"Here [Bougainville] the [3rd] Battalion spent a week, its patrols clashing almost daily with small enemy forces, during one of which Lieutenant O.W. Stratford was killed." - Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War. "The Pacific" by O.A. Gillespie, 1952, p. 282.

"At daybreak strong security patrols were sent out and one discovered an enemy ambush of four machineguns set up between the battalion and the Torokino River cutting off the unit's supply line. It had to be destroyed at all costs. Two sections drew frontal fire whilst a third worked to the flank, but the Japs realising the trap, withdrew witht he exception of one machinegun. A furious fire fight developed in which Lieutenant Stratford was killed, but the enemy were driven off." - Howlett, 1948, p. 111. AWMM