.
Marines patrolled the emptied Navy Yard,
checking for looters and any new fires. At noon an administrative
force returned and reopened the battalion offices. A bulldozer dug a
trench near the Commandancia and working parties attempted to bury
the civilian dead. Dump trucks were filled with bodies which were
dumped into the trench as Marines buried more than 250 corpses with
shovels. Once the burials in the Yard were finished, the mass grave
was covered with dirt. The
Cavite area remained quiet until 1247 on 19 December when nine
Japanese bombers returned with Sangley Point as their target. The
bombers hit the large radio towers and the fuel depot. Numerous
55-gallon fuel drums were stored on the golf course, in the hospital
compound, and on the beach. Fuel drums exploded, forcing the
evacuation of the wounded. One Marine remembered "the roar of the
fire drowned the sound of the motors (of the bombers) and the sound
of the bombs."
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