Which aliens attacked Los Angeles? Was it the Nazis?
What many people who stepped from their houses first noticed was that despite the barrage of automatic fire heading skywards from the ground, there were no enemy fighters falling in flames to the ground below. In fact, it didn’t appear there were any planes at all in the sky. Nothing swooping and descending. Nothing sending short rattles of fire downward. What many did see, however, was the vague shape of a huge oval object. An object that appeared to be the target of the military automatic gunfire. Except, nothing seemed to impact on it. Instead, it appeared as though some kind of invisible shield was around this equally mysterious object.
From the description, the military engaged with a craft of unknown origin that was unlike anything known in the world at that time, that prevailed unscathed no matter what they fired at it.
From https://www.ufoinsight.com/ufos/cover-ups/the-battle-of-los-angeles
The events in the early hours of 25th February 1942 have been sensationalized several times into Hollywood movies, and perhaps because of this there can be a tendency to forget the incident was very real, costing several lives, offering up one of the most famous pictures in UFO history, and perhaps most importantly, still remains unexplained. At least to any satisfactory degree. Taking place only months after the brutal attacks on Pearl Harbor – an incident that would drag the United States into the war raging in Europe – the entire United States was already on high alert. And this was particularly so with cities along the western US coastline of the Pacific.
Colorized impression of the Battle of Los Angeles
Whatever was moving along the coastal region of southern California, a journey that would see the strange object pass over several Los Angeles’ districts, the United States military were unnerved enough to open fire. And the gunfire and artillery would continue for several hours. Certainly not the behavior of trained soldiers, and perhaps more to the point, of experienced commanders who authorized such a preemptive strike for something that skeptics to the incident would claim was simply a weather balloon, or even “the planet Venus”. “The Battle Of Los Angeles” – sometimes referred to as “The Great Los Angeles Air Raid” – is one of the most intriguing, and possibly important nights of the twentieth century, of that, there is little doubt.
Before we look at that infamous night in the City of Angels, we will briefly examine the events of the previous twenty-four hours. It helps to understand the mindset of the people of California at the time. When an attack could arrive, as it had in Hawaii in December 1941, without warning and at any time. Incidentally, please note, all times given are US Pacific Time.
The Day Before! The Bombardment Of Ellwood
On the 23rd February 1942, Ellwood naval base came under sudden attack from Japanese forces. The Japanese had maintained a discreet presence in the area since the Pearl Harbor attacks of 7th December 1941. They had even managed to sink two American ships and damaged six more. Just after 7 pm on the 23rd February, a sudden bombardment came as Japanese forces attacked just off the coast. They would take aim at the Richfield aviation fuel tanks.
The attack would last around twenty minutes before the Japanese forces turned and retreated from the area. Although the damage was very limited and there were no severe casualties, the attack was still a resounding success. It managed to capitalize on the fear already established at Pearl Harbor. That the American public could come under attack at any moment and from anywhere along the west coast.
What is perhaps of interest here is in the wake of the attacks at Ellwood, naval intelligence would announce to all relevant chains of command that another attack was imminent. In fact, it could be expected within the next ten hours. Later that evening, numerous reports of “flares and blinking lights” would surface from locations around several defense plants along the Californian coast. By 7:18 pm a full alert was issued. However, by 10:23 pm, it appeared any perceived threat was a false alarm and the threat level was lowered. The reprieve wouldn’t last long.
Sirens And Gunfire!
It was just after 3 am when residents of Los Angeles were cruelly dragged from their sleep due to the wailing sirens announcing an attack. [1] When the automatic gunfire announced itself at sporadic but regular bursts it didn’t take long for citizens to recall images of the attacks of the previous day, or from Pearl Harbor a little over two months earlier. Indeed, many families, at least those who had them, would immediately take to their various bomb shelters, themselves ranging from professional builds to very makeshift facilities. Whatever was going on outside, it wasn’t a good thing, that much was certain.
Unbeknown to the confused and increasingly panicked residents of the City of Angels was that US navy radar had picked up an unidentified object around 120 miles to the west of the city and had been tracking it since shortly after midnight. By 2:15 am, antiaircraft stations were put on standby. Several minutes later, with the object still approaching they would receive a “Green Alert” telling them to be ready to fire immediately.
Those who didn’t have shelters to head to, or simply weren’t concerned enough to utilize them, would spill out on to the previously serene and sleepy streets of various housing estates of Los Angeles. It is from many of these “stragglers” on to the street where some of the most accurate, and perhaps key witness statements would later come.
The short video below is an original piece of news footage regarding the incident.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5m7736RMBEg%3Fstart%3D13%26feature%3Doembed
Something In The Sky
What many people who stepped from their houses first noticed was that despite the barrage of automatic fire heading skywards from the ground, there were no enemy fighters falling in flames to the ground below. In fact, it didn’t appear there were any planes at all in the sky. Nothing swooping and descending. Nothing sending short rattles of fire downward. What many did see, however, was the vague shape of a huge oval object. An object that appeared to be the target of the military automatic gunfire. Except, nothing seemed to impact on it. Instead, it appeared as though some kind of invisible shield was around this equally mysterious object.
The more residents of Los Angeles’ many districts looked on, it appeared as though the behemoth-like object was calmly and smoothly moving through the dark sky of the early morning, seemingly oblivious to the round after round of heavy-duty artillery fire. It was also many of these “street witnesses” who would repeatedly report the sound of American fighter planes in the skies overhead. However, the US air force and, in turn, the US military, would deny any deployment of US aircraft on the night in question.
It would appear that the first sightings from the public would come from the Santa Monica area of the city a little after 3 am. According to military reports, though, several sightings of “enemy planes” had come from defense posts along the coast for the at least thirty minutes leading up to that point. At 2:43 am, for example, several “planes” were sighted over Long Beach. Only a few moments later another sighting claimed “25 planes at 12,000 feet” over downtown Los Angeles. At 3:06 am “a balloon with a red flare” was seen over Santa Monica. Seconds later came the gunfire.
Total Blackout, Confused Reports And Fatalities
Along with the ominous warning wail of the sirens came orders of a complete blackout. Not a single light from a single house or vehicle was lit throughout Los Angeles shortly after 3 am.
During the three-and-a-half hours until just after 7 am – when a sense of normality arrived with the light of the morning – numerous and varied reports would circulate. Both among the military and throughout the wider community. Many reports of “planes”, for example, would surface, although most of these would insist the planes in question were American planes.
There were also several fatalities that would share, at least, an indirect connection to the events of the early hours of 25th February 1942. All of the dead were civilians. Some were victims of traffic accidents as they had made fatal attempts to negotiate the blacked-out roads. At least one person is thought to have died as a result of falling shrapnel. Several other deaths, attributed to heart attacks, are also widely accepted to have been a consequence of the bizarre and frightening events.
The Account Of “Katie”
While we will look at some of the other witness statements from the incident, one of particular intrigue is that of “Katie”, [2] who at the time was an interior designer and artist who worked with many of the Hollywood stars. She was also, along with over 12,000 other Los Angeles residents, a volunteer air raid warden. So, when her phone rang in the early hours of 25th February, she already had an idea that something was likely afoot. She wasn’t wrong. On the other end of the line was her district air raid supervisor. There was, they said, an immediate alert. Rather more intriguing, they wished to know if she had seen anything unusual in the sky. More specifically near to her home.
Katie lived not far from Santa Monica on Los Angeles’ west side. Upon being asked the question, she walked over to the window of the room she was in. She would later recall to UFO investigator, Jeff Rense, “It was huge. It was just enormous. And it was practically right over my house. I had never seen anything like it in my life”. She would continue that it was “just hovering there”. She would remember that whatever the object was, it was a “lovely pale orange” and although it had an “eerie” quality to it, it was “the most beautiful thing” she had ever seen.
Partly because there was no other competing light due to the blackout, the object would shine spectacularly in the dark, black sky. It was around this time that the US military searchlights found the object with the glare.
Original picture from the LA Times
“It Was Like The Fourth Of July!”
Like many of the other witnesses, Katie would declare with absolute certainty, “they sent fighter planes up. And I watched them in groups approach it and then turn away”. She would further recall how the planes were “shooting at it, but it didn’t seem to matter”. According to Katie, the planes would make several approaches but they would suddenly retreat. Then, the ground artillery began to fire. So much firepower was sent upwards it was “like the Fourth of July” with the military “firing like crazy”.
Katie would continue to watch events unfold from the relative safety of her living room window for close to half-an-hour. Then, the object began to move away, eventually disappearing into the night. Also like many other witnesses, Katie would recall that several “direct hits” impacted upon the surface of the object. However, no damage at all was visible. In fact, it would appear as though the huge shells simply fell to the ground at the last moment. Despite the apparent attack from this mysterious object, Katie would recall that it was a “magnificent sight. Just marvelous”.
Retired anthropology professor, Scott Littleton, who was only a young boy at the time, and whose father was also an air raid warden also had an almost perfect view of the incident. [3] He would describe the object as “like a lozenge” with artillery shells exploding “all around it”. Also, like Katie, he would claim the very real presence of American fighter jets.
In fact, Littleton would prove to be a strong voice over the decades that followed regarding the encounter. Indeed, he just may prove to be one of the key witnesses to that winter’s evening in February 1942.
“The Threat Of Invasion Was Still Palpable!”
Although Littleton was only a young child at the time of the incident, that most bizarre night is emblazoned on his mind. Littleton would become a college professor of Anthropology from 1962 until his retirement forty years later in 2002. His studies and teachings took him across a wide range of mythology and folklore. Also of interest to him was the question of UFOs and alien life. In particular what the “possible implications for mythology and folklore” might be.
Littleton would describe the Battle of Los Angeles as “the night that a UFO was fired upon by the US repeatedly with no apparent effect”. [4] He would witness the events from near his home in Hermosa Beach. With the events of Pearl Harbor still fresh in everyone’s minds, residents of California were only too aware of their location on the coast. To them, “the threat of invasion was still palpable, if not imminent” in the minds of many. In fact, even military sources and intelligence would suggest such a bombing campaign, likely from the Japanese, was inevitable.
All along the waterfront from Santa Monica Bay, to Malibu, to Palos Verdes, antiaircraft guns fired their deadly loads at targets purposely dragged along the skies over the water. Specially designed US planes would pull along these targets, allowing those who might one day be firing on approaching enemy planes to practice. These displays would often entertain the locals, including the young Littleton, who would remember them as “a grand show”, during which the searchlights from the ground would light up not only the “targets” but the exploding shells. These practice runs would normally run from 9 pm to 10 pm each evening.
“The System Totally Collapsed!”
There were also regular blackouts, which Littleton’s father, as a volunteer air raid warden, would get prior notice of. During such blackouts, he would have to don his hard hat and patrol the streets in his designated area, ensuring that all curtains would remain closed and/or lights off, and to make sure anyone who shouldn’t be outside would return home immediately. Generally speaking, these practice runs always went relatively smoothly. However, in the early hours of 25th February, during “the real thing”, Littleton would remember that “the system totally collapsed”.
The practice had gone ahead as normal on the evening of the 24th of February before falling silent just after 10 pm. Littleton remembers clearly going to bed shortly after the usual display, reading for a little while before falling asleep. The next thing he knew, it was 3:15 am, and it sounded as though it was thundering outside. After shaking the sleep from his mind, he realized the “thunder” was, in fact, the antiaircraft fire. Thinking it was possibly another drill, he soon dismissed such notions as “there was something about the rate and intensity of the bombardment that just didn’t seem right”.
As he looked out of his bedroom window he could instantly make out the searchlights sweeping around the night sky. Among them was the “bright flashes of exploding rounds”. This further pushed away the notion of what he was seeing was a drill of some kind. The explosions during the practice runs were usually quite a way out to sea. These explosions were much closer to the mainland. Then, he could hear his parents talking in the hall of the house. When he put his head out of the door he could clearly make out the worried look on his father’s face.
Newspaper article of the Battle of Los Angeles
“I Think This Might Be The Real Thing!”
According to Littleton, his father couldn’t understand why he, or other local air raid wardens didn’t receive word. Whether it was a drill or a “real attack”, all local air raid wardens should receive notification to attend their positions. This could be an interesting point. Littleton’s father would place several phone calls to the Civil Defense headquarters in a bid to find out information. Nobody, however, would pick up. He would make the decision to take to the streets as per his duties of his own accord in the absence of any superior command. It would, apparently, turn out later that although the alarm was raised sometime between 2;15 am and 2:25 am, someone forgot to notify local air raid wardens.
However, as we will remember, Katie was notified a little after 3 am. In fact, she would receive questons whether she could visually see anything from her position. Again, this is simple speculation, might it have been a purposeful decision to keep as many of the air raid wardens inside? Might they have wanted as few witnesses as possible?
Regardless of the reason, after Littleton’s father had been outside for a short while, he returned even more concerned than before. By this time, the grandparents who happened to be staying there were also awake and downstairs. Littleton’s father instructed them to make their way to the bomb shelter immediately. “I think this may be the real thing” he would declare as he ushered them down the basement.
Everybody Who Could Went “Outside To See It!”
While the Littleton household squeezed into the cramped basement, Littleton’s father would return to the street. When his mother decided to go up and see what was happening around ten minutes later, Littleton discreetly tagged along. The pair made their way to the doorstep of the house and then stood there watching the fascinating events unfold above them.
Each of them stared up at the silver “lozenge-shaped bug” that glowed brightly in the searchlights that had converged upon it. For several moments the object simply hung motionless in the air, seemingly happy to take the apparent pounding from the constant barrage of gunfire and heavy artillery from below. Then, it began to move slowly. It would head towards Redondo Beach, southeast from their direction. They would watch it for several minutes before it disappeared out of sight.
Although it disappeared from Littleton’s sight, as the object passed over Redondo Beach, a five-year-old child, Tike Karavas, would witness it pass over his family home. [5] Not only that, it appeared to descend slightly as it did so. The rest of the Karavas family also witnessed the incident, with Tike’s father even attempting to follow the craft in his car in case it landed. However, instead of landing, the object would begin to rise again. It would head south of the beach, along the coast where the LAX airport stands today, before passing over the El Segundo oil refinery. Karavas would recall how despite the time, “almost everybody on our whole block who could, got up to go outside to see it”. Despite the intense barrage of antiaircraft fire, the mysterious object “escaped unscathed”.
The “Balloon” Explanation
Littleton, who for obvious reasons would have an intense interest in the case and has performed his own investigations into it, would take particular exception that the entire episode, including the barrage of fire from the US military, was nothing other than a balloon that had strayed off course. In fact, he would state that this official explanation is almost impossible.
Remember, most of the sightings and the bulk of the shooting took place in the Santa Monica area of Los Angeles. Littleton’s research shows that the only place in Los Angeles where such balloons were was to the south of Santa Monica, in El Segundo. Littleton would explain that this would mean, assuming there was a missing balloon (there were no reports of any missing or stolen balloons in or around the night in question), it would have to find its way almost perfectly northward towards Santa Monica. Once at its destination, it would then hover in the same spot, somehow absorbing the firepower of the antiaircraft guns below for close to thirty minutes, before then calmly moving away in a different direction from the way it arrived.
Perhaps backing up Littleton’s, and many other UFO researcher’s claims that the object hovering over Los Angeles was far from a balloon and was, in fact, a nuts-and-bolts craft from another part of the galaxy comes from one of most famous and iconic images of the incident.
Before we move on to that, however, check out the short video below. It features Scott Littleton speaking about the incident.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=YY1saJ80vL4%3Ffeature%3Doembed
The Photograph
As events were unfolding, a reporter with the ‘Los Angeles Times’ newspaper would receive word that “something” was happening near Santa Monica. The reporter in question lived around twelve miles away, to the east of the location in the San Gabriel Valley area of the city. He immediately dressed and jumped into his car, making his way cautiously through the now blackened roads, unable to use his headlights in case he attracted the attention of the police, military, or the air raid wardens who would order him inside or arrest him.
He arrived close to his destination shortly after, settling near the Baldwin Hills. The reporter could clearly see the object caught in the collective glow of the several searchlights on it. He jumped out of his car, the guns sounding immediately louder as he did so, and pointed his camera at the scene above him. He snapped the picture shut, and by the 26th February, the image would run in the ‘Los Angeles Times’ newspaper. Millions of people around the world would study the picture over the years.
Does it show an alien craft withstanding an intense barrage of US military firepower? Although there have been accusations of “touching up” of the photograph, it is indeed a genuine image. These “touch-ups” are, in reality, simply changing of contrasts and such to provide the image with more clarity for newspaper print. As you can see from the image below. It certainly appears as though the reflective glow from a disc-shaped craft is clearly visible.
Check out the image below.
Close up of the Battle of Los Angeles image
The Objects Out Of The Sea Incident, 9th December 1941
Although they are not nearly as popular, and there may not be a connection, two sightings on the respective evenings of 9th and 11th December 1941 are certainly worth looking at. Perhaps not least because of the military presence at each of them.
The first took place to the north of Los Angeles in San Francisco (a relative stones-throw away) on the evening of the 9th December. According to the main witness, General Ryan, several strange objects “came out of the sea” causing the US Navy to send out three vessels to investigate just what the strange crafts were. He would state to the ‘The Times Union’ newspaper that “I don’t know how many planes there were, but there were a large number”. Given that Ryan claims these “planes” came out of the sea, we can likely replace the word plane with UFO, remember a phrase still a decade away from its eventual interweaving into the fabric of American popular culture.
Ryan would further elaborate in response to a question if the “planes” were Japanese by simply saying, “they weren’t Army planes. They weren’t Navy planes. And you can be sure they weren’t civilian planes”. He would stop short of pointing the finger at the Japanese, but he was emphatic that the incident was “not a test”. The entire city was under blackout. Residents along the water front, however, would each claim to have witnessed around sixty US Army trucks positioning anti-aircraft guns on the water’s edge. One official explanation was that the operation was merely a test in response to the declaration of war on Japan by the US and Great Britain only twenty-four hours earlier.
The Los Angeles Blackout Incident,11th December 1941
Two night later, in Los Angeles (although areas as far away as San Diego and even Las Vegas were affected), another blackout took hold of the city. Once more, just like General Ryan had forty-eight hours earlier, the announcement from the Interceptor Command would state that “this is not a practice black-out”.
It was a little after 7:35 pm when the alert signal turned yellow. This indicated that an “unidentified airplane” was approaching the city. And what’s more, they were approaching from the stretches of the Pacific Ocean. All air and naval bases would go to instant alert, with antiaircraft posts on stand-by along the water front. Some witnesses would later state they could hear antiaircraft fire, although the military would declare that there was no authorization to fire. That a “situation” was underway, however, was certain. The Interceptor Command would state, “There are planes over the south of Los Angeles that are unidentified. The area will be blacked out until we can identify them”.
Shortly after, several response planes would leave the runway of their respective airports to investigate these strange oncoming objects. While there was no known interception, the blackout mission was an apparent “success”.
It is perhaps interesting that descriptions of these crafts would appear to conform to those that were allegedly witnessed in various spots across the United States (and even Mexico) in the early 1940s, some of which we will look at a little later, and which may also share a connection to the apparent events of Los Angeles in February 1942.
However, if these incidents were merely military tests, might it be that the alleged Battle Of Los Angeles was also such a test?
Map of the route of the incident
A Military “False Flag” Event?
There is plenty of reason to assume that the events were a false flag event, possibly to maintain support for the United States’ involvement in the Second World War. As we have looked at previously in our look at the events of Pearl Harbor, there is substantial reason to believe the key event that brought the United States into World War Two was, at best, allowed to happen, at worst, of purposeful planning. Might the “Battle of Los Angeles” have been a similar event? There is certainly an argument for the claim.
For example, several radar operators would state in a television documentary in the early-2000s [6] that they received prior warning from their superiors to expect a “target coming in”. One would even go as far as to say that “…it was a meteorologist balloon, with a wavelength of wire tied (to it) so the radar would pick it up”. Does this suggest that there was a purposeful operation in place? Or is this simply a case of a mistaken sighting by the radar operators in question? Or is this possibly a case of disinformation? How, for example, would the “balloon explanation” match up alongside “Katie’s” sighting? Or, might Katie’s claims be disinformation to take away from secret military action? After all, she was a volunteer air raid warden. Perhaps she would see it as her duty?
If we assume that this was a military test, the fact that several residents would lose their lives would mean the military would have to maintain that “something” took place. Lest they face scrutiny and possibly lawsuits for possible “reckless” behavior and a disregard for its own citizens’ safety? Or might it be a military test of otherworldly technology?
Connections To The Little-Known Missouri Crash?
Perhaps, though, the incident was handled the way it was by the military due to an apparent downed UFO near Cape Girardeau in Missouri only months earlier in April 1941. According to the witness of the report, Charlotte Mann, she recalled how her grandfather, Reverend William Huffman received a call from the nearby military base. According to Mann, a large “strange disc” made from some unknown metallic material had crashed to the ground in the open country. The military was already at the scene. They required Huffman’s services to “administer the last rites”.
Upon seeing this out-of-this-world craft, Huffman would realize these last rites were not for anything human. He would see three small bodies lying together near the crippled craft. All three were already dead, but Huffman said a prayer for each anyway. When he returned home later in the early hours of the morning, he would tell both his wife, and Charlotte, that the remains were “definitely not human”. Incidentally, several interesting details would surface in the report. The first, the use of strange metallic foil-like material being present at the scene (which would come more prominently during the Roswell crash six years later). And the apparent “ancient Egyptian-style hieroglyphics” on the exterior, another seemingly bizarre detail that comes up in other UFO encounters.
Perhaps also of interest in regard to this last detail is another little-known report. One of a “plane crash” on the morning of 24th February near to the heart of Hollywood. A crash that might not have been a “plane” crash at all.
More UFO “Crashes” In Early-1940s America Than We Know?
One witness would state that he saw “Japanese writing” on the remains of the craft. Remains which were, interestingly enough, covered over by the military within minutes of the apparent crash. Japanese planes marked their planes using Arabic numbers during World War Two. It couldn’t, then, have been a Japanese plane the witness saw. Might it be, that it wasn’t Japanese writing, but Egyptian-style hieroglyphs? And is it possible that it wasn’t a plane, but an unknown craft? Might it be that the Battle of Los Angeles was the result of an extraterrestrial craft? One that might have actually started before the early hours of the 25th February?
Much like the Missouri incident mentioned above, there is another encounter which very well may share a connection to the events over the City of Angels. In late-October 1941, a UFO apparently crashed to the ground in Sonora, Mexico. The US military managed to locate and retrieve it, and bring it back into the United States. Much like the alleged crash in Missouri, as well as the recovery of the craft itself, were several alien bodies. Might this craft and more specifically the intelligent entities behind it be the same that appeared over Los Angeles?
Although it happened after the Los Angeles incident, another UFO apparently crashed to Earth in late-1942 “somewhere north of Georgia”. Much like the previous accounts, the object was disc-like, silver and metallic, and contained several small entities. Several months later, in April 1943, US pilot, Gerry Casey, would notice a silver disc-shaped object. It would approach his plane as he navigated the California coastline near the Santiago Mountain. It remained with them for several minutes before vanished at high speed.
Newspaper article of the incident
Reverse-Engineering And Opportunistic Analysis Of Reactions
Might be, might the accounts of the downed UFOs in Missouri and Sonora be genuine? Did the US military manage to reverse-engineer this recovered technology? Might the sighting and the incident that followed have been a test flight of the US military? Remember, some radar operators insist they would receive instructions to “expect an incoming target”. This, before they first picked up the strange object approaching the California coastline.
Is it possible that this expected target was a repaired disc from a previous (and genuine) UFO crash now under testing by US military personnel? It is, admittedly, a highly unlikely notion. Not so much that such alien crafts would crash at these various locations around the United States. But that our scientists would have been able to reverse engineer something so technologically advanced so quickly. Although, the technological revolution was just around the corner following the end of the Second World War. Perhaps, then, we should give such scientists more credit?
As an afterthought, maybe the public’s reaction to such an otherworldly craft is key. Perhaps the situation would offer the United States insight into how they could use it to their advantage? It is certainly a possibility. Especially given everything we now know regarding UFO encounters from the late-1940s onwards. Might the public’s reaction offer the US military insight in how to handle any future such episodes? Or perhaps the incident was a secret military experiment. And the insight was in how the public instead would seek an otherworldly explanation. So leaving such military action unexposed, and unaccountable.
The video below goes over the incident.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6oY8HIWBS-Y%3Ffeature%3Doembed
A Much Darker Goal?
The way the military would act and the initial information they shared with the press is interesting. Perhaps a forerunner to how the eventual Roswell incident would unfold. For example, the initial press reports were relatively full of detail. The very few that followed weren’t. Then, reports seemed to die down altogether. Almost unnaturally so. They would claim there was no credibility in the witness statements. It is very likely that many people would contact the press with all manner of wild tales. Whether for a little attention and possibly monetary reward. It would appear an overreaction, to say the least, to simply drop the story altogether, however. In fact, it simply doesn’t make sense. Unless, of course, considering the fact that the United States was officially “at war”, they would receive instructions to do so.
Perhaps the military, and even, in turn, the US government were using the incident to their own ends. Maybe they manufactured it and it was indeed a “false flag”. Or maybe they were completely off-guard to an unknown enemy. It was very much in their interests, though, to have the public suspect the Japanese were behind the attack. And the general fear in the populace of another similar encounter did nothing to hurt their cause.
At the time of the incident, the heavily controversial (even then) Executive Order 9606 was racing its way through the significant legal channels. An order that would relocate Japanese-American citizens and Japanese immigrants alike. Essentially, it was an internment order which would send such people to nothing more than concentration camps. Many people saw the order as a form of “ethnic cleansing”. To some, having the public fear such Japanese attacks would perhaps calm this resistance somewhat.
California’s Long Supernatural History
Or maybe the answer is more supernatural? The event that is The Battle of Los Angeles certainly stands on its own as a unique event. However, the state of California is a hotbed of intriguing, fascinating, and chilling activity. And what’s more, it goes back hundreds, possibly thousands of years. With that in mind, might the alleged sighting of Los Angeles have been just one of those strange anomalous experiences? One that has plagued the area for eons and remains a mystery to all who study such events even today?
Or, might there be a connection to Mount Shasta? Itself an ancient body that has all manner of strange accounts to its name? Including that it hosts within its bowels an alien base that stretches underground for all miles around. And, that somewhere above its majestic peak, a portal exists where such cosmic craft come and go from the Earth. Interestingly enough, US Navy records show tracking of an unidentified craft moving into the Santa Monic mountain range on 25th February. It had arrived from the north, coincidentally enough where Mount Shasta resides. Sightings of strange lights and orbs are common in and around the area of the ancient and enchanting mountain. Many Native American tribes have lived in the area for hundreds of years. They state that a network of caves and tunnels lead to the “inner Earth”.
Check out the short video below. It is from 2013 and claims to show a UFO leaving the planet via a portal contained within a vortex. If this footage is genuine, might it suggest that what eventually drew the gunfire of the US military in February 1942, had indeed originated from the same type of portal in the same location?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=F-P7FwlZjG0%3Ffeature%3Doembed
A Reaction Undertaken By A Miniscule Percent Of The Population!
Like many of the cases we examine, that “something” significant took place between 2 am and 7 am on the 25th February 1942 is without question. Was it a military exercise that broke down among confusion and panic? So resulting in the unfortunate deaths of several Los Angeles residents? Or might it be one of many coldly calculated events to bring forth such measures as Executive 9606? Not to mention to drum up and maintain support for the United States entry into another war in Europe? It is a rather blunt accusation but certainly not one without merit. And not one that requires too much of a stretch of the imagination.
Or was there indeed a UFO, a craft from another world, hovering over human civilization? While it fired their comparatively primitive weapons at them in a blind panic? The US military, although far from the slick machine-like operation it is today, was still one of the world’s best. Perhaps there was the realization that humanity was simply ill-prepared? And no match for such cosmic visitors? Maybe this is the reason for the plethora of cover stories, denials, and general disinformation. All of which has polluted the UFO subject for decades?
Might this event even be the first time in the contemporary era such cosmic visitors were visible? If that is the case, what might the consequences be of our collective, and aggressive reaction? A reaction undertaken by a miniscule percent of the planet’s population. And authorized by an even tinier percent of that. That thought alone, in whatever walk of modern life, should be sobering enough.
The video below is one of many available looking at the Battle of Los Angeles.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KDnFXfjxVl4%3Ffeature%3Doembed
References
| ↑1 | World War II’s Bizarre ‘Battle of Los Angeles’, Evan Andrews, History, February 23rd, 2017 https://www.history.com/news/world-war-iis-bizarre-battle-of-los-angeles |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | ‘Battle Of Los Angeles’ Photographic Comparison, Frank Warren, Rense https://rense.com/general93/battle.htm |
| ↑3 | The Battle Of Los Angeles, 1942 UFO, The Wanderling http://the-wanderling.com/la_ufo.html |
| ↑4 | Eyewitness to History: The Battle of Los Angeles, C. Scott Littleton, Signs of the Times, May 24th, 2007 https://www.sott.net/article/132795-Eyewitness-to-History-The-Battle-of-Los-Angeles |
| ↑5 | UFO Over LA: The Battle of Los Angeles, The Wanderling https://wanderling.tripod.com/la_ufo.html |
| ↑6 | The Great Los Angeles Air Raid: What Actually Happened, According to Witnesses, Micah Hanks, Mysterious Universe, July 18th, 2017 https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/07/the-great-los-angeles-air-raid-what-actually-happened-according-to-witnesses/ |
Battle of Los Angeles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to navigationJump to searchFor other uses, see Battle of Los Angeles (disambiguation).
| Part of the American Theater | |
| Photos from Los Angeles Times, 26 February 1942 | |
| Date | 24–25 February 1942 |
|---|---|
| Location | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Deaths | 5 (3 in car accidents, 2 of heart attacks)[1] |
The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, is the name given by contemporary sources to a rumored attack on the continental United States by Imperial Japan and the subsequent anti-aircraft artillery barrage which took place from late 24 February to early 25 February 1942, over Los Angeles, California.[2][3][4] The incident occurred less than three months after the U.S. entered World War II in response to the Imperial Japanese Navy‘s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and one day after the bombardment of Ellwood near Santa Barbara on 23 February. Initially, the target of the aerial barrage was thought to be an attacking force from Japan, but speaking at a press conference shortly afterward, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called the purported attack a “false alarm”. Newspapers of the time published a number of reports and speculations of a cover-up to conceal an actual invasion by enemy airplanes.
When documenting the incident in 1949, the United States Coast Artillery Association identified a meteorological balloon sent aloft at 1:00 am as having “started all the shooting” and concluded that “once the firing started, imagination created all kinds of targets in the sky and everyone joined in”.[5] In 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History attributed the event to a case of “war nerves” triggered by a lost weather balloon and exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from adjoining batteries.
Contents
- 1Background
- 2Alarms raised
- 3Press response
- 4Attribution
- 5UFOlogy
- 6Commemoration
- 7See also
- 8References
- 9External links
Background[edit]
In the months following the Imperial Japanese Navy‘s attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and the United States’ entry into World War II the next day, public outrage and paranoia intensified across the country and especially on the West Coast, where fears of a Japanese attack on or invasion of the U.S. continent were acknowledged as realistic possibilities. In Juneau, Alaska, residents were told to cover their windows for a nightly blackout after rumors spread that Japanese submarines were lurking along the southeast Alaskan coast.[6] Rumors that a Japanese aircraft carrier was cruising off the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area resulted in the city of Oakland closing its schools and issuing a blackout; civil defense sirens mounted on patrol cars from the Oakland Police Department blared through the city, and radio silence was ordered.[7] The city of Seattle also imposed a blackout of all buildings and vehicles, and owners who left the lights on in their buildings had their businesses smashed by a mob of 2,000 residents.[8] The rumors were taken so seriously that 500 United States Army troops moved into the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, to defend the famed Hollywood facility and nearby factories against enemy sabotage or air attacks.[9]
As the U.S. began mobilizing for the war, anti-aircraft guns were installed, bunkers were built, and air raid precautions were drilled into the populace all over the country. Contributing to the paranoia was the fact that many American merchant ships were indeed attacked by Japanese submarines in waters off the West Coast, especially from the last half of December 1941 through February 1942: SS Agwiworld (escaped), SS Emidio (sank), SS Samoa (escaped), SS Larry Doheny (sank), SS Dorothy Phillips (damaged), SS H.M. Storey (escaped, sank later), SS Cynthia Olson (sank), SS Camden (sank), SS Absaroka (damaged), Coast Trader (sank), SS Montebello (sank), SS Barbara Olson (escaped), SS Connecticut (damaged), and SS Idaho (minor damage).[10][11] As the hysteria continued to mount, on 23 February 1942, at 7:15 pm, during one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s fireside chats, Japanese submarine I-17 surfaced near Santa Barbara, California, and shelled Ellwood Oil field in Goleta. Although damage was minimal (only $500 in property damage (equivalent to $7,900 in 2020) and no injuries) the attack had a profound effect on the public imagination, as West Coast residents came to believe that the Japanese could storm their beaches at any moment. (Less than four months later, Japanese forces bombed Dutch Harbor in Unalaska, Alaska, and landed troops in the Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu).[7]
Alarms raised[edit]
On 24 February 1942, the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) issued a warning that an attack on mainland California could be expected within the next ten hours. That evening, many flares and blinking lights were reported from the vicinity of defense plants. An alert was called at 7:18 pm, and was lifted at 10:23 pm. Renewed activity began early in the morning of 25 February.[12] Air raid sirens sounded at 2:25 am throughout Los Angeles County.[13] A total blackout was ordered and thousands of air raid wardens were summoned to their positions. At 3:16 am, the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade began firing .50-caliber machine guns and 12.8-pound (5.8 kg) anti-aircraft shells into the air at reported aircraft; over 1,400 shells were eventually fired. Pilots of the 4th Interceptor Command were alerted but their aircraft remained grounded. The artillery fire continued sporadically until 4:14 am. The “all clear” was sounded and the blackout order was lifted at 7:21 am.[14]
Several buildings and vehicles were damaged by shell fragments, and five civilians died as an indirect result of the anti-aircraft fire: three were killed in car accidents in the ensuing chaos and two of heart attacks attributed to the stress of the hour-long action.[1] The incident was front-page news along the West Coast and across the nation.[15]
Press response
Within hours of the end of the air raid, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox held a press conference, saying the entire incident had been a false alarm due to anxiety and “war nerves”. Knox’s comments were followed by statements from the Army the next day[16] that reflected General George C. Marshall‘s supposition that the incident might have been caused by enemy agents using commercial airplanes in a psychological warfare campaign to generate mass panic.[17]
Some contemporary press outlets suspected a cover-up of the truth. An editorial in the Long Beach Independent wrote, “There is a mysterious reticence about the whole affair and it appears that some form of censorship is trying to halt discussion on the matter.” Speculation was rampant as to invading airplanes and their bases. Theories included a secret base in northern Mexico as well as Japanese submarines stationed offshore with the capability of carrying planes. Others speculated that the incident was either staged or exaggerated to give coastal defense industries an excuse to move further inland.[18]
Representative Leland M. Ford of Santa Monica called for a Congressional investigation, saying “none of the explanations so far offered removed the episode from the category of ‘complete mystification’ … this was either a practice raid, or a raid to throw a scare into 2,000,000 people, or a mistaken identity raid, or a raid to lay a political foundation to take away Southern California’s war industries.”[19]
Attribution
After the war ended in 1945, the Japanese government declared that they had flown no airplanes over Los Angeles during the war.[13] In 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History concluded that an analysis of the evidence points to meteorological balloons as the cause of the initial alarm:[12]
During the course of a fireside report to the nation delivered by President Roosevelt on 23 February 1942, a Japanese submarine rose out of the sea off Ellwood, a hamlet on the California coast north of Santa Barbara, and pumped thirteen shells into tidewater refinery installations. The shots seemed designed to punctuate the President’s statement that “the broad oceans which have been heralded in the past as our protection from attack have become endless battlefields on which we are constantly being challenged by our enemies.” Yet the attack which was supposed to carry the enemy’s defiance, and which did succeed in stealing headlines from the President’s address, was a feeble gesture rather than a damaging blow.
The raider surfaced at 1905 (Pacific time), just five minutes after the President started his speech. For about twenty minutes the submarine kept a position 2,500 yards offshore to deliver the shots from its 5½-inch guns. The shells did minor damage to piers and oil wells, but missed the gasoline plant, which appears to have been the aiming point; the military effects of the raid were therefore nil. The first news of the attack led to the dispatch of pursuit planes to the area, and subsequently three bombers joined the attempt to destroy the raider, but without success. The reluctance of AAF commanders to assign larger forces to the task resulted from their belief that such a raid as this would be employed by the enemy to divert attention from a major air task force which would hurl its planes against a really significant target.
Loyal Japanese-Americans who had predicted that a demonstration would be made in connection with the President’s speech also prophesied that Los Angeles would be attacked the next night. The Army, too, was convinced that some new action impended, and took all possible precautions. Newspapers were permitted to announce that a strict state of readiness against renewed attacks had been imposed, and there followed the confused action known as “The Battle of Los Angeles.”
During the night of 24/25 February 1942, unidentified objects caused a succession of alerts in southern California. On the 24th, a warning issued by naval intelligence indicated that an attack could be expected within the next ten hours. That evening many flares and blinking lights were reported from the vicinity of defense plants. An alert called at 1918 [7:18 pm, Pacific time] was lifted at 2223, and the tension temporarily relaxed. But early in the morning of the 25th renewed activity began. Radars picked up an unidentified target 120 miles west of Los Angeles.
Antiaircraft batteries were alerted at 0215 and were put on Green Alert—ready to fire—a few minutes later. The AAF kept its pursuit planes on the ground, preferring to await indications of the scale and direction of any attack before committing its limited fighter force. Radars tracked the approaching target to within a few miles of the coast, and at 0221 the regional controller ordered a blackout. Thereafter the information center was flooded with reports of “enemy planes, ” even though the mysterious object tracked in from sea seems to have vanished. At 0243, planes were reported near Long Beach, and a few minutes later a coast artillery colonel spotted “about 25 planes at 12,000 feet” over Los Angeles. At 0306 a balloon carrying a red flare was seen over Santa Monica and four batteries of anti-aircraft artillery opened fire, whereupon “the air over Los Angeles erupted like a volcano.” From this point on reports were hopelessly at variance.
Probably much of the confusion came from the fact that anti-aircraft shell bursts, caught by the searchlights, were themselves mistaken for enemy planes. In any case, the next three hours produced some of the most imaginative reporting of the war: “swarms” of planes (or, sometimes, balloons) of all possible sizes, numbering from one to several hundred, traveling at altitudes which ranged from a few thousand feet to more than 20,000 and flying at speeds which were said to have varied from “very slow” to over 200 miles per hour, were observed to parade across the skies. These mysterious forces dropped no bombs and, despite the fact that 1,440 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition were directed against them, suffered no losses.
There were reports, to be sure, that four enemy planes had been shot down, and one was supposed to have landed in flames at a Hollywood intersection. Residents in a forty-mile arc along the coast watched from hills or rooftops as the play of guns and searchlights provided the first real drama of the war for citizens of the mainland. The dawn, which ended the shooting and the fantasy, also proved that the only damage which resulted to the city was such as had been caused by the excitement (there was at least one death from heart failure), by traffic accidents in the blacked-out streets, or by shell fragments from the artillery barrage. Attempts to arrive at an explanation of the incident quickly became as involved and mysterious as the “battle” itself.
The Navy immediately insisted that there was no evidence of the presence of enemy planes, and [Secretary of the Navy], Frank Knox announced at a press conference on 25 February that the raid was just a false alarm. At the same conference he admitted that attacks were always possible and indicated that vital industries located along the coast ought to be moved inland. The Army had a hard time making up its mind on the cause of the alert. A report to Washington, made by the Western Defense Command shortly after the raid had ended, indicated that the credibility of reports of an attack had begun to be shaken before the blackout was lifted. This message predicted that developments would prove “that most previous reports had been greatly exaggerated.”
The Fourth Air Force had indicated its belief that there were no planes over Los Angeles. But the Army did not publish these initial conclusions. Instead, it waited a day, until after a thorough examination of witnesses had been finished. On the basis of these hearings, local commanders altered their verdict and indicated a belief that from one to five unidentified airplanes had been over Los Angeles.
Secretary Stimson announced this conclusion as the War Department version of the incident, and he advanced two theories to account for the mysterious craft: either they were commercial planes operated by an enemy from secret fields in California or Mexico, or they were light planes launched from Japanese submarines. In either case, the enemy’s purpose must have been to locate anti-aircraft defenses in the area or to deliver a blow at civilian morale.
The divergence of views between the War and Navy departments, and the unsatisfying conjectures advanced by the Army to explain the affair, touched off a vigorous public discussion. The Los Angeles Times, in a first-page editorial on 26 February, announced that “the considerable public excitement and confusion” caused by the alert, as well as its “spectacular official accompaniments,” demanded a careful explanation. Fears were expressed lest a few phony raids undermine the confidence of civilian volunteers in the aircraft warning service.
In the United States Congress, Representative Leland Ford wanted to know whether the incident was “a practice raid, or a raid to throw a scare into 2,000,000 people, or a mistaken identity raid, or a raid to take away Southern California’s war industries.” Wendell Willkie, speaking in Los Angeles on 26 February, assured Californians on the basis of his experiences in England that when a real air raid began “you won’t have to argue about it—you’ll just know.” He conceded that military authorities had been correct in calling a precautionary alert but deplored the lack of agreement between the Army and Navy.
A strong editorial in the Washington Post on 27 February called the handling of the Los Angeles episode a “recipe for jitters,” and censured the military authorities for what it called “stubborn silence” in the face of widespread uncertainty. The editorial suggested that the Army’s theory that commercial planes might have caused the alert “explains everything except where the planes came from, whither they were going, and why no American planes were sent in pursuit of them.” The New York Times on 28 February expressed a belief that the more the incident was studied, the more incredible it became: “If the batteries were firing on nothing at all, as Secretary Knox implies, it is a sign of expensive incompetence and jitters. If the batteries were firing on real planes, some of them as low as 9,000 feet, as Secretary Stimson declares, why were they completely ineffective? Why did no American planes go up to engage them, or even to identify them? … What would have happened if this had been a real air raid?” These questions were appropriate, but for the War Department to have answered them in full frankness would have involved an even more complete revelation of the weakness of American air defenses.
At the end of the war, the Japanese stated that they did not send planes over the area at the time of this alert, although submarine-launched aircraft were subsequently used over Seattle. A careful study of the evidence suggests that meteorological balloons—known to have been released over Los Angeles—may well have caused the initial alarm. This theory is supported by the fact that anti-aircraft artillery units were officially criticized for having wasted ammunition on targets which moved too slowly to have been airplanes.
After the firing started, careful observation was difficult because of drifting smoke from shell bursts. The acting commander of the anti-aircraft artillery brigade in the area testified that he had first been convinced that he had seen fifteen planes in the air, but had quickly decided that he was seeing smoke. Competent correspondents like Ernie Pyle and Bill Henry witnessed the shooting and wrote that they were never able to make out an airplane. It is hard to see, in any event, what enemy purpose would have been served by an attack in which no bombs were dropped, unless perhaps, as Mr. Stimson suggested, the purpose had been reconnaissance.
UFOlogy[edit]
A photo published in the Los Angeles Times on February 26, 1942, has been featured in UFO conspiracy theories as evidence of an extraterrestrial visitation.[20] They assert that the photo clearly shows searchlights focused on an alien spaceship; however, the photo was heavily modified by photo retouching prior to publication, a routine practice in graphic arts of the time intended to improve contrast in black and white photos.[21][22] Times writer Larry Harnisch noted that the retouched photo along with faked newspaper headlines were presented as true historical material in trailers for the 2011 film Battle: Los Angeles. Harnisch commented, “[I]f the publicity campaign wanted to establish UFO research as nothing but lies and fakery, it couldn’t have done a better job.”[23]
Commemoration[edit]
Every February, the Fort MacArthur Museum, located at the entrance to Los Angeles Harbor, hosts an entertainment event called “The Great LA Air Raid of 1942”.[24]
See also[edit]
- The Bombardment of Ellwood, which occurred the previous day
- Attacks on North America during World War II
- 1941, a 1979 film by Steven Spielberg, loosely based on the Battle of Los Angeles
- Pearl Harbor
- California during World War II
- American Theater (1939–1945)
- United States home front during World War II
References
- ^ Jump up to:a b Niiya, Brian, ed. (1993). “Battle of Los Angeles”. Japanese American History: An A-to-Z Reference from 1868 to the Present. p. 112. ISBN 978-0816026807.
- ^ “The Battle of Los Angeles”. Military Museum. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
- ^ Caughey, John; Caughey, LaRee (1977). Los Angeles: biography of a city. University of California Press. p. 364. ISBN 978-0-520-03410-5.
great los angeles air raid.
- ^ Farley, John E. (1998). Earthquake fears, predictions, and preparations in mid-America. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2201-5. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- ^ Murphy, Col. John G. (May–June 1949). “Activities of The Ninth Army AAA – L.A. “Attacked”” (PDF). Antiaircraft Journal, the United States Coast Artillery Association. LXXXII (3): 5. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
- ^ Juneau During WWII Panel The Empty Chair: The Forced Removal and Relocation of Juneau’s Japanese, 1941–1951
- ^ Jump up to:a b Parzanese, Joe. “Battle of Los Angeles”. Weird California. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ Erik Lacitis (7 December 2016). “What happened in Seattle after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941”. The Seattle Times.
- ^ Moseley, Doobie (7 December 2015). “Pearl Harbor Changed Everything, Even the Disney Studio”. Laughing Place.
- ^ “California in World War II: The Attack on the SS Agwiworld”. www.militarymuseum.org. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ “California in World War II: The Attacks on the SS Barbara Olson and SS Absoroka”. www.militarymuseum.org. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Craven, Wesley Frank; Cate, James Lea (1983). “”West Coast Air Defenses”, “The Battle of Los Angeles”” (PDF). The Army Air Forces in World War II: Defense of the Western Hemisphere. Vol. 1. Washington, D.C: Office of Air Force History. pp. 277–86. ISBN 978-0-912799-03-2. Archived from the original on 25 March 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
- ^ Jump up to:a b The Battle of L.A. turns 75: When a panicked city fought a Japanese invasion that never happened Los Angeles Times. 25 February 2017.
- ^ Boissoneault, Lorraine. “The Great Los Angeles Air Raid Terrified Citizens – Even Though No Bombs Were Dropped”. smithsonianmag.com. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
- ^ “The Battle of Los Angeles – 1942”. Sfmuseum.net. 25 February 1942. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
- ^ Los Angeles Times, 27 February 1942
- ^ “California in World War II: The Battle of Los Angeles”. Militarymuseum.org. 25 February 1942. Archived from the original on 27 May 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
- ^ Los Angeles Times, “Information, Please”, 26 Feb. 1942, p. 1
- ^ Los Angeles Times, “Knox Assailed on ‘False Alarm’: West Coast legislators Stirred by Conflicting Air-Raid Statements” 27 Feb. 1942, p. 1
- ^ David G. Robertson (25 February 2016). UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 58–. ISBN 978-1-4742-5321-5.
- ^ Harnisch, Larry (13 March 2011). “Another Good Story Ruined: Saucers Over L.A.! – Part 7”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
- ^ Ed Stockly. “TV Skeptic: ‘Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files’ looks at the real ‘Battle of L.A.'”. Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Harnisch, Larry (21 February 2011). “Another Good Story Ruined – The Battle of Los Angeles”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ^ “Fort MacArthur Museum: The Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942”. The Fort MacArthur Museum Association. 1994–2010. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
External links
- UFO theory
- “The Battle of Los Angeles” at Saturday Night Uforia
- San Francisco virtual museum article
- The Army Air Forces in World War II
- Dunning, Brian (15 September 2009). “Skeptoid #171: The Battle of Los Angeles”. Skeptoid.
