THE MYSTERY OF THE INTENSE AIR BATTLE OVER LOS ANGELES IN 1942: UFOS OR ENEMY PLANES?
In 1942, a fierce air battle broke out over the city of Los Angeles (USA), when a mysterious object of unknown origin entered the airspace.
To grasp this incident, it is necessary to better understand the situation then, when the US had just entered World War II.
In December 1941, Japanese
aircraft suddenly attacked the US military base at Pearl Harbor, killing more than 2,400 people. After this event, America officially entered World War II.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Photo: interactives.dk
Three months later, on February 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine suddenly bombed the Ellwood oil field in the state of California, on the east coast of the United States. Faced with that situation, the alertness of the Americans against potential Japanese attacks was very high, especially in this area. This was one of the factors that prompted the next day’s historic event – the Great Air raid on the neighboring city of Los Angeles, one of the deadliest anti-aircraft artillery bombardments in history, with an enemy anonymous that remains a mystery to this day.
Great Los Angeles air raid – encounter with Japanese planes, or UFOs?
The incident began on Tuesday night, February 22, 1942. That night, a series of bright flashes were reported to appear in the sky over the city of Los Angeles. An announcement was set at 7:18, and dropped at 10:23.
In the early hours of the next morning (February 25), at 2:25, enemy aircraft sirens sounded throughout Los Angeles County, waking up a million residents in the southern California area. At the same time, the government ordered a power outage in the entire area. Most people went back to sleep while the more than 12,000 air defenses were called into position, most of them just taking it as a normal exercise, preparing for a potential future war – one Another Japanese invasion. At 3:16, however, everyone was shocked to be woken up again, this time by creepy, creepy sounds for anyone who had never served in the military.
The thunderous explosions of the anti-aircraft artillery of the Coastal Artillery Brigade resounded everywhere, pulling everyone out of their beds. Before they could go to the window to see what was going on, flashes of anti-aircraft shells exploded in the air, accompanied by a “boom” sound that resounded in the sky. The stray shrapnel shot up into the air and then slowly fell on the city like pouring water.
No one knew what was going on, because all the broadcasting stations were ordered to shut down at 3:08, but the night sky with intermittent flashes of light stretching 45 km continuously had already cleared up. part of the story.
Headlights shine on a strange object in the night sky over Los Angeles, accompanied by shelling, in the early morning hours of February 25, 1942. Photo: Los Angeles Times
Artillery fire continued sporadically until early morning, not stopping until 4:14. By 7:21 am, the “all clear” command was issued, the electricity returned to the city, everything returned to normal.
Ultimately, it was estimated that a total of more than 1,400 rounds were fired.
This is a war of scale and scale, but no one knows the identity of the culprit. Stray shells damaged several buildings and vehicles, 5 civilians were killed as an indirect result of anti-aircraft fire: 3 were lost in car crashes in the post-combat chaos, Two people suffered a heart attack due to the extreme stress from the air raid that lasted more than an hour. The event made the front pages of all newspapers along the Pacific coast of the United States and was covered by many national media outlets.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the incident. Photo: Los Angeles Times
According to the official view from the US government, this incident was a form of “false alarm”, caused by a weather balloon operating in the area. It was this airship that “triggered a series of air strikes”. All in all, this incident is a classic case of “war tension” caused by a lost weather balloon, exacerbated by pressure from attacks not long before. of the Japanese during the Pearl Harbor bombing and the bombing of Ellwood. It is also theorized that some commercial planes were used as psychological warfare to induce panic.
However, there are also many opposing opinions, making comments about a potential cover-up. Newspapers of the time ran a number of reports and conjectures about a potential cover-up.
For example, an editorial in the local Long Beach Independent newspaper said, “There is a puzzling and mysterious hesitation about the whole thing. There seems to be some form of censorship to prevent discussion of this issue.”
In a call for an investigation by Congress, Representative Leland Ford said, “…so far no explanation has been given that would remove this case from the list of ‘complete mysteries’.”
So far, there has not been a conclusion that has received support from many streams. Maybe it will continue to be a mystery, if it is not for valuable information from the witnesses themselves, who have experienced “air bombardment” and … witnessed the mysterious object in the sky with their own eyes. God.
The trick of moving wisely, hiding his actions in front of military radar
According to witness testimony at the scene, in the early morning hours of February 25, a mysterious object appeared in the air, flying by plane. low altitude. The object flew over the sea nearly touching the water, heading towards the city of Los Angeles at extremely high speed. From about 120 mph, the object has slowed down to 50 mph. It probably picked up probes from long-range trackers, or basic radar pickers.
The collection of witness statements scattered over many years shows that this object has moved into the radar ‘blur spot’ area, when it was only wandering around in the remote and uninhabited slopes along the northern edge of the Santa Mountains. Monica – an area about 25 kilometers from the city of Los Angeles. It then moved south, weaving its way through the interior spaces of the mountains, taking shelter behind the reach of most anti-aircraft guns and any radar or long-range listening devices. After flying out of the Santa Monica mountains, the object changed course slightly to the east, while maintaining an altitude of over 155 m over the neighboring Baldwin Hills, seemingly to avoid the attention of all both aircraft and weapons at Mines Airport (now Los Angeles International Airport).
Photo: ytimg.com
Giant Size: ‘Flying over our heads, but never ending’
Scott Littleton (1933 – 2010) was professor of anthropology at Occidental College. As a child, he lived in the waters of southern California, one of the places where this incident could be observed. Recalling the incident that day, he said:
“…this plane has certainly been descending steadily since leaving Baldwin Hill because when it flew over our heads, this object, whatever it was, was definitely not flying too high off the ground. This object was so massive, when it came out of the hills, it was so big that when it passed over our heads, we could only see the bottom, but not the sides — and it was a very long time after the object. This just flew over our heads.”
Prof. Scott Littleton. Photo: wp.com
Tik Karavas, a teacher at the Redonda Museum of History in Los Angeles County, was also an inside witness. He said that night, this object also flew over the head of the father and son. He said:
“My father, in 1929, had the opportunity to observe the Graf Zeppelin docking at Mines airport, even walking along the side and below this huge balloon. He used to say that the object that flew over our heads that night was as big as, or even larger, a Zeppelin. Growing up, I learned that the Zeppelin was 236 meters long, but I’m not sure how big the object that night was compared to this balloon.”
Tik Tok Karavas. Photo: Redondo History Museum
Graf Zeppelin airship visits Mines Airport in 1929. Photo: welweb.org
However, using the triangulation method on the whole black and white image (below), GS Littleton and his colleagues estimated the size of this object, and gave an even larger result. Zeppelin bridge.
Headlights shine on a strange object in the night sky over Los Angeles, accompanied by shelling, in the early morning hours of February 25, 1942. Photo: Los Angeles Times
Gs Littleton came to the conclusion that:
“From the width of the beams directed at the object, … my partner Frank Warren came to the conclusion that it must have been much larger, with a length of up to about 243 m. I agree with this estimate.”
Unique shape, no sound
This object also has a very special shape and structure. Tik Karavas said:
“On close contact with it, I realized that the object was not as round as the Zeppelin, but wide and flattened or slightly curved toward the center along the bottom from the side. It curves as it goes towards the top, rather like an upside down shovel. From where I see it, it has no rib structure or upper body structure. It has no characters, symbols or numbers on its body. There are no openings, windows, hatches, seams, or light holes. There are also no propellers, external motor motors and especially no sound. And it also has no wheels, wings, or tail (for balance in normal aircraft), although it is still capable of flying up and down, as well as accelerating or flying slowly, so slow that it is almost impossible to fly. floating in the air, not moving at all.”
And he added:
“The fact is, I don’t know what kind of energy this object used to move. But I know that, although its shape is quite similar to a Zeppelin, its behavior is quite different. The Zeppelin airship is lighter than other drones, and it has a certain “physical buoyancy” in the air, [so it looks quite elegant and light]. But this object has the appearance of a warship. It looks like it’s moving quite heavily.
This object is superficially similar to the Zeppelin airship, but there are still differences. Photo: mundogump.com.br
Another problem is, it doesn’t make any sound. Totally silent, which is strange because anything teleporting this large that I’ve ever seen — locomotives, planes, ships — emits a lot. sound”.
The inspiration for the design of the UFO in the once famous movie
Another witness to mention is a young man named Albert Nozaki.
That night, Nozaki was guarding a friend’s field from potential vandals, when he suddenly came across the object in the distance.
In the night sky with soft light, from the west of the field, a rather large dark flying object gradually approached him at a fairly rapid speed… It was quite large, pitch black, and very long and wide but not luminescent and windowless [a solid black mass]. Although it had wings that jutted out from the sides like an airplane, its sides were drooping [indicating an aerodynamic structure very different from conventional aircraft].
Not only that, instead of feeling a soft ‘oo’ vibrating in his chest as it flew by. As with other types of motorized devices, this object does not emit any sound.”
Years later, the young Nozaki became the Oscar-nominated art director for a film about Martians invading Earth. The movie is called “War of the Worlds”, based on the novel of the same name by British writer HG Wells. In the film, he is in charge of designing the aircraft of the invading Martians.
An interesting detail to mention: In an interview, Nozaki said that he incorporated some of the “spooky” elements of the flying object he had seen in the old witnessing incident into the design of the machine. his Mars flight, such as the curving shape of the object’s body, to portray the fear he experienced that year when he saw the jet-black object close to him — as if he were about to be crushed. it arrests. In addition, he also wants to portray the mystery behind the ability to hover in the air, perhaps because it is equipped with some kind of technology that we do not know.
Albert Nozaki next to a model of the Martian invasion plane. Photo: wp.com
Poster for the movie “World War” in 1953. Photo: amazon.com
The Martian plane invades Earth. A scene from the movie “World War”. Photo: eastman.org
In Wells’ original novel, these machines stand upright on three robotic legs. But in the movie they can stand upright and “walk” thanks to 3 “stealth” robot legs.
And in the movie, these machines can withstand a series of guns and anti-aircraft guns of the Earth people, thanks to an invisible protective shield.
In fact, the formidable defensive ability of the Martian plane is exactly what the US military has seen firsthand. This object has received thousands of anti-aircraft bullets, but still appears to be unharmed. It then moved into the distant sky, then disappeared.
1400 rounds escaped, the object remained unharmed
Despite the fact that about 1440 anti-aircraft rounds were fired into the air, whatever was “up there” stood up to the barrage of fire. It eventually escaped without any sign of damage.
In this respect, Professor Scott Littleton said, that night he and his mother observed this object. It became the focus of floodlights from all around, surrounded by heavy but futile anti-aircraft fire. As calmly as that, it flew across the sea from the northwest to the southeast, before disappearing at the eastern end of a neighboring hill.
Mr. Tik Karavas, a teacher at the aforementioned local museum, had a similar experience:
“During the entire process, this object did not pose any threat except by causing a large area of power outage [actually a power outage], igniting anti-aircraft fire across the city at the same time. directly received about 1440 anti-aircraft rounds before escaping unharmed.
Karavas said that night the sound of gunfire, sirens, and headlights were ringing, illuminating the area, so even though it was only 2-3 a.m., his entire family and most as everyone in the surrounding neighborhood can clearly observe this object.”
Anti-aircraft artillery in World War II. Photo: townnews.com
According to military data, nearly 1500 shells were fired. It is estimated that the total amount of this ammunition could be up to 10 tons, falling “like water” on the city of Los Angeles and the surrounding area.
The Great Los Angeles Air raid is one of the most famous UFO sightings in history. Although this incident still surrounds it with many controversies with many different theories today, the large number of eyewitnesses have provided a more objective view of the real cause of this air raid.
