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One day in the summer of 1942, our B-17 was forced to land at a small fighter strip outside Port Moresby, New Guinea, when we returned from a bombing mission to Rabaul. The main base (7-mile airstrip) at Port Moresby was under attack by Japanese bombers on our return and we were diverted to a strip. We spent the night here sleeping on parachutes in our aircraft. The next morning I observed this scene a short distance from our aircraft. A P-39 pilot was on alert, standing and talking to a New Guinea native, who was with a crew of natives who were constructing an operations hut for the fighter squadron stationed there at Waigoni. The composition of this painting was derived using photographs that I had taken of the figures and the scene in 1942. It is very hot and very  humid, although below the Equator at this time of year, it is winter.