Lieutenant Colonel Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal (June 11, 1917 – April 20, 2007) was an American lawyer and

bomber pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they ar ...

. A highly decorated officer of the Eighth Air Force of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he received sixteen awards including the

Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries. *Distinguished Service Cross (Australia) The Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) is a military decoration awarded to ...

for "extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against the enemy," the Silver Star (with

oak leaf cluster An oak leaf cluster is a ribbon device to denote preceding decorations and awards consisting of a miniature bronze or silver twig of four oak leaves with three acorns on the stem. It is authorized by the United States Armed Forces for a speci ...

) for "gallantry in action," the Distinguished Flying Cross (with oak leaf cluster) for "heroism or extraordinary achievement during aerial flight", the

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establish ...

(with seven clusters) and the

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

(with cluster), as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross from Great Britain and the Croix de Guerre from France.

Biography

Rosenthal was a graduate of Brooklyn College and

Brooklyn Law School Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty. Brookly ...

, and had been working at a law firm in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

when the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

attacked Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

on December 8, 1941, and requested to be trained for combat. In August 1943 he joined the 418th Squadron of the 100th Bombardment Group, stationed at

Thorpe Abbotts Thorpe Abbotts is a village and (as Thorpe Abbots) a former civil parish, now in the parish of Brockdish, in the South Norfolk district, in the county of Norfolk, England. The village is east of Diss, south south west of Norwich and north eas ...

in England, as a pilot and aircraft commander of a B-17 Flying Fortress crew. In March 1944, Rosenthal's crew, nicknamed "Rosie's Riveters", with their B-17F, serial number 42-30758 bearing the same name, completed their 25-mission combat tour and returned to the United States, but Rosenthal extended his tour, eventually flying a total of 52 missions. He later became commanding officer of the 350th and 418th Bombardment Squadrons. In 2006, Rosenthal was inducted into the Jewish-American Hall of Fame and medals were made depicting Rosenthal and his crew.

Notable missions

On only his third mission with the 100th Bombardment Group, out of 13

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

s on an October 10, 1943 mission over

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

, the ''Royal Flush'' B-17F (USAAF s/n 42-6087) that Rosenthal's crew was flying that day; was the only plane to return, with two

engines An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power g ...

dead, the

intercom An intercom, also called an intercommunication device, intercommunicator, or interphone, is a stand-alone voice communications system for use within a building or small collection of buildings which functions independently of the public telephon ...

and the oxygen system non-functional, and with a large ragged hole in the right wing. In September 1944, Rosenthal's plane was shot down over German-occupied France, and he broke his right arm and nose. He was rescued by the

Free French Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...

and returned to duty as soon as he had healed. On his next to last mission on February 3, 1945, Rosenthal led a mission to bomb Berlin. Although his bomber /C #44 8379was in flames from a direct hit, he continued to the target to drop his payload; then stayed with the plane until after the rest of the crew had bailed out, just before it exploded at an altitude of only about 1,000 feet (about 300 meters). He was recovered by the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

and again returned to duty."Lt Col Robert Rosenthal"
at the 100th Bomb Group Foundation. Of the eleven crewmen: four landed in Russian lines; four were POWs; two were KIA; 1 evaded capture. This raid killed

Roland Freisler Roland Freisler (30 October 1893 – 3 February 1945), a German Nazi jurist, judge, and politician, served as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1934 to 1942 and as President of the People's Court from 1942 to 1945. As ...

, the notorious "hanging judge" of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

's '' Volksgerichtshof''. After the war, Rosenthal served as an assistant to the U.S. prosecutor at the

Nuremberg trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...

, where he interrogated

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

. Robert Rosenthal died on April 20, 2007, at age 89 in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

Notes

External links

Interview with Lt Col.(Ret.) Robert Rosenthal

(''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', April 29, 2007)
Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal
in Jewish-American Hall of Fame {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenthal, Robert Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United States) Recipients of the Silver Star Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) 20th-century American lawyers Prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg 1917 births 2007 deaths Deaths from multiple myeloma Brooklyn College alumni Brooklyn Law School alumni Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Deaths from cancer in New York (state) United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II United States Army Air Forces officers Jewish American military personnel 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews