1942 · Los Angeles, California
The Battle of Los Angeles
WhenFebruary 25, 1942
WhereLos Angeles, California
Backing3 independent
Evidencedocuments, official records
Weeks after Pearl Harbor, air-raid sirens woke Los Angeles. Searchlights locked onto an object over Culver City and anti-aircraft batteries fired roughly 1,400 shells at it for about an hour. Nothing fell from the sky and no aircraft was ever identified. The famous Los Angeles Times photo shows beams converging on a shape that seems untouched by the barrage.
Evidence, in date order (3)
- 1942Los Angeles TimesdocumentPhotograph of searchlight beams converging on an object untouched by the barrage Wikipedia: Battle of Los Angeles
- 1942CBS radiodocumentReport of the air raid broadcast at the time Army vs. UFO, 1942: film with the CBS radio report
- 1942U.S. ArmyofficialInsisted something had been in the sky, against the Navy secretary's "false alarm" Wikipedia: Battle of Los Angeles
How plausible · High
The Army barrage over Los Angeles is fully documented and the Army maintained something was there; no aircraft was ever identified.
- ●●Access Army gunners and the city.
- ●●No gain sought Official.
- ●●Character record Army command.
- ●●Independent convergence Thousands of witnesses.
- ●●Checkable details check out Army records; LA Times photo.
- ●●Fits the documented skeleton Documented.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.
On the record
- Army anti-aircraft fire over the city is fully documented, and several people died from shrapnel, accidents and heart attacks.
- The Navy secretary called it a 'false alarm', while the Army insisted something had been there.
Claims
A large craft hovered calmly through the shelling.speculationSourced, unconfirmedbelievers
Grusch and others place it among early encounters the government knew about.speculationSourced, unconfirmedGrusch and others
Where
Los Angeles, California
34.0°N 118.3°W
In The picture
The pictureThe atomic bomb woke it up. Foo fighters, the ghost rockets and Los Angeles 1942 came first, then Roswell in 1947, the green fireballs over Los Alamos, Washington DC in 1952, the radar-tracked intercept at Lakenheath in 1956, Malmstrom in 1967, Rendlesham in 1980 and the activity around nuclear sites ever since. The …
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Connected cases
Threads · click one to see it on the board
Sources
- Wikipedia: Battle of Los Angeles
- Army vs. UFO, 1942: film with the CBS radio report
- UFOs Revisited: The Battle of Los Angeles