Berger. C B (Colin Bruce)
Berger. C B (Colin Bruce)
Sergeant Colin Bruce Berger served in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was the son of Eugene Wallace Berger and Grace Gertrude Plaskitt Berger, of Toorak, Victoria, Australia. He was born on the 22nd of April 1918 and enlisted on the 22nd of May 1941.
Colin was taking part in a night training exercise onboard Wellington bomber[1] (HX430) flown by Sergeant Bernard Edwin Samuels. The exercise was now over, and they returned to base.
On their final approach in the dark at approximately 9.15pm on the 31st of January 1943, while the aircraft was around 100 feet in the air, the airfield flares lit, and the pilot could now see were to land. The height of the bomber happened to be exceptionally low.
At this moment, the nose of the Wellington bomber suddenly pulled up and it then banked to its left side before immediately beginning to spin and plummeting nose first into the ground. The pilot had stalled the engines. Six men lost their lives.
Sergeant Bernard Edwin Samuels, [2] Pilot Officer William Weston Milson,[3] Sergeant Edward Highfield,[4] Sergeant Joseph Clark,[5] and Sergeant Ernest Greenwood[6] were onboard with Sergeant Colin Bruce Berger and were also killed.
Date of Death: 31/01/1943 (Aged 24)
Service: Sergeant (Wireless Op./Air Gunner), Royal Australian Air Force. 7 Operational Training Unit.
Service Number: 408619
Burial Location: Grave 10.
[1] The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine long-range bomber, which made its maiden flight during June 1936, finally going into service October 1938.
[2] Sergeant Bernard Edwin Samuels, Service Number R117592, was 23 years of age and the son of Harold and Rose Samuels, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. He was laid to rest in Carnmoney Jewish Cemetery in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland.
[3] Pilot Officer William Weston Milson, Service Number 130249, was 20 years old and the son of William Weston Milsom and Mary Alice Milsom, of Bromborough. He was taken home and laid to rest in Bebington, Plymyard Cemetery, Birkenhead, England.
[4] Sergeant Edward Highfield, Service Number 1029036, was 23 years old and the son of Francis and Agnes Highfield; husband of Mildred Highfield of Shildon. He was taken home and laid to rest in New Shildon, All Saints, Churchyard.
[5] Sergeant Joseph Clark, Service Number 1031745, was 20 years old and the son of Joseph and Grace Evelyn Clark, of Eccles, Lancashire. He was laid to rest in Limavady’s St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church Cemetery.
[6] Sergeant Ernest Greenwood, Service Number 103002, was 22 years old and the son of Sarah H. Greenwood, of Todmorden, England. He was laid to rest in Mankinholes Methodist Chapel yard.
