Fred M. Rowe
Fred M. Rowe
Personal details
Birth nameRosenstock
Born18 January 1925
NativityGermany
ReligionJewish
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch United States Army
ASN0555181
TeamMII 438-G
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Fred M. Rowe (born 18 January 1925) was a Ritchie Boy (born Rosenstock; from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie.

Biography

Fred Rowe was a Ritchie Boy. Fred Rowe, born January 18, 1925, he and his parents and younger brother emigrated to New York from Mannheim, Germany, in 1936. After a stint at a military intelligence training camp at Camp Ritchie, Rowe was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and shipped to England and then to France. Rowe was later assigned to the 28th Infantry Division (known as the Bloody Bucket) as a military-intelligence interrogator in Germany and Belgium. Rowe ended up in charge of an internment camp in Ludwigsburg, staying in the military an extra year as a senior counterintelligence officer. Rowe clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Clark and later became managing partner of Kirkland & Ellis, a Washington law firm, where he had a successful career in Antitrust and Trade Regulation, even arguing and winning 5 well-known cases before the US Supreme Court. On January 11th, 2022, Frederick Martin Rowe peacefully passed away at the age of 96. In 1943, at age 18, he was drafted into the Army and, because he spoke both German and French, was sent to a specialized language center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied Hindustani. He was in Paris a month after the liberation. The Parisians were "very warmly welcoming, particularly to young lieutenants," he recalled. He and his team were overrun by the Germans at the start of the Battle of the Bulge. They were examining line crossers (civilians) who told them about heightened German military activity when word reached them that German tanks were at the other end of the town. The Germans, he said, were using flattened 88 mm anti- aircraft guns as artillery. His group retreated to Bastogne, Belgium. He was discharged as a Captain and returned to New York City in 1947 with his German-born wife.

Research notes

  • Also 32962708 Pfc
  • 438-G
  • 1/18/1925-A ?

Technical record

Field Imported value
row_source demographics

Sources

  • Camp Ritchie class roster (classes 1–31), merged research file
  • NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
  • 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
  • Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2022-11-30 (1 post)