Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal

Robert Rosenthal, one of  World War II greatest legends. 


 

Fellow Zionists Offered Him A Rear Echelon Job And Was Insulted

Mr. Rosenthal, a 25-year-old newly minted lawyer, had sought out the challenge. He enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor, and, when offered noncombat duties, insisted that he be sent to fight.

“I couldn’t wait to get over there,” he said in an interview with Donald L. Miller for the book “Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany” (2006).

 

Rosenthal Wanted To Kill Nazis

After his flight training, Mr. Rosenthal was assigned to the Eighth Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group, later known as “The Bloody Hundredth.”, stationed in England.

Mr. Miller wrote that Mr. Rosenthal never talked about his passion to risk everything to fight Nazis. A rumor arose that he had relatives in German concentration camps.

Rosie Out-Flew 200 Nazi Messerschmitts

On Oct. 10, 1943. After the American support fighters reached their range and returned home, the 13 bombers in the group were attacked by some 200 German fighters. The skies were filled with flak and flames, creating “an aerial junkyard,” according to a gunner.

Mr. Rosenthal’s plane dropped its bombs, but had two engines out, a gaping hole in one wing and three injured gunners. He put the 30-ton bomber through a harrowing series of evasive maneuvers and somehow made it back to England. None of the other 12 planes did.
 

He Was Shot Down 

On one mission, his B-17 Flying Fortress was the only one in his group of 13 to return. On another, he was shot down and broke his right arm and nose. The next time he was shot down, he broke the same arm.
 

He Lead The Thousand Plane Raid

On Feb. 3, 1945, Rosie, as he was known, led the entire Third Division, an armada of 1,000 B-17s, on a raid on Berlin.

Shot Down And Saved By Jewish Partisans

In September 1944, Mr. Rosenthal’s plane was hit by flak over France and he made a forced landing, dulling his consciousness as well as breaking his arm and nose. He did not remember how, but the French resistance got him back to England.
 

He Landed With A  Live Bomb Inside His Plane

Mr. Rosenthal always wondered about the unexploded cannon shell found rolling around in one of his plane’s tanks after the Münster raid. Had a slave laborer in a Nazi munitions factory sabotaged the shell?

Rosenthal Was A Nuremberg Prosecutor

Mr. Rosenthal returned to his law firm, but seized the chance to join the team prosecuting Nazis in Nuremburg. 

As part of his duties during the trials, Mr. Rosenthal interviewed Hermann Goering, commander of the German air force and the second-highest-ranked Nazi during most of the war,

Rosenthal Face Keitel

Wilhelm Keitel, the top German general, was prosecuted by Rosenthal.