The 129^th Infantry Regiment assaulted southward across the Pasig in engineer boats at 0830, the first troops disembarking at 0836.  Simultaneously the 145^th Infantry Regiment assaulted the east wall.  Japanese fires within Intramuros evidently were less intense than in earlier encounters because the heavy bombardment had destroyed or disorganized them.  Both the 129^th  Infantry and the 145^th Infantry Regiments therefore moved easily through the breached walls and then through the streets of Intramuros.  The 145^th Infantry Regiment’s progress was soon blocked, however, by the flow of 2,000 refugees, women and children, from Del Monico Church on General Luna Street where the Japanese had been holding them.  Many would be evacuated from the west gate of Intramuros by a truck convoy of the 37^th Quartermaster Company.  Male civilians had evidently been separated by the Japanese, detained in the Intramuros’ old citadel, Ft. Santiago, and executed there en masse.  By nightfall of 23 February, the 129^th and 145^th Infantry Regiments held nearly all of Intramuros and would secure the rest the next day.

Dr. Thomas M. Huber