Papua New GuineaList updated August 8, 2009 Country Total = 14 2 names on 2 memorials, 14 graves in 2 cemeteries Completed = 0 (or 0.0%)
LAE MEMORIAL Lae is a town and port at the mouth of the Markham River on the Huon Gulf, and Lae War Cemetery, where the Lae Memorial is situated, is located adjacent to the Botanical Gardens in the centre of Lae. The Lae Memorial was designed to commemorate officers and men of the Royal Australian Army, the Australian Merchant Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force who lost their lives in operations in the area, and who have no known grave. Men of the Royal Australian Navy who lost their lives in the south-western Pacific region, and have no graves but the sea, are commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in England, along with many of their comrades of the Royal Navy and of other Commonwealth Naval Forces. The Lae Memorial, contained within the entrance building of Lae War Cemetery, takes the form of bronze tablets fixed to walls linking the end columns of the building, upon which are engraved the names of members of the Australian Armed Forces. Above the tablets is an inscription which reads: AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM 1939 - HERE ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN WHO DIED IN NEW GUINEA, ON LAND, AT SEA AND IN THE AIR, BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH - 1945. Name: RICHARDS, JOHN DAVID LAE WAR CEMETERY Lae is a town and port at the mouth of the Markham River on the Huon Gulf. Lae War Cemetery is located adjacent to the Botanical Gardens in the centre of Lae. In the early months of 1942, Japan enjoyed a crushing superiority in the air, and it was Lae and its neighbouring airfields that were the objects of the first Japanese attack on New Guinea. Lae and Salamaua were bombed on 21 January 1942 by 100 planes, but the land forces did not enter the territory until 7 March, when 3,000 Japanese landed at Lae. There were landings too at Salamaua, followed on 21 July by further landings at Buna and Gona on the east coast in preparation for a drive through the Owen Stanley Mountains across the Papuan peninsula to Port Moresby. The vital stage of the New Guinea campaign dates from that time. Lae became one of the bases from which the southward drive was launched and maintained until it was stopped at Ioribaiwa Ridge, a point within 60 kilometres of Port Moresby. LAE WAR CEMETERY was commenced in 1944 by the Australian Army Graves Service and handed over to the Commission in 1947. It contains the graves of men who lost their lives during the New Guinea campaign whose graves were brought here from the temporary military cemeteries in areas where the fighting took place. The Indian casualties were soldiers of the army of undivided India who had been taken prisoner during the fighting in Malaya and Hong Kong. The great majority of the unidentified were recovered between But airfield and Wewak, where they had died while employed in working parties. Of the two men belonging to the army of the United Kingdom, one was attached to 2/9th Australian Infantry Battalion and the other was a member of the Hong Kong-Singapore Royal Artillery. The naval casualties were killed, or died of injuries received, on H.M. Ships King George V, Glenearn and Empire Arquebus, and the four men of the Merchant Navy were killed when the S.S. Gorgon was bombed and damaged in Milne Bay in April 1943. The cemetery contains 2,818 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 444 of them unidentified. Prior to the First World War, north-eastern New Guinea and certain adjacent islands were German possessions, and were occupied by Australian Forces on 12 September 1914. Several cemeteries in New Guinea contain the graves of men who died during that war. There is one such grave in Lae War Cemetery, brought in from a burial ground where permanent maintenance could not be assured. The LAE MEMORIAL, which stands in the cemetery, commemorates more than 300 officers and men of the Australian Army, the Australian Merchant Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force who lost their lives in these operations and have no known grave. Casualties of the Royal Australian Navy who lost their lives in the south-western Pacific region, and have no known grave but the sea, are commemorated on Plymouth Naval Memorial in England along with many of their comrades of the Royal Navy and of other Commonwealth Naval Forces. ARBUCKLE, Lance Corporal, DAVID GEORGE, NX48363. A.I.F. 2/13 Bn. Australian Infantry. 1st October 1943. Age 42. Son of James and Annie Arbuckle, of Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa. FF. C. 14 CHAMBERS, Private, CLAUDE, Mentioned in Despatches, QX166. A.I.F. 2/2 Bn. Australian Infantry. 27th March 1945. Age 38. Son of George and Kasia Chambers, of Fynnland, Durban, Natal, South Africa. KK. B. 15 HOLST J A JOHN ALEXANDER Corporal NX123843 Australian Infantry A.I.F.
2/4 Bn. 8-May-45 35 QQ. D. 2. Died on active service Son of Alexander
Daniel and Margaret Josephine Holst; husband of Gladys May Holst, of Five
Dock, New South Wales. Born Johannesburg, South Africa WARD F L FREDERICK LESLIE Private QX9753 Australian Infantry A.I.F. 2/15
Bn. 19-Dec-43 29 T. A. 16. Died on active service Son of Frederick and
Ann Mary Ward; stepson of Mary Eleanor Ward, of Albion, Queensland. Born
Durban, South Africa PORT MORESBY (BOMANA) WAR CEMETERY Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery lies approximately 19 kilometres north of Port Moresby on the road to Nine Mile, and is approached from the main road by a short side road called Pilgrims Way. After the Japanese landed at Lae and Salamaua in March 1942, Port Moresby became their chief objective. They decided to attack by sea, and assembled an amphibious expedition for the purpose, which set out early in May, but they were intercepted and heavily defeated by American air and naval forces in the Coral Sea, and what remained of the Japanese expedition returned to Rabaul. After this defeat they decided to advance on Port Moresby overland and the attack was launched from Buna and Gona in September 1942. Early in 1942, and almost without resistance, the Japanese established a considerable force and developed a useful base on Bougainville, the largest and most northerly of the Solomon Islands. This they held until Americans and Australians began offensive operations towards the end of 1943, when Bougainville was the only one of these islands remaining in Japanese hands. By August 1945, when the Japanese surrendered, most of the island had been recovered. Those who died in the fighting in Papua and Bougainville are buried in PORT MORESBY (BOMANA) WAR CEMETERY, their graves brought in by the Australian Army Graves Service from burial grounds in the areas where the fighting had taken place. The unidentified soldiers of the United Kingdom forces were all from the Royal Artillery, captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore; they died in captivity and were buried on the island of Bailale in the Solomons. These men were later re-buried in a temporary war cemetery at Torokina on Bougainville Island before being transferred to their permanent resting place at Port Moresby. The cemetery contains 3,818 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 702 of them unidentified. There is also 1 Non war and 1 Dutch Foreign National burials here. The PORT MORESBY MEMORIAL stands behind the cemetery and commemorates almost 750 men of the Australian Army (including Papua and New Guinea local forces), the Australian Merchant Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force who lost their lives in the operations in Papua and who have no known graves. Men of the Royal Australian Navy who died in the south-west Pacific region, and have no known grave but the sea, are commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial in England, along with many of their comrades of the Royal Navy and of other Commonwealth Naval Forces. Bougainville casualties who have no known graves are commemorated on a memorial at Suva, Fiji. BESANKO M T MAURICE TREVOR Private SX13547 Australian Infantry A.I.F.
2/27 Bn. 29-Nov-42 25 B5. F. 26. Died on active service Son of Alfred
Ernest and Florence Mary Besanko, of Wayville, South Australia. Born Durban,
South Africa GEE A E ARTHUR EDWARD Private VX74229 Australian Infantry A.I.F. 2/12
Bn. 19-Jan-43 38 A8. B. 6. Died on active service Son of Joseph Brindley
Gee and Annie Elizabeth Gee. Born Kimberley, South Africa GIBSON T W THOMAS WILFRED Staff Sergeant VX2481 Australian Headquarters
A.I.F. 6 Div. 25-Nov-42 30 B1. C. 21. Died on active service Son of George
and Alice Gibson, of Turramurra, New South Wales. Born Durban, South Africa RUDDER A E ARNOLD EUGENE Leading Aircraftman 24971 Royal Australian Air
Force 1-Nov-43 37 B2. B. 12. Died on active service Son of Lindsay Ernest
and Grace Dolphin Rudder; husband of Nellie Rudder, of Palm Beach, Queensland.
Born Port Elizabeth, South Africa TECHOW F K FREDERICK KARL Staff Sergeant WX428 Australian Infantry A.I.F.
2/31 Bn. 22-Nov-42 30 C5. D. 7. Killed in action Son of Otto Karl and
Louisa Techow. Born Krugersdorp, South Africa WALROND, Sergeant, JOHN DULFORD, WX3524. A.I.F. 2/16 Bn. Australian Infantry. 8th December 1942. Age 28. Son of Francis Ernley Walrond and Alice Mildred Walrond; husband of Patricia Hanson Walrond, of Cottesloe, Western Australia. On war memorial for King Edward VII School, Johannesburg, South Africa. C5. F. 1.
RABAUL MEMORIAL Rabaul lies on Blanche Bay inside the hook-nosed north-eastern tip of the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain, the largest and most important island of the Bismarck Archipelago. The Memorial is situated in Rabaul (Bita Paka) War Cemetery, which is located approximately 50 kilometres south of Rabaul, and approximately 5 kilometres south-west of Kokopo. The Rabaul Memorial commemorates over 1,200 members of the Australian Army (including personnel of the New Guinea and Papuan local forces and constabulary) and the Royal Australian Air Force, who lost their lives in New Britain and New Ireland in January and February 1942, and in New Britain from November 1944 to August 1945, and who have no known grave. Men of the Royal Australian Navy who lost their lives in the south-western Pacific region and who have no graves but the sea, are commemorated on Plymouth Naval Memorial in England along with many of their comrades of the Royal Navy and other Commonwealth Naval Forces. The Memorial takes the form of an avenue of stone pylons leading from the entrance building of the cemetery to the Cross of Sacrifice. Bronze panels bearing the names are affixed to the faces of the pylons. A central stone lectern at the commencement of the avenue carries a bronze plate with the following dedicatory inscription: AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM IN THIS PLACE ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS WHO DIED DURING THE 1939-1945 WAR IN THE NEW BRITAIN AREA, ON LAND, AT SEA AND IN THE AIR, BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNES OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH. Name: MITCHELL, KENNETH ROSS |
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