STOKER ERIC JOSEPH REIBEL S/6512 RANR
Eric Reibel was born in Bowraville NSW in August 1918 and enlisted in the RAN as a Stoker 2nd Class on the 24th of March 1942. Eric was the second eldest of four children born to Percy and Eveline Reibel of Taylors Arm and he had married Irene Merle Barber in 1938 when Irene was 18. His younger brother George had enlisted in the 2nd AIF in 1940 and was serving in the 2/1st Field Regiment as a gunner.
Eric completed his initial training at HMAS Cerberus before posting to the Brisbane depot in July 1942, and later to a pool position at HMAS Magnetic at Townsville. Whilst in the pool he had short loan postings to the Bathurst Class corvettes HMAS Cessnock and HMAS Colac and to the sloop HMAS Swan. He would finally find a substantive posting when he joined the former island trader HMAS Matefele when the vessel commissioned into the RAN in January 1943. He was promoted to Acting Stoker in March 1943, and he remained on Matefele until August 1943 during which time the vessel transported war supplies to Papua and New Guinea. Eric returned to Brisbane in August 1943 serving at the depot HMAS Moreton where he would serve until August 1945 except for two short postings to the auxiliary minesweepers HMAS Corona and HMAS Bangalow.
In August 1945 Eric took passage for New Guinea in the destroyer HMAS Vendetta where he joined the Auxiliary minelayer HMAS Bungeree, now employed in the transport of stores and in the repatriation of Australian servicemen. Bungeree returned to Sydney in late December 1945 and Eric was demobilised on the 21st of March 1946. Post war Eric returned to the Nambucca Valley living at Taylors Arm working as a cane cutter, and later as a banana grower.
Stoker Eric Joseph Reibel RANR passed away in July 1992, he is buried in the Anglican section of the Macksville Cemetery, Wallace Street Macksville.
Sadly, his headstone incorrectly has his official number as 56512, instead of S/6512 and it has the Rising Sun emblem and not the naval crest. The army’s influence in RSLs leaves many an unwelcome legacy, .
Sources
Service Record - Australian National Archives
Nominal Roll - Department of Veterans Affairs
