Image of the Battle of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1942
The Battle of Los Angeles (also known as The Los Angeles air raid) was a mysterious battle between the U.S army and an unknown squadron of strange aircrafts that took place in February 24, 1942.
To understand the importance of this event go, before anything else, examine the context of the times that the incident occurred. Since 1931, Japan had maintained an aggressive policy towards China. In 1937, he began a large-scale war between the two countries resulting in a full-scale invasion of Chinese territory, by Japanese forces. With the rise of Japanese moral ambition and confidence have taken over the minds of Japanese leaders . Thus, the Japanese war production increased further with the construction of aircraft, aircraft carriers and other war materials, already preparing a large-scale war. The U.S. sent a small fighting force in support of China. The "Flying Tigers". Also, cut oil supplies to the Japanese steel and hurting their operations against China. This was just one reason the Japanese attack on American base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. 's point Strategically, the attack would allow time for the Japanese invasion of the islands in the South Pacific to obtain raw materials to feed the war machine.
As the attack on Pearl Harbor, War becomes truly global, involving all the continents. In the United States declared itself a state of war, starting training and embarkation of troops for the so-called Theater of War. Were established air defense systems and naval, to prevent any military operations on the United States. One of those defenses consisted in the establishment of various posts of defense armed with anti-aircraft guns. For night operation were provided powerful spotlights allowing for continuous operation of these weapons. The defense naval turn, used the island of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Santa Catalina, San Clemente based support.
The Battle[]
All this military force, and thousands of soldiers operating these devices could do nothing for the mysterious episode in the early morning of February 25, 1942. Thousands of local residents awaked with sirens or the firing of the Air Defense Group. It is estimated that across the region were approximately 12 000 homes where residents, terrified, have witnessed the awesome episode. The next day villagers, military and government were frightened. After thousands of shots straight at the target located, nothing was dropped. Several cars and homes damaged by shrapnel from shots. Three people died from shrapnel and these other three died of heart attacks.
The military authorities did not know what to inform the population. There were several statements conflicting with each other, but the mystery remained. So far no one has an accurate estimate of the number of objects involved in the incident. Some claim to have seen a single object that would fly at about 300 km per hour. Others said they were more luminous objects. There were those who said he saw several squadrons with objects of various sizes flying in the region. It is difficult nowadays to separate reports of serious allegations in the packed hysteria that day. There were also statements about fighter aircraft from the 4th Squadron Intercept would have taken off to repel the invaders. The military, however denied this assertion. After numerous contradictions, the military said the incident originated in a coordinated operation in Japan, with aircraft, with the support of a submarine, with the aim of causing fear and decrease the morale of the country in the war, ending the question there. They cited including a possible attack by a submarine on February 23 in an oil storage facility near Santa Barbara. However, if you look at all the details concerning the strange episode is concluded that this excuse is inconsistent.
The Battle of Los Angeles began the night of February 24 when several people identified strange luminous objects in the
Soldier shoting in the aircraft (or UFO) in the battle of Los Angeles
heavens. Some people come into contact with the Coast Artillery Brigade, responsible for air defense in the region. The objects were picked up by radar and monitored closely by the military. These objects have adopted a V formation, the standard used by military aircraft. As a result, around 2:25 pm the sirens were activated alert for air strikes. He was ordained a blackout across the region and the floodlights were switched on. Fighter pilots were poised to take off when needed. At 3:16 pm, the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade identified UFOs and began firing on them, using dozens of anti-aircraft guns with ammunition 8.12 pounds. shots were made in 1440 until around 4:14 pm. The objects moved from the region of Santa Monica to Long Beach, passing through the whole 20 minutes. The blackout warning and were removed only at 7:21 pm.
In 26 days, newspapers across the country splashed news of the alarm occurred in Los Angeles and published numerous testimonies of witnesses, including local reporters who witnessed the entire episode. Bill Henry of the Los Angeles Times declared: "I was very far from the site without being able to identify it. I bet there were numerous shots on the object . "Peter Jenkins, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, said " I could clearly see the V formation of about 25 aircraft silvery moving slowly on Long Beach."
The Attempt of Explanation[]
With so much public excitement, then Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, convened a press conference where he said that the whole episode turned out to be a false positive caused by lust for war. Some journalists have not accepted the explanation and suspected that some sort of cover up was taking place. In the editorial of the Long Beach Independent newspaper, read: "There is a mysterious reticence surrounding the subject and there seems to be some form of censorship that is trying to hold discussions on that. "The next day, Secretary of War Stimson had stated that 15 unidentified aircraft involved, moving at 300 km per hour, but that none were killed. He said his goal was to impose fear and lower the morale of the American people. As the seas were constantly monitored by both warships and by aircraft, the possibility that it was an attack from the aircraft carrier would be discarded. It was speculated then that the Japanese would have boarded planes in the submarine seen in Santa Barbara, which would have taken off and carried out overflights in Los Angeles causing any alarm. If we consider the facts we concluded that this explanation is unproven. First we evaluate the possibility of each of the different versions raised by U.S. military authorities at the time of the event.
The most widespread assumption by the U.S. military is that of a Japanese large-scale operation aimed at spreading terror and affect the moral American. We can begin by asking you which would cause more terror in a population in times of war? Would be unknown aircraft flying over their heads without making sorties, or unknown aircraft bombing cities supposedly safe? Surely the second option would be more terrifying. So nothing can justify such an action Japanese in an enemy territory, without any support, and having no further benefit of such offensive. But assuming that the Japanese military actually chose to perform an action is not destructive in the U.S.. The fast, easy and efficient way would be via aircraft carrier which carries all the necessary personnel, fuel and other equipment required for this operation. The autonomy of the Japanese fighters of the time would not allow a direct flight from the nearest base, much less a flyover and subsequent return, so the use of a mobile naval air base would be essential. Taking into account the factor of war strategy, a port planes, due to its importance, never surf alone. There is always a great naval protection. In a region constantly patrolled and guarded by Americans, such a fleet would not go undetected. Moreover, such a fighting force is mobilized when there is strategic significance, or cause maximum damage to the
Japanese submarine from World War II fighter capable of carrying an aircraft
enemy. As we have seen, the event in Los Angeles does not fall into that category. According to the U.S. government carried out the attack was from a Japanese submarine that had attacked on 23 north of Los Angeles. During the WWII, Japan innovated and built a new class of submarines capable of carrying between one and three seaplanes attack. The first of them began to operate militarily in November 21, 1941 and was carrying only a single aircraft model Yokosuka E14Y. In the attack on 23, only a single submarine was detected, there are no indications of other submarine in the area. If we consider the radar record of developing various objects speeds ranging from 0 ( static ) to 320 km/h, and the countless testimonies of witnesses who reported the presence of multiple objects, we can, we can exclude a possible Japanese attack. Moreover we have the fact that after intense Flak was no shot, even though he was visually struck by gunfire.
Cover newspaper at the time of the case
A second hypothesis is related to widespread balloons Fugos ingeniously used by the Japanese in attacks over large distances . This type of balloon carrying an explosive charge combining mines, hydrogen and incendiary devices. They used a stream of air at high altitudes that transported them to the east. Several of these balloons fell in the U.S., but damage was minor. Here we can also ask ourselves about the absence of the alleged wreck the balloon. Nothing was found that reinforced the idea to have been an attack using a Fugo.
The third hypothesis is the most correct and that this is really an unidentified flying object (UFO), because until now the nature of this object is unknown.
What remains is the great mystery about the origin of the unusual object. Japanese plane was not and was not balloon. In the famous photograph taken at the time there is a clearly discoid object illuminated by floodlights. This object has been heavily targeted and left totally unharmed as if to mock our warfighting capabilities of the season. The rulers were impressed by generating the embryo of what would later be known as political cover-up .
Specifications[]
General Data
Local
Los Angeles, California, United States
Date and Time
February 24, 1942
Number of Witnesses
thousands
Type
In times of world war, a mysterious object (or objects) flying over the city putting on alert air defense system . There were thousands of shots against the object without it being neutralized
Deaths
Six Civilians: Three by the American bullets, Three from infarction
See also[]
Model airplane embarked on Japanese submarines that American officials said would have caused the alarms in the morning of February 25, 1942
