Pilot - Wing Cdr. I. J. "Claude" LIGHTFOOT
Co-Pilot - Sgt. James HARKIN
( U. S. Navy pilot on loan to RAAF to study Australian tactics. )
Wireless Op- Harry Blythe SIMPSON
Tail gunner Charles Joseph OWENS

Harry's recollections during the attack

The Hudson had a full fuel load including 2 x 110 gal internal tanks, plus a full bomb load, and was en-route to Darwin prior to receiving orders for a bombing raid on the Jap held islands to the north.

It had taxied to a holding position, just prior to take off, as Lt. Edson Kester's Liberator was just starting it's take off run, when Claude Lightfoot realised he had left his codes and maps in the briefing hut. He turned to Harkin and asked him to go back and retrieve them, but in typical American disregard for rank Harkin said - "You left the bloody things behind, so you go and get them !"
At this time the Zeros were spotted in the distance, but the Hudson crew, thinking them to be RAAF Wirraways, paid no further attention to them.

Lightfoot started walking back the 300 yards or so the the briefing hut, when the Zeros pounced onto Kester's Liberator, and as the engines on the Hudson were still ticking over Harkin proposed taking off. Simpson told him not to be a fool, and the Zeros would make mincemeat out of them. "Chuck" Owens was all for firing at the Zeros from his tail gun position, but by then Simpson had cut the engines, and there was now no longer any power for the turret. All three then ran for cover in the long grass.

Within minutes, the Zeros were firing on the Hudson, and with all the fuel and bombs aboard it was soon a ball of flames. All this time, the three aircrew were firing at the Zeros with their service revolvers, without much success. The Zeros were flying so low, with their cockpit canopies pulled right back, that the features of the pilots were quite visible to the defenders on the ground.

One of the RAAF groundcrew - Cpl. Norm GROWDEN - was in the RAAF transmitter station on the airfield, tending to the generators, when he tried to contact the nearby briefing room on the phone. There was no answer , so he went outside to walk up to the briefing room to give the staff a piece of his mind, when he saw the pandemonium outside ( the sound of the generators had drowned out the noise of the attack ). He was immediately "chased by a low flying Zero", so he headed back into the transmitter hut, grabbed his 8 mm movie camera, and started to film the Zeros as they made their strafing runs.

This film survived until the early 1980's when it was lent to someone for copying, but had not been returned at the time Norm died in Port Lincoln in about 1983. No trace can be found of the film at this time.

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