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Berger, Alfons 'Ali' Georg (KG 51 'Edelweiss')

Date of birth:
September 28th, 1917 (Blankenburg, East Prussia)
Date of death:
January 27th, 1943 (Metschelinskaja southwards of the Railway)
Buried on:
German War Cemetery Krasnodar-Apscheronsk
Nationality:
German (1933-1945, Third Reich)

Biography

Promotions:
1940: Leutnant
1941: Oberleutnant
01.01.1943: Hauptmann

Career:
27.05.1940: Lt., 2./KG 51 badly WIA - Ju 88 A damaged by AA over Dunkirk,belly-landed at Brussels-Evere.
22.03.1941-20.11.1942: Oblt., appt Staka of 11./KG 51
27.01.1943: Oblt.,Staka 1./ I./ KG 51, KIA - Ju 88 A-4 shotdown by fighters ivo Yegorslykekaya.

Hauptmann Alfons Berger attended the Classical Lyceum and the Army academy in Dresden. He trained as a pilot and joined KG 51.
At first, he flew the Heinkel He 111 on the Western Front and in the Battle of Britain where he took part in the bombing of Coventry.
Once, he was wounded over the Channel but was escorted by two RAF fighters to a crash-landing in France. Although injured, he stuck his arm out of the cockpit to free it from pieces of metal that obstructed his view.
Then the unit was sent eastward, eventually to the southern Russian front on the versatile Junkers Ju 88. He distinguished himself becoming Staffelkapitän, was considered brilliant and "sehr Nazional" in his second pilot, sub officer Puls' words.
On 27 January 1943, Kapitan Alexei Reshetov led four Yak-1s to engage seven Ju 88s and four Bf 109s. He claimed a shared Ju 88 over Mechetinskaya together with Leytenant Fotiy Morozov while Leytenant Nikolai Yalizarovich Glazov destroyed a second. Reshetov then made a firing pass against the two German crews as they hung in their parachute straps. In return, both Reshetov’s and Morozov’s Yak-1s were hit by the gunners of the other Ju 88s. KG 51 lost two Ju 88s. One was an aircraft from I/KG 51 Ju 88A-4 Werknummer 4092 piloted by Hauptmann Alfons Berger, which was shot down (probably by Reshetov and Morozov). This was Berger’s third mission of the day and when hit, he urged his crew to parachute, which two managed to do including his co-pilot Puls. These two were later rescued by members of SS Division Wiking patrolling the no man’s land. Several hours later, the same Wiking soldiers found Berger’s body, along with the beheaded corpse of his ventral gunner and another crewmember,

At the time of his death, Berger had just been promoted to Hauptmann.

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Period:
Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:
Oberleutnant (Flying Officer)
Unit:
1. Staffel, I. Gruppe, Kampfgeschwader 51 "Edelweiss", Luftwaffe
Awarded on:
May 17th, 1942
Deutsches Kreuz in Gold

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Photos