The Australian War Memorial undertook a detailed analysis of the carley float during 1992 and 1993 to determine the nature of the damage. Metallurgical testing of fragments found in the float showed them to be from German shells, not German or Japanese machine gun bullets. The Chinese survivors are also cited as proof that no machine-gunning of Australian survivors took place, as if they had witnessed or learned of such an act, they too would have been killed to preserve the secret.