PFC Robert Cahow
--Contributed by: Doug Cahow
PFC Robert Cahow's gravesite is adjacent to the Clear Lake,
Wisconsin All Veterans' Memorial.
Friends from The Netherlands write and send
photos regarding
Clear Lake veteran PFC Robert Cahow...
Today we visited Robert's Memorial in the Hürtgen Forrest
near Vossenack. We brought flowers and some tokens from several generations.
In June 1944 the first massive attack in Western Europe started. On June 5th Dakota's and
Gliders lined up for action in England.
On the 6th of June, at 6.30 in the morning, US soldiers pressed their boots into the sand.
We have poured some of that sand in a 'V'-shape in front of Roberts memorial.
For V = Victory.
And V = Vrijheid (Freedom in Dutch).
We owe men like Robert for our Vrijheid. The wind will take the sand all over the
forrest, but the memory will never fade! And we will not forget him or the lessons
learned in history, for they were hard lessons to learn.
The actual spot where Robert was recovered has been
transformed into a Memorial of it's own. Unique. Stones from all over the Forrest have
been pilled in a tomb-like shape. Messages have been written on stones. Iron en concreet
from both bunkers in a 200 meter radius have been added, just to point out the objective
of destroying those fortifications has been completed.
The Forrest is still a somehow erie location. Trenches,
foxholes, twisted iron and concreet... everywhere. A few men have left this theater
of war without a scratch. This is former battleground, like the Bois Jacques or the
Zonsche Forrest... once occupied by young men. Some are still there, and many of the men
who did make it trough that part of WW2 are still travelling back in history. And down
that memory lane a Gentle Giant is waiting for them. He will always be there, in our
prayers. For he is part of the Lightning and showed no fear.
(Click
Here to read Robert's Story)
We salute him!
From all of us in The Netherlands...
Remembrance brings us all together!
Donald & Sophia van den Bogert
Marcel Jungbauer
Screaming Ducks Living History Association
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Voluntary site
design and maintenance by: J (Pittman) Younkin, USN, RM3, 1981-1985 (Peacetime veteran
with connective tie to Clear Lake)
Site updates: Doug Cahow
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