeve Cemetery in Reeve, Wisconsin.

A monument remembers him at the spot where his remains were found:
https://www.tracesofwar.nl/sights/2313/Monument-Robert-Cahow.htm