Ralph Charles Berger Sr. was born on May 3, 1924, in Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois. He was the son of Ralph Alexander Berger and Alice R. Willis Berger. He was the husband of Dorothy Reichelderfer Koeppen. He served in the 760th Bomber Squadron, 460th Bomber Group, Heavy, as a Second Lieutenant and Navigator of B-24 #42-51160 during World War II.

On June 30, 1944, the aircraft based at Spinazzola Airfield near Foggia, Italy, was shot down during a bombing mission to the South Synthetic Oil Refinery at Blechhammer, Germany. While flying near Lake Balaton, Hungary, the bomber formation encountered heavy enemy fighter opposition and poor weather conditions over the Balaton region, which forced the formation to alter its course and left it vulnerable to attack. During the engagement, the aircraft was hit by gunfire from a German Messerschmitt Me 410A of ZG 76/2. Hungarian fighter activity in the area was also reported during the battle. The Liberator crashed near Szigliget at approximately 10:50 AM. Five of the ten crew members were killed in the crash, while the remaining five successfully bailed out, were captured as prisoners of war, and were later released in 1945.

2Lt Berger successfully bailed out of the aircraft but was captured and held as a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia Bavaria. Following the war, he was a manufacturing engineer in the planning department at Caterpillar Inc. for more than 40 years, retiring in 1985. He died on December 30, 1999, and is now buried in the Springdale Cemetery and Mausoleum, Peoria, Peoria County, Illinois, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, airbase.blog.hu, www.15thaf.org