[2] He saw action in the North African and Italian campaigns as a "Desert Rat" with the 4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), and took part in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.

Bernard spent the remainder of the war at Oflag 79, a German POW camp near Brunswick, Lower Saxony, until the Ninth United States Army released him and his colleagues on 12 April 1945.

[1][3] Molly Rose also saw service during the war, piloting Spitfires, Wellington bombers, Hawker Typhoon and Tempest fighter-bombers in the Air Transport Auxiliary.

His special study of the choral music of Thomas Tomkins was published in Musica Deo Sacra; another major work was his editing of Handel's oratorio Susanna (Kassel 1967).

Rose introduced Kenneth Leighton to the composer Gerald Finzi in the late 1940s, and the two developed a close friendship and artistic association.

[4][7] His wife Molly, who survived him, featured in seminars and television programmes concerning the role of women pilots delivering aircraft to the front line.

[1][4] In 2010, Bernard Rose's son Graham discovered old tape recordings of performances of Magdalen College Choir conducted by his father, dating from 1960 to 1976.

[8] As of 2020[update] a feature film entitled Attagirls is in development based on the wartime lives of Molly and Bernard, written by Paul Olavesen-Stabb.