Frank Korbl 1922-2008

[Troy Tempest]

Squadron leader Frank Korbl had the unique distinction of serving as a non-commissioned officer in the Luftwaffe in WWII and 20 years later joining the Royal Australian Air Force as an officer and serving in Vietnam. In between, he crossed the River Elbe in 1945 to avoid capture by the Russians ans surrendered to the US Army before spending time as a British POW. Korbl, who has died of throat cancer in Melbourne, Victoria, at 85, was born in Vienna. At 19, he was drafted for war service after Austria had been annexed into the Third Reich. He trained in a Luftwaffe signals regiment and was selected to train as a wireless operator/navigator. He was attached to IV/KG 53 Legion Kondor, but his expectation of heroic exploits came to an abrupt end when his Heinkel He 111 crashed on a training flight, killing his pilot and navigator. After several ground appointments in various theatres, Korbl was transferred top the Abwehr, the intelligence organisation of the Wehrmacht. His unit was in a precarious situation at a location west of Berlin as he underwent specialist training during the last two months of the war.

When his unit was encircled by the advancing Red Army, they crossed the River Elbe and surrendered to an American unit, which later handed them over to British forces at Hanover. To escape the hunger and deprivation of life in a POW camp, Korbl volunteered to join a salvage team that was collecting communication equipment left over from the war. He was discharged in November 1945, but did not return to Austria, which was still occupied by the Russians. Instead, he took refuge in Kiel, Germany. His high school English again secured him work with teh British, and he was appointed chief clerk with NAAFI, the British forces' canteen organisation. Korbl eventually returned to Vienna in 1949, when there was no longer the possibility of being banished to Siberia. He worked for the occupation forces as a storeman and, after the British left in 1955, became chief clerk with a Standard Motors and Jaguar cars agency in Vienna. Europe's cold and his prewar exposure to brochures extolling Australia's warm climate drove him to emigrate in 1956. He survived the culture shock of working for more than two years as a clerk at the Bonegilla migrant centre and briefly as a fruit picker in Shepparton.

Moving to Melbourne, Korbl was studying to be an accountant when he switched to become an investment analyst for the stockbroking firm JBWare. Early in 1965, he accepted the dare of friends and answered an advertisement promoting an 'exciting' career in the RAAF. Contrary to his expectations, he was commissioned into the equipment branch with the rank of pilot officer. In November that year, he married Stella Lord in Melbourne. It was his third marriage: the first was to Ingeborg Fuchs in Germany in 1942, the second to Kamilla Klar in Austria in 1955. His graduation from RAAF Point Cook made front-page news in The Age. During 15 years with the RAAF, Korbl worked at East Sale, Townsville, HQ Operational Command and at Richmond. In between, he went with No.9 (helicopter) Squadron to Vietnam. Much to his surprise, in 1977 he was awarded an MBE for outstanding dedication and loyalty. A flattering, though slightly erroneous, report appeared in a London newspaper, which provided the title for his first book, Ex-Luftwaffe MBE. After his discharge in 1979, Korbl moved to Canberra, the capital of Australia, where he worked for eight years in the air force facilities branch of the Department of Defence.

He rose to director, works policy. He also returned to academic study and in 1982 received a BA from Queensland University. After reaching compulsory retirement age, he continued to work as a consultant to the Royal Australian Navy and the RAAF for six years. An avid traveller, artist and writer, he produced more than 1,500 paintings and had three more books published, From Luftwaffe to RAAF - An Extraordinary Australian Migrant Story, Glimpses Of Truth and Born To Travel. He was also involved with the Spiritualist Association. In 2005, he and Stella left Canberra to return to Melbourne. His wife survives him, with his son from his first marriage, Harro (Harry), and daughter-in-law Janet