The eldest of 8 brothers from a farming community, Robert Cahow was originally drafted earlier in WW2. He'd been an MP, guarding POW's in America. He volunteered for frontline duty, as he wanted to serve his country in a more active manner. Being 6 foot 7 inches tall Robert stood out from his comrades in the 311th Infantry Regiment, 78th Infantry Division.
Cahow and his comrades were soon drawn into the fighting for the Hürtgen forest. The Germans called it "Die Totenfabrik" or Death Factory, with good reason.
On December 13th 1944 Company K 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 such volunteer. 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 Cahow. Later the Germans found and buried him near the bunker that had been his units objective.
Roberts' younger brother Douglas was just 12. He recalled the day that he and his two young brothers were playing in the barn. They saw a car approaching the farm and hid. They knew what the car meant, they had two elder brothers serving overseas. This car was delivering the message that all families dreaded. Their Father came to tell them the news.
As the years rolled by the Cahow family did not forget their eldest son and brother. Their other brother William came home from the war with a leg wound. (He'd been in the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion and fought right up the May '45).
In April 2000 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 disks appeared to read Robert Cahon, but research and examination of the disks and the physical size of the remains implied this was a giant of a man, 6 feet 7 inches tall.