The following story is a remarkable encounter of what happened during the dawn service:

PORT MORESBY: Australian Kokoda veteran Bert Fry held back tears as he watched an elderly Papua New Guinean soldier helped from his wheelchair to lay a wreath to the war dead near Port Moresby yesterday.

?I shook his hand and I almost cried,? said the 82-year-old from Ballarat in Victoria.

He and four other veterans of the World War II campaigns in PNG were guests of honour at yesterday?s Anzac Day dawn service.

They praised the local people who had fought for the Allies or aided sick and wounded soldiers during World War II.

?Without them there would not have been a campaign because we would not have been able to do it. They were just fantastic,? Mr Fry said.

The dawn ceremony under a full moon before rows of more than 3,800 mainly Australian war graves was attended by about 2,500 people, most from Port Moresby?s Australian and New Zealand expatriate communities.

But local Papua New Guineans were also represented including old soldiers Sari Ume, 81, and Isarua Sarufa, 78, both of the Papuan Infantry Battalion, which saw action against the Japanese during the war.

Mr Sarufa said attending the service was very emotional for him but a chance to pay respects to those who died, including mates he lost on the Kokoda Trail and Japanese soldiers. Kokoda veteran Reg Newman, 84, of Mandurah in WA, said he was amazed at yesterday?s turn-out.

?It just shows more and more people are becoming aware of what happened.?
This (yesterday) morning he found and photographed the grave of Clarrie Kempton, a mate killed on the Kokoda Trail, and plans to show the picture to Mr Kempton?s family who he has kept in touch with since the war.

Fellow veteran Verner Clements, 85, from the NSW south coast, found the grave of his mate Jackie Lewis who he rescued under fire but who died of his wounds two days later.

At the request of the Lewis family he yesterday placed a sprig of acacia on the grave and said a prayer.

?It made me think a lot, he was only a boy. I was a bit older and I took him under my wing a bit,? said Mr Clements, who read the RSL ode at yesterday?s service.
Kokoda veteran Bob Thompson, 87, of Walkerville in South Australia, said visiting the graves of lost mates was tinged with sadness at their loss and pride in their having given all.

One of the graves at Bomana is that of Victoria Cross winner Bruce Kingsbury who Mr Thompson was beside when he was killed after charging with a Bren gun at encroaching Japanese. ? from AAP
Kingsbury_VC.jpg