Battle of Los Angeles

In the early morning hours of February 25, 1942, military radar detected an unidentified contact about 120 miles west of Los Angeles. Air raid sirens sounded at 2:25 am, and the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade began firing over 1,400 shells between 3:16 am and 4:14 am. The Army's Western Defense Command later stated that no bombs were dropped and no planes were shot down, though five civilians died from car accidents and heart attacks during the chaos.

The incident occurred less than three months after Pearl Harbor and one day after a Japanese submarine had shelled an oil facility near Santa Barbara. That context shaped how military and civilian officials interpreted the radar signal and eyewitness reports that night.

What did radar operators detect?

Shortly after 2 a.m. on February 25, military radar picked up what appeared to be an enemy contact some 120 miles west of Los Angeles. The signal prompted the alert that sent searchlights sweeping across the sky and triggered the artillery response.

What did witnesses report seeing?

Eyewitnesses reported planes and lights in the sky. At 2:43 am, planes were reported near Long Beach. A few minutes later, a coast artillery colonel spotted about 25 planes at 12,000 feet over Los Angeles. At 3:06 am, a balloon carrying a red flare was seen over Santa Monica, and four batteries of anti-aircraft artillery opened fire. A photograph published by the Los Angeles Times on February 26 appeared to show searchlights converging on a disc-shaped object, though the image had been heavily retouched before publication. The original negative showed only faint lights and unclear shapes, with no definitive proof of enemy planes or a UFO.

What was the official conclusion?

The Army's Western Defense Command stated that no bombs were dropped and no planes were shot down. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called the incident a false alarm. Secretary of War Henry Stimson initially stated that 15 enemy aircraft had appeared over Los Angeles but later backtracked from that position. After World War II ended in 1945, the Japanese government declared that they had flown no airplanes over Los Angeles during the war.

How did investigators explain the incident?

In 1949, the United States Coast Artillery Association identified a meteorological balloon sent aloft at 1:00 am as having started all the shooting. The association concluded that once the firing started, imagination created all kinds of targets in the sky and everyone joined in. In 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History attributed the event to war nerves triggered by a lost weather balloon and exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from adjoining batteries. The Air Force analysis noted that anti-aircraft shell bursts, caught by the searchlights, were themselves mistaken for enemy planes.

What damage resulted?

The only damage came from friendly fire. Anti-aircraft shrapnel rained down across the city, shattering windows and ripping through buildings. Five civilians died as an indirect result: three were killed in car crashes in the ensuing chaos and two died of heart attacks attributed to the stress of the hour-long action.