Civilians flee Binondo fires

One whose shelter faces the Bay said Japanese ships were going "round and round," and "some went down and down." He saw six or seven definitely sunk. An air raid warden said three were still burning on Friday. Those that got away had to carefully negotiate the minefields and were probably caught off Subic Bay. A bright flash of light late Thursday night was the final explosion of a large tanker.

Another said that a plane, strafing antiaircraft guns mounted on top of the Constabulary Headquarters, started the fire that consumed the Binondo Church. Ten antiaircraft batteries on Bagong Filipinas were strafed into silence. One man said the anti-air batteries over the Pinaglabanan munitions dump were used on Thursday but not Friday. The Japanese decided to take the munitions out on Thursday night.

Freddie Sotelo told me he was watching two Japanese planes practice dogfighting at 0930: "Suddenly I found myself staring at a huge formation of planes flying above and approaching the city ... the formation was perfect."

'Wow,' I said, 'that is some practice!' I even saw puffs near the planes.... Suddenly all hell seemed to break loose. The formation reached the Japanese fighters, split up and began diving helter-skelter. 'Holy smokes,' I yelled, 'what a show.' Then the bombs began to land.... Yes sir, that was some practice. Practice my eye!

Freddie moved on. A bystander was later killed by a piece of shrapnel just about where he had been standing. As for the two Japanese planes, both Maurice and Dad saw them go down.

Maurice had a birds-eye view from his house on a Mandaluyong hill. He could see the bombs separate from the planes and the flames of the explosions at Nichols. He also saw a direct hit on an American plane. It was flying level in formation when there was a flash and it went down in a ball of fire — the pilot still inside.

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