Taken from Wikipedia

On 4 April 1942, only two days after his arrival, Squadron Leader Birchall was flying a PBY Catalina flying boat (AJ155/QL-A) that was patrolling the ocean to the south of Ceylon. Nine hours into the mission, as the plane was about to return to base, ships were spotted on the horizon. Investigation revealed a large Japanese fleet, the Nagumo Task Force (Responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbour), including five aircraft carriers, heading for Ceylon, which at that time was the base for the Royal Navy‘s Eastern Fleet.^[6] Birchall’s crew managed to send out a radio message, but the Catalina was soon shot down by six A6M2 Zero fighters from the carrier Hiryū.

The Japanese continued to strafe the wreck seriously wounding Sergeant John Henzell in the front turret. He was lost when the aircraft sank along with Warrant Officer Lucien “Louis” Colarossi. The Japanese continued their attack on those survivors in the water killing Sgt. Davidson. The remaining six crew members were eventually picked up by the Japanese destroyer Isokaze.

Source of the above image

https://www.far-eastern-heroes.org.uk/Saviour_of_Ceylon/html/appendix.htm

I don’t think survivors talked about the sheer minutes of  terror they lived through during the attack. I can  imagine what Sergeant up John Henzell felt when he was in the nose of the PBY with six Zeros buzzing around.

Sergeant John Henzell is remembered here…

https://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/h/html/henzell-john.html

There is so much history behind this build.

I have glued these parts while I was waiting to find how the pontoons would stand up. 

Stand up they did… And they appear rock solid.

Being one step ahead on my progress I was somewhat shocked when I got a comment about the pontoons…

…
And yes, you’re right that you do not want to attach the pontoons until you have painted and decaled and finished the model. Otherwise you are guaranteed to break them off.

Sometimes you have to live forever with your decisions.