Robert Rosenthal, noted bomber pilot, Nuremberg lawyer

NEW YORK -- Robert Rosenthal, a World War II bomber pilot who twice survived being shot down in raids over Europe and who later served on the US legal team that prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, died April 20 of multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer, according to a son, Steven, of Newton, Mass. A resident of Harrison, N.Y., he was 89.

With 16 decorations including the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest award for heroism, Mr. Rosenthal was a quintessential example of the young Army pilots, some barely out of their teens, who defied seemingly hopeless odds to carry out daylight strategic bombing raids against Germany's industrial war machine from 1942 to 1945.

Despite being able to absorb punishment, the B-17 Flying Fortresses, carrying 10 crew members, took staggering losses over Germany, especially when flying raids beyond the range of their England-based fighter escort.

Mr. Rosenthal's 52 missions included one, on Oct. 10, 1943, in which his aircraft was the only one of 13 to return from a raid on Munster, the rest having been downed by anti aircraft fire and waves of Luftwaffe fighters. Mr. Rosenthal's B-17 reached England with two of its four engines gone, severe wing damage, and two wounded crew members.

His bomber was dubbed Rosie's Riveter, a play on his name and the sobriquet given to women working in US defense factories. He also flew other B-17s, including Royal Flush, when Rosie's Riveter was being repaired, Steven Rosenthal said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Mr. Rosenthal's plane was disabled by flak over France in September 1944, and he suffered a broken arm and other injuries in a forced landing but was helped to safety by French resistance fighters. Several months later, he was shot down again during a raid over Berlin and returned to his unit with the aid of Russian troops, via Poland, Russia, Iran, Egypt, Greece, and Italy.

Born in Brooklyn on June 11, 1917, Mr. Rosenthal was football and baseball team captain at Brooklyn College and was a summa cum laude graduate of Brooklyn Law School. He was working at a Manhattan law firm when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He enlisted the next day and insisted on being trained for combat.

"I couldn't wait to get over there," he told Donald Miller, author of the 2006 book "Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany."

He was assigned to the 100th Bomb Group, based at Thorpe Abbott air base near Norwich, East Anglia. The unit would become known as the Bloody Hundredth, and the base today has a museum, maintained by local residents.

After the war ended in August 1945, Mr. Rosenthal came home to a law practice but soon returned to Germany as part of the American legal team chosen for the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Aboard the ship bound for Germany he met Phillis Heller, another attorney, whom he married in Nuremberg. During the trials he interviewed ex-Luftwaffe commander Herman Goering, the highest-ranking Nazi defendant, who would evade execution by committing suicide, and former general Wilhelm Keitel.

"Seeing these strutting conquerers after they were sentenced -- powerless, pathetic and preparing for the hangman -- was the closure I needed," he said. "Justice had overtaken evil."

In addition to his son and his wife, Mr. Rosenthal leaves another son, Daniel, of Weston, Conn.; a daughter, Peggy, of Manhattan; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.