USAF MILITARY CEMETERY IPSWICH
IPSWICH, QLD DURING WW2

USAF Military Cemetery at Ipswich, November 1945

The same location on 11 August 2004

The USAF Military Cemetery Ipswich was located on Cemetery Road not far from the main Ipswich Cemetery. Today there is a small white monument in the centre of Manson Park, which is located about 200 meters east of the Ipswich Cemetery. A plaque was placed on this monument in 1971 by Major J. Watson, USAF "to honour the American Servicemen who paid the supreme sacrifice during WWII". This monument was originally the base of the flag pole in the first photograph above.

In the early planning stages for this large US Cemetery one of the other options considered was an area at Moorooka. 

USAF Military Cemetery at Ipswich

Manson Park at Ipswich on 11 August 2004

Plaque near the entrance to Manson Park

The base of the original flag pole in Manson Park

The top plaque on the flag pole base

The lower plaque on the flag pole base

The first American to be buried in this cemetery was Private Paul Strange who died in May 1942. The last American buried at this cemetery was Paul L. Smith. A total of 1,260 service personnel were buried there.

Kenneth Downs, CM3, #2451094, from New Jersey, of the 77th Construction Battalion, US Navy (Seabees), was buried at the Ipswich military cemetery during WW2.

This may possibly be the funeral of Kenneth Downs, CM3, #2451094, from New Jersey, of the
77th Construction Battalion, US Navy (Seabees) (can anyone please confirm if this is at Ipswich?)

This may possibly be the funeral of Kenneth Downs, CM3, #2451094, from New Jersey, of the
77th Construction Battalion, US Navy (Seabees) (can anyone please confirm if this is at Ipswich?)

This may possibly be the funeral of Kenneth Downs, CM3, #2451094, from New Jersey, of the
77th Construction Battalion, US Navy (Seabees) (can anyone please confirm if this is at Ipswich?)

During WW2, Americans who were killed or died in Australia were buried in local cemeteries, but in 1945, the bodies from around Australia were exhumed and temporarily reinterred at the USAF Cemetery at Ipswich or at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney. Then eventually all of these bodies were exhumed again and taken back to the United States. 190 Australian civilians, mostly cane cutters, were employed to exhume the bodies at Ipswich. They erected a four meter high canvas fence around the cemetery. The civilian workers were instructed to observe strict decorum.

The US ship "Gauchec Victory" arrived in Brisbane in November 1947 to take  the bodies back to America. The work to remove the bodies finished by 20 December 1945. A ceremony was held in the Brisbane City Hall on 22 December 1945 to honour the American dead. A coffin containing the body of an unknown American soldier was paraded ceremoniously through Brisbane to Newstead Wharf watched by approximately 30,000 Brisbane residents. The last 1,800 caskets containing US servicemen left Brisbane before Christmas 1947.

Amongst these bodies, was Melbourne's infamous "Brownout Strangler", Eddie Leonski. He had been initially buried 3 times in two segregated sites in Springvale Cemetery. In May 1945, his remains were recovered and he was buried in the USAF Cemetery at Ipswich. 

In 1948, a group of American officers travelled across Australia and New Guinea recovering remains from crashed aircraft. They also searched for the site of the USS Peary, sunk in Darwin Harbour on 19 February 1942.

Manson Park was named after local resident Mrs Rose Manson, who lovingly looked after the graves during WW2, and wrote letters to the families of those buried in the USAF Military Cemetery at Ipswich.

The officer in charge of the US War Graves Unit, Captain J.B. Harris wrote the the Ipswich Cemetery Trust thanking it for "accomplishing a resting place for our beloved deceased prior to their repatriation to their homeland and final resting place."

US Military Cemetery Townsville
located at Belgian Gardens, Townsville, QLD

Does anyone have access to a list of the
Military Servicemen who were buried in this cemetery?

REFERENCE BOOKS

"Yanks down Under 1941-45, The American Impact"
by E. Daniel Potts & Annette Potts

"Ipswich Remembers - Military Heritage of Ipswich from the 1860s to the 1990s"
Written by Robyn Buchanan

Heaps of WW2 books available at Amazon.com

"Australia @ War"

This page first produced 3 June 2004

This page last updated 31 December 2007