"...as a matter of fact that really is the photo that was taken of our aircraft just after it was ditched about fifty yards away from the beach.

"My other air gunner and skipper were in the dinghy. I had been out in the dinghy when that was taken but I always carry the photo of my wife with me in the plane and I had left it on that radio, decided to go back in... to get it so I could carry it in my pocket and that was the time that photo was taken. They then came down and stood on the beach and just strafed the dinghy and we who were in the dinghy they just strafed us with bullets... there were these bullets hitting the water around us. Sid did not get back to us. They actually shot him while he was in the water. The skipper... the dinghy was actually holed and that sank and one bullet hit the skipper in the head and he died immediately and I had a bullet that shot off the top portion of my ear. Then I told the other, the other gunner who was in the area with me.

"I told him he was a very good swimmer. I thought it would be better to split up and I asked him to swim away from me and I didn't see him after that so I don't know what happened to him but I got on to the other side ... there was a big jetty there and I got to the other side of that which gave me a bit of cover from where they were on the beach shooting at me and I managed to scramble up into the jungle and I just lay there and the ear was bleeding pretty badly."

FLIGHT LIEUTENANT RAYMOND 'RAY' GRAETZ