Japanese Seaplane Lands At Buna
by Allan Champion via Eighty Three Years of Memories 1905 - 1988 (unpublished memoirs)

"In mid July, 1942 we heard an aeroplane aproaching Buna. It was a Japanese floatplane. He circled the station and tried to bomb the mission vessel Maclaren King which was at anchor in the harbor. The first bomb exploded in the water between the vessel and the shore, the second bomb exploed on the road leading up to my office. I was sheltering behind a coconut tree when the second bomb exploded. A hunk of jagged metal the size of a dinner plate struck the tree I was sheltering behind. I then hoped into the radio shack and sent a message in clear language, there was no time to code it, telling HQ wha twas happening. The plane then landed in the water and started to machine gun the radio shack. I got the message away and then took a flying leap through the window and into a slit trench. Just at that moment Bishop Strong rounded the point, in his launch (the one I had borrowed to search for the Americans) the Japanese then took off and went after Bishop Strong, they machine gunned him and sank his launch, there were no casualties. The Biship then walked to Buna and spent the rest of the day with me. He showed me his bible with was in his breast pocket. a machine gun bullet had gone halfway through it. The plane then dissapeared to the north."