WW2 Battle of Los Angeles vs Japanese?

Question

Hi, This has got to be the most secret situation I ever heard of. I guess people didn't want people to know that there were Japanese aircraft in California and Japanese Subs in US waters off the California Coast. How many aircraft were shot down? Is this still being treated as a UFO thing? How many prisoners of war were taken? I know that they took POW's - Did they launch an airstrike? what targets were hit? Any books on this subject? Thanks

this was a real event - with real photographs taken - there was a real submarine that attacked an airfield, etc.

I honestly do not think this was a UFO - they didn't want people to panic. They shot down the aircraft fast - 2000 rounds fired. unfortunately 6 people died from the rounds.

witnesses on the ground reported anywhere between 5 and 25 Japanese planes. Were they just full of it? It seems to conflict the evidence. The weather balloon story fits the picture also. No matter what they wanted to keep it quiet. I mean would they just fire 2000 rounds into a weather balloon? I mean would they just not know it was a balloon? I mean 6 people DIED from the shelling. It's crazy.

Answer 1

yes this was a real event no it is not like you described. A Japanese sub shelled a fuel depot in Santa barbara the night before the great Battle of Los Angeles. The people were so sure this was a prelude to an invasion as pearl harbor had only been 2 weeks before they thought everything was a jape plane or ship. The results of this paranoia was a false alarm that was treated like the real thing unfortunately all that shell fire had to come down some where that somewhere being the citizens of LA. There were several wounded and killed by falling fragments. Much later in the war a plane was sent from a sub to drop phosphorous bombs on the California forest to start massive forest fires it didn't work out. The plane returned safely the attack wasn't repeated. the Japanese did sink several ships of California but never landed troops. They never lost any ships or planes. this whole story was parodied in the movie 1941.

Answer 2

In an incident now known as the West coast air raid or the The Battle of Los Angeles, the U.S. Army fired several thousand anti-aircraft shells into the air over Los Angeles, California during the night of February 24-25, 1942. The target was later officially determined to be a lost weather balloon, although this was doubted by some.

Answer 3

I never heard of aircraft making it to the US mainland

However there was a real incident where a Japanese sub surfaced off the coast of California and fired its deck gun at the oil reservoirs there. they missed because they were out of range and a few of the shells were duds.

The sub then submerged and disappeared.

The only aircraft incident I am aware of was the "second attack on pearl harbor" about a year after Pearl harbor, a lone "Betty" Bomber flew over Honolulu and dropped a bomb which hit an uninhabited hill side causing no damage.

Are you talking about the balloon bombs?

the ones Japan made to fly over the pacific north west and drop incendiary bombs?

only one of those made it, it crashed in Washington I believe, a family on a hike came across the device and accidentally set it off, killing them.

And there was a plan to use sub/aircraft carriers to launch a suicide mission against the panama canal. But the plans were scraped when the subs were destroyed.

other than that I was not aware of planes attacking LA.

Answer 4

There's a movie on it, it's a little brash at times, but very funny. It's called 1941. It should help more than anything else I know of.

Answer 5

Godzilla movies are good only if you're really drunk.