​​Robert Wilhelm was born on 9 December 1919. He was married and had one daughter. During the war he served as a non-commissioned officer in a grenadier regiment in France.

Wilhelm's unit was stationed on Hill 112, a militarily important and heavily contested hill near Baron-sur-Odon. In his last letter to his wife, dated 6 August 1944, he told her that they had had to give up their position or, as he put it, "fled, better said". He described the retreat as "You run and the other shoots, like a hunter at a hare". Four days later, on 10 August 1944, he was killed in the fighting in Normandy. Today he rests in the La Cambe war cemetery in block 1, row 3, grave 91.​