Remains thought to be lost Diggers

A 68-YEAR wartime mystery may have been solved with the discovery of human remains on a remote island off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

Seven elite Australian soldiers from the top-secret `Z' Special Unit died during a botched mission behind enemy lines called Operation Copper on Muschu Island off the coast of Wewak in northern Papua New Guinea in April 1945.

Sapper Mick Dennis was the sole survivor and five bodies have been accounted for, but the remains of former St George rugby league club first-grade forward Lance Corporal Spencer Walklate, 27, and Private Ron Eagleton, 20, have never been found.

The two men washed up on neighbouring Kairiru Island after putting to sea on logs to try and contact a rescue aircraft. They were captured by Japanese forces and beheaded.

Two officers, Lieutenants Alan Gubbay and Tom Barnes, were drowned and their bodies are in the Lae War Cemetery.

Three other soldiers, Sergeant Malcolm Franou, 26, and Signallers Michael Hagger, 23 and John Chandler, 23 were killed during a Japanese ambush.

An investigation team from the army's Unrecovered War Casualties unit found a burial site on Kairiru two weeks ago after an exhaustive search of Japanese war records and interviews with natives.

Anecdotal evidence led searchers to an old medical waste dump near the site of a Japanese hospital.

After identifying a depression in the ground and some disturbed earth they found bones belonging to two humans.

One was bigger - Walklate was a large man - and the other smaller. Eagleton was slightly built. The bones were taken to an Australian army facility at Bomana War Cemetery near Port Moresby.

A DNA sample has been taken from Spencer Walklate's grandson Todd Walklate from Aberdeen in NSW and DNA from the remains is being tested to establish if there is a match.

Mr Walklate said his three children and two brothers were fascinated by the story of Spencer.

"We didn't know much until a few years ago when I met Mick Dennis," he said.

"The kids think it is amazing and if it is his remains it will be closure for our family. It will be sad and happy because he will finally have a proper burial."

Officials from the Unrecovered War Casualties office were at Bomana cemetery yesterday to examine the remains.

Friday 17 May 2013

http://www.news.com.au/national-news/exclusive-remains-thought-to-be-lost-diggers/story-fncynjr2-1226645600966