RIEBELING, Edwyn Charles
| Service Number: | WX6481 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 16 July 1940 |
| Last Rank: | Corporal |
| Last Unit: | 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Collie, Western Australia, 11 July 1917 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Clerk |
| Died: | Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 28 November 1994, aged 77 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia |
| Memorials: | Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial |
World War 2 Service
| 16 Jul 1940: | Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, WX6481, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Jan 1941: | Embarked Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Lance Corporal, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, Fremantle, appointed Lance Corporal 8 Jan 1941; disembarked in Middle East on 2 Feb 1941 | |
| 3 Aug 1941: | Wounded in action, shrapnel wound right loin, right arm; evacuated to 4 Australian General Hospital (AGH); evacuated to 11 AGH 6 Aug then to 2 AGH 22 Aug; evacuated to 1 Aust Convalescent Hospital 19 Sep; discharged 20 Oct 1941 | |
| 30 Nov 1941: | Promoted Corporal, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion, to acting Corporal; rank confirmed 3 Mar 1942 | |
| 27 Jul 1942: | Imprisoned Siege of Tobruk, offically reported POW 15 Oct 1942; interned Camp 82 Italy, transferred to Stalag 18a | |
| 18 Jun 1945: | Embarked UK to Australia as recovered POW; disembarked in Sydney on 24 Jul 1945; returned to WA for rehabilitation treatment | |
| 12 Sep 1945: | Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Corporal, WX6481, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour Edwyn Charles Riebeling's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin
Edwyn was the third of four children born to Frederick and Winifred RIEBELING. His older brother, Frederick, also enlisted in WW2.
In 1941, Ed was wounded in action, struck by shrapnel. He wrote a letter home to his parents from the hospital, which was published in the local newspaper (see Links). He was in high spirits, even stating, "I got through with hardly a scratch and am now more than ever convinced that they can't get me".
But they did get him - Ed was captured at El Alamein. He was a POW on board the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio when it was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean on 17 August 1942. The Nino Bixio was transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. Ed was one of 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident.
Ed married Una DEWAR on 11 August 1945, within months of arriving back in Western Australia, at St Mary's Church in West Perth. They had three children. Ed, an active member of the Legacy Club, died in 1994 at age 77. Una survived him by 18 years.
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