Abstract. The formation of massive stars still has many unsolved questions. Here I review some of the many fantastic results that have come about through Herschel observations as part of the Herschel OB Young Stellar Objects Survey (HOBYS). Through this guaranteed time key program, the initial conditions of the high-mass star formation process are studied, providing insight into the earliest stages of how massive stars form and evolve. The specific focus here is on the Rosette Molecular Cloud (RMC) in which the pre- and protostellar objects have been identified and classified. Among the studies presented here are the detection of what may be the identification of massive prestellar cores, a temperature gradient observed across the cloud, and the clump mass function for pre- and protostellar clumps.

Key words: star formation: high mass -- Herschel -- HOBYS