Papua New Guinea WWII remains identified

Published: 8:36PM Thursday November 12, 2009 Source: AAP

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  • Papua New Guinea WWII remains identified  (Source: Reuters)
    Source: Reuters

Army investigators have identified remains found in Papua New Guinea as belonging to two diggers who were killed in World War II.

Lieutenant Talbot Logan, 29, and Lance Sergeant James Wheeler, 23, will be buried at Port Moresby's Bomana War Cemetery on December 1.

"Two other sets of remains thought to be those of Australian soldiers also have been recovered," Defence Personnel Minister Greg Combet told reporters on Wednesday.

"The identification work that's been rather painstaking for almost a year has been unable to resolve in identification of the two other sets of remains.

"They will be interred in the Bomana War Cemetery with the headstone Known Unto God."

Australia's high commission in Port Moresby is also holding another four sets of remains which are thought to be Japanese.

Combet said those remains would be handed to the Japanese embassy in Port Moresby.

The remains were found on battlefields not far from the lower highlands of PNG around Buna, Sanananda and Popondetta.

LLogan was killed by a Japanese sniper on New Year's Day 1943 near Buna while Wheeler was killed while part of a forward observation party on December 1, 1942.

Defence has informed both families of the find and identification which was made possible through DNA technology.

"These men can now be laid to rest alongside their mates and their burial places formally registered after all these years.

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