"I saw a 44 gallon drum there and I built a raft. I crazily decided that I could perhaps attract attention if I got a raft out into the water and I strung these palm trunks alongside of the raft, alongside the 44 gallon drum and there was a communications line running along the beachhead and I tore that down and sort of trussed it up with this wire not knowing that I was, it was a live communications wire that they were communicating with different parts of the area and I'd just launched it and luckily for me it collapsed. It wouldn't have been any good anyhow, it was futile, it collapsed and I just came back onto the beach into the jungle and I heard a couple of trucks roaring up the track and I immediately realised that somebody had noted that this communication wire had been pulled down. They went to that spot, saw it was so and then of course knew somebody was in there. Obviously saw the raft that was broken, that had collapsed and they decided to search for me ... there was an area with very high coonai grass where I was and I lay down in the grass and I put this long grass all over my body and just lay there hoping they wouldn't find me ... they were beating up and down this area and a couple of them had [unintelligible] and they were beating the bush with this as they walked along and one of them actually stepped right across my legs as he was looking for me and they didn't know."

FLIGHT LIEUTENANT RAYMOND 'RAY' GRAETZ