Veterans Day
Wauwatosa remembers four who gave all during World War I.
Wauwatosa – It’s easy to forget after so long.
Several generations have been born since the men from Wauwatosa who died while serving in World War I were honored by their neighbors with a simple memorial: elm trees planted next to stone pillars and a tablet with their names.
Time passed. More wars were fought. More names were added to lists of the fallen. And at some point pretty much everybody forgot about Alexander Shiells, Bernard Diedrich and William Nehring.
The park where Wauwatosa dedicated the tribute on Memorial Day 1928 shrank when Wauwatosa Avenue was re-routed in the 1950s. The trees were victims of the Dutch elm disease outbreak that decade, and no one knows what happened to the tablet with the soldiers’ names.
But it’s never too late to do the right thing and remember, once again, long-forgotten soldiers who died serving our country.
On Sunday morning the City of Wauwatosa re-dedicated a small memorial to its World War I casualties in a small, heartfelt ceremony almost to the minute of the 100th anniversary of when the guns fell silent in Europe.
In a short invocation, the Rev. Mari Garbrielson of Unity Center praised the people who fought not just in World War I but in all battles, on foreign soil and in the United States, and said, “Thank you, God, for these brave men and women.”
Several dozen people turned out for the ceremony near Wauwatosa and Harwood avenues, including many veterans who listened to brief speeches, sang the national anthem, watched solemnly as a wreath of white carnations and plastic red poppies was placed in front of a new plaque and snapped photos after taps was played by two buglers.
Four Princeton elm trees were planted in honor of the Wauwatosa World War I casualties next to a plaque featuring their names and a Red Arrow for their military unit.
When the men died, Root Common Park was a much larger place. Civil War troops used it to train, and a band shell was later built for concerts. Now it’s a small area next to the parking lot for Baskin-Robbins and other businesses.
A few years ago the city decided to redesign the park for a public gathering spot, said
Mayor Kathy Ehley. While planning was underway, the remnants of the original World War I memorial were discovered and officials decided to create another monument.
“There was discussion about should this memorial be something for all veterans of all wars. There was much conversation and we decided, with a lot of input from veterans, that it should be dedicated to the original memorial,” said Ehley.
While researching the three men, authorities discovered a fourth man from Wauwatosa who died.
Harry S. Robbins, the son of farmers on Watertown Plank Road, joined the Wisconsin National Guard’s 32nd Division in November 1917, shortly before his 22nd birthday. Robbins was gassed during the war and died in 1924 while being treated at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Milwaukee.
It’s possible Robbins was not included in the original memorial because he was from the Town of Wauwatosa and died six years after the war ended, said Dave Vogel, a Wauwatosa Historical Society volunteer who wrote a story about the World War I casualties for the organization’s newsletter.
Nehring, 19, was the first from Wauwatosa to die, succumbing to a ruptured appendix while training in Texas in February 1918. He was a private in Battery F, 120th Field Artillery Regiment in the 32nd Division. Perhaps thinking about his unit’s upcoming departure to the brutal battlefields of Europe, Nehring wrote home to his brother Emil.
“Do not worry about me when I am gone. It is worth fighting for a country like this and there is no country in the world that does so much for its soldiers as this country is doing,” wrote Nehring.
When word of Nehring’s death reached his hometown, “it was such a devastating story for people in Wauwatosa. Businesses shut down,” said Vogel. “Keep in mind, this was a really small town back in 1918, probably about 5,000 people. It was probably typical of what was felt throughout the state.”
Shiells left behind a wife and son when he joined the Wisconsin National Guard, serving as a second lieutenant.
“These seemingly ordinary men represented the best of America. Veterans understand the price of freedom.” Col. John T. Oakley, commander of the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team
He died of pneumonia at a hospital in France in February 1919, perhaps a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic. Shiells was 31.
Diedrich, 22, was a sergeant first class in Company E, 128th Infantry Regiment in the 32nd Division and survived some of World War I’s fiercest battles, including Verdun, ChateauThierry and the Meuse-Argonne. Diedrich was gassed during the Battle of Soissons in July 1918 and collapsed while serving with occupation forces in Germany. He was sent back to the U.S. to convalesce and died at Fort Sheridan in Illinois in June 1919.
All four served in the Wisconsin National Guard’s 32nd Division, which earned its “Red Arrow” nickname and insignia for heroics during World War I. Col. John T. Oakley, the current commander of the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, spoke to the crowd Sunday morning about the terrible price paid during World War I by the men of the Red Arrow — more than 13,000 casualties, including 2,000 deaths.
“These seemingly ordinary men represented the best of America,” said Oakley, who has deployed overseas in the Wisconsin National Guard and wears the Red Arrow patch on his shoulder. “Veterans understand the price of freedom.”
Jill Gaertner brought a framed photo of her grandfather Herman Schmidt to the ceremony. The black-and-white picture showed her grandpa in his 32nd Division Red Arrow uniform.
Schmidt inhaled poisonous gas during an attack and suffered health issues for the rest of his life. Gaertner was 17 when her grandpa died in 1967. He didn’t talk about his experiences in World War I, though Gaertner’s grandmother kept the postcards and letters he sent from Europe.
“I thought this was a great idea,” Gaertner said of Wauwatosa’s new World War I memorial. “I brought Grandpa because I thought he should be a part of this.”