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The Battle of Los Angeles was a military engagement focused on the skies above Los Angeles, California, on the night of February 24, 1934 and the wee hours of the morning of February 25. The 'battle', which occurred three months after the attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, has gone down in history both as one of the strangest military engagements and one of the most famous cases of wartime hysteria in American history.
Description[]
On the night of February 24, the Office of Naval Intelligence, fueled both by wartime paranoia and the knowledge that Japanese submarines had destroyed oil installations on the coast of California, issued a public announcement warning Californians that an attack on mainland cities could hypothetically be expected within the next ten hours given the Navy's current information. The tension caused by this among California residents would come to a peak at 2:25 AM on the morning of the next day when strange objects were seen in the skies above Los Angeles. Air raid sirens began blaring and the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade opened fire on the object. Searchlights frantically searched for this mysterious aircraft, anti-aircraft shells were fired near constantly, and over 1400 rounds in total were fired over the course of the next two hours. At 7:21 AM, the city's blackout was lifted and the 'battle' was officially considered over. The event resulted in five fatalities, three who died in car accidents amidst the panic and two who died of heart attacks due to the stress.[1] After the event, the Japanese government and military vehemently denied having flown any aircraft over Los Angeles on that date.
Interpretations[]
In the decades since the engagement, there has been a great deal of discussion over what exactly happened. The biggest fear and most common conclusion during the event itself was that the object was some sort of Japanese aircraft attempting to engage in a bombing raid on the city at night. The fact that the Pearl Harbor attacks had occurred only three months prior, not to mention the attacks on the oil installations, made this a very real possibility that, if true, would no doubt have dragged the United States even further into the war. Those with a more conspiratorial mindset have claimed to this day that the object being fired on that night was an extraterrestrial craft of some kind, oftentimes by using doctored versions of the famous photograph to make it more closely resemble a flying saucer.[2]
The most common suggestion, and the one endorsed by most historians knowledgeable on the subject, is that the incident was caused by a combination of mistaken identity (the culprit likely being meteorological balloons), wartime paranoia, and overactive imaginations.[3]
Popular Culture[]
Film[]
- The 2011 science fiction-action film Battle: Los Angeles was loosely inspired by the 'alien invasion' hypothesis and takes its name from the event. Doctored versions of the original photograph and Los Angeles Times article were even used as part of the film's viral marketing.