“Early in the war things were pretty scary and the Army was setting up coastal defenses. Another explanation appears in an article attributed to the veteran Los Angeles newsman Matt Weinstock in which he interviews a man who says he served in one of the anti-aircraft batteries: A photo from the Los Angeles Times has been used to “prove” it is an extraterrestrial craft. 1 posits weather balloons as the most likely explanation. 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.”Īfter the war, Japan says it has no planes in the area at the time of the “raid.” The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 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.
“Probably much of the confusion came from the fact that anti-aircraft shell bursts, caught by the searchlights, were themselves mistaken for enemy planes. Returning to The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. Their goal is to determine the location of anti-aircraft defense or damage civilian morale, Stimson says. In Washington D.C., Navy Secretary Frank Knox says: “As far as I know the whole raid was a false alarm and could be attributed to jittery nerves.” Secretary of War Henry Stimson says 15 unidentified aircraft were over Los Angeles - possibly commercial aircraft operated by the enemy from secret fields in California or Mexico or light planes launched from Japanese submarines. “Roaring out of a brilliant moonlit western sky, foreign aircraft flying both in large formation and singly flew over Southern California early today and drew heavy barrages of anti-aircraft fire – the first ever to sound over United States continental soil against an enemy invader.” “Air Battles Rages Over Los Angeles” is the headline of the Examiner’s “War Extra.” The normally more staid Los Angeles Times says: According to the Los Angeles Herald Examiner a witness puts the number of planes at 50. Not the least at variance are the media reports. Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive. At 3:06 am 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.” Anti-aircraft artillery on Army Day at Fort MacArthur, San Pedro, 1936. At 2:43 am, 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. Thereafter the information center was flooded with reports of ‘enemy planes,’ even though the mysterious object tracked in from sea seems to have vanished.
Radars tracked the approaching target to within a few miles of the coast, and at 2:21 am the regional controller ordered a blackout. The (Army Air Force) 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. Antiaircraft batteries were alerted at 2:15 am and were put on Green Alert-ready to fire-a few minutes later. “Radars picked up an unidentified target 120 miles west of Los Angeles. From “Chapter 8: Air Defense of the Western Hemisphere” by William Goss, The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. Then, after midnight, all hell breaks loose. Thousands of air raid wardens go to their posts throughout Los Angeles County.
Regardless of cause, air raid sirens first blare at 7:18 p.m. Young Research Library, University of California at Los Angeles. Credit: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives. Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron with other city officials at air raid shelter dedication in 1942. Theories include weather balloons, UFOs, birds, or just jitters by Angelenos with Pearl Harbor still a fresh memory and, even fresher, a Japanese submarine torpedoing a Santa Barbara oil field on February 23. What, if anything, is being fired upon remains a mystery. Five civilians die – three from traffic accidents spawned by the chaos and two from heart attacks. On the evening of February 24, 1942, an anti-aircraft barrage of more than 1,440 rounds is launched at what is initially thought to be a Japanese aerial attack on the City of Angels.
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