Claude Berges

1916 - 1944  (28 years)

• Name	Claude Berges
  Born	1916	, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Interesting	war, military, misfortune, life story
  Military	WW2
  Residence	1921	St. Jacobs, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  	Roman Catholic
  Died	22 Apr 1944	, Norway
  Misfortune	9 Feb 1945	Norway
  	shot down and killed over Nazi-occupied Norway
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-305911
  Person ID	I305911	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	Eugene Anthony Berges,   b. Jul 1879, , Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1949  (Age ~ 69 years)
  Mother	Edith M. Schwalm,   b. 7 Nov 1880, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1960  (Age 79 years)
  Family ID	F168013	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Hilda Delaney,   b. CA 1917
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F54996	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  .....Pilot Rex Myrick , 22, lifted off from northern Scotland on a warm, clear afternoon. Navigator Claude Berges , 27, sat in the seat behind him. Their twin-engine, heavy fighter had loaded cannons, rockets under the wings, and a rare target. A reconnaissance patrol had spotted a German destroyer in a Norwegian fiord north of Bergen. It was supported by at least nine escort vessels. Nazi Germany had little navy left. It was three months from defeat. But it was still a formidable foe, desperate to maintain Norwegian shipping lanes that supplied iron ore for the German war machine. The Allies felt they had to attack. Rex and Berg, as he liked to be called, belonged to 404 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force . Its motto was "Ready to Fight." Both had trained for years, but had yet to face the enemy. They had crewed together for just two months. Pairing them made sense. Both were sons of southern Ontario merchants. Rex's father owned a butter-making creamery in Tillsonburg. Berg's father owned a bakery in downtown Kitchener, at Weber and Frederick streets. You could call them bread and butter. Perhaps that's how Rex felt when he picked Berg to be his navigator. "I think we'll get along fine together," Rex wrote to his parents. Berg had attended Kitchener Collegiate Institute. He pondered becoming a pharmacist. When he enlisted to fight, he joined the army before switching to the air force. In 1943, he married in Quebec City while training there. He left his bride Hilda to go overseas. The couple had no children..... Outhit, J. (2018). Ring brings back memories of shot-down pilot. TheRecord.com. Retrieved 9 February 2018, from https://www.therecord.com/news-story/8125592-ring-brings-back-memories-of-shot-down-pilot/

  
  

• Sources

  [S2121] Census - ON, Waterloo, Woolwich - 1921, Woolwich Twp. 1921 Sub Dist. 14 Page 13.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 1916 - , Ontario, Canada Residence - Roman Catholic - 1921 - St. Jacobs, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 22 Apr 1944 - , Norway Misfortune - shot down and killed over Nazi-occupied Norway - 9 Feb 1945 - Norway  = Link to Google Earth