WWII bomber pilot Robert Rosenthal dies

Robert Rosenthal, a highly decorated pilot in World War II who helped usher in a new kind of warfare, the strategic bombing of Germany, in which bombers scraped the ice-cold stratosphere while serving as targets for enemy fighters and antiaircraft fire, died on April 20 in White Plains, N.Y. He was 89.

The cause was multiple myeloma, son Steven said. Rosenthal lived in Harrison, N.Y.

He flew 52 missions over Germany as a bomber pilot, twice survived being shot down, and won 16 decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross for "extraordinary heroism."

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.

On Feb. 3, 1945, Rosie, as he was known, led the entire 3rd Division, an armada of 1,000 B-17s, on a raid on Berlin. He was later an assistant to the U.S. prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials, Robert H. Jackson.

Rosenthal served in the 8th Air Force, the bomber command created a month after Pearl Harbor to bring Germany's war machine to a halt through high-altitude strategic bombing. The idea was that long-range, fast-moving bombers could fly unescorted into enemy territory in daylight and rain down destruction with impunity.

But there were too few support planes, among other unforeseen difficulties, and the bombers proved to be a fat target for German fighters and antiaircraft guns. Casualties were enormous; only submarine crews in the Pacific had a higher fatality rate.

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).

"When I finally arrived, I thought I was at the center of the world, the place where the democracies were gathering to defeat the Nazis," he continued. "I was right where I wanted to be."

Robert Rosenthal was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on June 11, 1917, and went to school in the borough's Flatbush neighborhood. He was captain of the football and baseball teams at Brooklyn College, from which he graduated in 1938. He graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn Law School. He had a job at a law firm in Manhattan when World War II started.

After his flight training, Rosenthal was assigned to the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group, later known as "The Bloody Hundredth." He was stationed at a base in East Anglia in England.