Lae War Cemetery

Lae, located near the mouth of the Markham River, is a town and port on the Huon Gulf. The Lae War Cemetery is located near the Botanical Gardens in the centre of Lae. In the early months of 1942, Japan had a crushing air supremacy, and the initial Japanese invasion of New Guinea targeted Lae and its surrounding airfields. 100 bombers pounded Lae and Salamaua on January 21, 1942, but land forces did not capture the region until March 7, when 3,000 Japanese landed at Lae.

On July 21, landings were made at Salamaua, as well as Buna and Gona on the east coast, in preparation for a drive across the Papuan peninsula via the Owen Stanley Mountains to Port Moresby. That was the start of the crucial phase of the New Guinea campaign. The southerly march began in Lae and continued until it came to a standstill 60 kilometers south of Port Moresby at Ioribaiwa Ridge. The Lae War Cemetery was started in 1944 by the Australian Army Graves Service and handed over to the Commission in 1947. The graves of soldiers who died in the New Guinea campaign were relocated here from the temporary military cemetery.

Among the Indian casualties were soldiers from the unified Indian army who were taken prisoner during the fighting in Malaya and Hong Kong. The vast majority of the unidentifiable was recovered between But airfield and Wewak, where they had died while working in work groups. The 2/9th Australian Infantry Battalion was one of the two British soldiers, while the Hong Kong-Singapore Royal Artillery was the other. The Merchant Navy lost four men when the S.S. Gorgon was bombed and sunk in Milne Bay in April 1943, while the naval fatalities were killed or died as a result of injuries sustained on H.M. Ships King George V, Glenearn, and Empire Arquebus.