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Starting their missions during the most chal-
lenging period in the life of the 100th Bomb Group
in early October 1943 was not an ideal begin-
ning for young combat crews. However, when
such conditions meet strong character, charis-
ma, and personal determination, a legend can
emerge. One of the 100th BG’s greatest legends
was Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal. They began their
operational tour with three combat missions
in three days. On the first of these, on October
8, 1943, they took off in their brand new B-17F
named Rosie’s Riveters for a raid on Bremen.
The mission from which 7 aircraft from their unit
did not return was a horror for the rookies. They
themselves returned with a badly damaged Ros-
ie’s Riveters, which, like Rosie’s crew, was having
a baptism of fire. The next day, characterized by
a much quieter mission, they flew a borrowed
B-17F “Royal Flush”. Another day later, on Octo-
ber 10, 1943, Rosenthal’s crew took off in the Royal
Flush for Munster. On that day, 12 aircraft from
the Bloody Hundredth formation did not return.
12 out of 13! The Royal Flush, with “Rosie” Rosen-
thal and “Pappy” Lewis at the controls, after an
incredible dogfight with German fighters and
an endless crawl home, with only two working
engines, finally landed on the runway at Thorpe
Abbotts to be the only ones to bear witness to the
horror over Munster.
That’s when the young lawyer from Brooklyn
who volunteered for the Army Air Force began
to become a legend. As the crew finished their
operational tour in early March 1944, Robert
Rosenthal volunteered for the second… and lat-
er for the third. He later became commander of
the 350th BS and then the 418th BS. Rosie was
an exceptional pilot and an inspirational leader to
many of his men. He flew as a command pilot for
the 100th BG and the entire 13th CW. His combat
duty ended on 3 February 1945 when he was shot
down in a mission to Berlin. With the damaged
B-17, he continued eastward in an attempt to get
behind the battle lines. After all surviving crew
members parachuted out, he abandoned the air-
craft as well. Rosie parachuted behind the front
lines and, with the help of the Red Army, made
his way to the American Embassy in Moscow and
then back to England.
After the war, Robert Rosenthal was one of the
US investigators at the Nuremberg war crime tri-
als. From the late 1960s until his death in 2007,
he was one of the leaders of the Association,
later Foundation of the 100th Bomb Group.
In early 1944, after receiving a new B-17G as
a lead crew, Rosenthal’s team handed over his
B-17F Rosie’s Riveters to her new users, the crew
of Lt. Ross E. McPhee. They renamed it Satcha
Lass and were shot down with her on 4 February
1944 during a mission to Frankfurt.
Lt. Robert ”Rosie“ Rosenthal crew, 418th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group, Bremen mission, 8 October 1943
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