Pte William LEONARD Kohring

Cemetery:

PORT MORESBY (BOMANA) WAR CEMETERY, Papua New Guinea
Grave Reference/
Panel Number: A2. D. 24.

Historical
Information:

Location: 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. Within the cemetery will be found the Port Moresby Memorial. This memorial commemorates members of the Australian Army (including Papuan and New Guinea local forces, the Australian Merchant Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force who lost their lives in the operations in Papua during the 1939-1945 war and who have no known grave.

Historical Information: After the landings at Lae and Salamaua, Port Moresby was the chief Japanese objective. They decided to attack by sea, and assembled an amphibious expedition for the purpose, which set out early in May 1942. They were, however, 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. On Bougainville, the largest and most northerly of the Solomon Islands, the enemy, early in 1942, established a considerable force almost without resistance and developed a useful base. This they held until Americans and Australians commenced 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, whither they were brought 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 and 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. On a hill above and behind the cemetery, to the right of the centre, stands a rotunda of cylindrical pillars which is the memorial to those 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 lost their lives in the south-west 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. Bougainville casualties who have no known graves are commemorated on a memorial at Suva.