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Location
Located east of Kokopo.
Prewar
Site of a German Radio Station that was assaulted by Allied forces, primarily Australian on September 11, 1914, sustaining their first casualties that were buried here.
Bitapaka War Cemetery
Established by the Australian Grave Services in 1945 and ever since meticulously maintained by the Commonwealth. Its Second World War graves are testament
to the atrocities and ill treatment of Allied POWs in
who died at the hands of their Japanese captors, or
worked
to death as slave labor.
Tablets to the Unknown
Several large tablets and a memorial list the names of the
unknowns memorialized at the cemetary, without headstones.
WWI - Site of German Radio Station
The location of the cemetery (inland from Kokopo) is significant. This
was the location of the Colonial German Radio station. During WWI,
a force of Allied soldiers attacked the radio station on September
11, 1914. It was here that the first Australians and British died
fighting the German defenders. Ironically, the first casualty was
a Japanese officer, then an Allied against Germany, who lead the
assault against the station.
WWI - Memorial to AE-1
Australian submarine AE-1 was lost off Rabaul with out a trace in 1914.
All hands aboard died. The circumstances of its loss and its location
are unknown to this day.
WWII MIAs "Known Unto
God"
The graves and tall plaques that list the missing in
action and buried dead are silent reminders to the brutal
Japanese occupation, that used its prisoners as slave labor,
or shamelessly killed them in atrocious crimes or even
used them for bayoneted practice. Many of the plaques on
the ground read simply the quote: "Known Unto God" as
many remains were buried in mass graves by the Japanese
and impossible to identify.
Diversity of Graves
This is not simply an Australian war cemetery. There are graves of
British, Pakistani, Nurses, Papuans, Indians, Fijians and Muslims,
and Allied airmen who were either captured in Rabaul, or imported
as labor. Also, the age of the deceased 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. There
are also Victoria Cross recipients buried here.
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