Count Carl Gustaf Ericsson
von Rosen (Aug 19, 1909 – Jul 13, 1977) was a Swedish pioneer aviator. He
flew relief missions in a number of conflicts as well as combat missions for
Finland (whose first military aircraft his father donated 1918) and Biafra. His flights for the Biafra were notable for using the small
Malmo MFI-9 in a ground attack role.
Von Rosen was born in Helgesta,
Flen Municipality, Södermanland, Sweden
son of the explorer Eric von Rosen (1879–1948) and nephew of Carin Göring, wife
of German pilot and Air Marshal Hermann Göring.
He was interested in
mechanics at an early age and became fascinated by flying machines, partly
through the influence of Hermann Göring, who was an ace during World War I, head of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) in Nazi Germany, and was the first Nazi tried in the Nuremberg War trials.
Von Rosen's own flying career started as
a mechanic and then pilot in a traveling aerial
circus, where he became a skilled aerobatic pilot, which served him well later
in life.
Second Italo-Abyssinian War:
When the Italians under Benito Mussolini attacked the independent empire of Ethiopia,
von Rosen joined a relief mission, flying food and supplies for the Red Cross.
He also repeatedly flew casualties from the battlefield under extremely
dangerous conditions. This activity
resulted in him receiving mustard gas burns due to the use
of the gas by the Italian forces.
Second World War: After his
return from the war in Ethiopia, he went to the Netherlands to join KLM, the
first public airline in the world, and became one of their
foremost pilots. He married a Dutch woman, from whom he was separated at the
outbreak of World War II.
When the Russians tried to invade Finland 1939 in the
Winter War, von Rosen quit his job to fly bombing missions for the Finns. He
purchased a KLM Douglas DC-2, had it converted to a bomber in Sweden, and made
one operational mission in March 1940 against the Soviet Union with it.
Later in 1940, as the Germans attacked the Netherlands, von Rosen went to
England and applied for service with the RAF but was turned down, on account of
his family relation to Hermann Göring. Von Rosen's Dutch wife joined the
resistance and was killed during the war, while he continued flying for KLM on
the dangerous London-Lisbon route.
Post war: Between 1945 and
1956 von Rosen worked in Ethiopia as an instructor for the Imperial Ethiopian
Air Force. Despite his service to Ethiopia, intrigues against him,
particularly by his assistant Assefa Ayene, made working conditions for him so
frustrating he eventually returned to Sweden. Afterwards von Rosen served as
the pilot for the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag
Hammarskjöld. However, von Rosen was grounded by illness when Hammarskjöld was
killed in an air crash while mediating in the Congo Crisis.
Biafran War: Von Rosen gained
international fame 7 years later when he flew relief missions for aid
organizations into war-torn Biafra. These
fights included flying a DC-7 from São Tomé to Uli at only a little above sea
level in August 1968.
Disgusted at the suffering
the Nigerian government inflicted on the Biafrans and the continuous harassment
of the relief flights by the Nigerian Air Force, he hatched a plan in
collaboration with the French secret service.
He imported 5 small civilian
single engine Malmö MFI-9 planes produced
by SAAB, which he knew were designed for ground attack
warfare. He had the planes painted camouflage, fitted with
rockets from Matra and formed a squadron
called 'Babies of Biafra' to strike the air fields from which the federal
Nigerian Air Force launched their attacks against the civilian population in
Biafra.
On May 22, 1969, and over the next few days, von Rosen and
his 5 aircraft launched attacks against Nigerian air fields at Port
Harcourt, Enugu, Benin and other small airports.
