The Battle of Los Angeles 1942 : New Light on the Original Picture?

For those more interested in the conspiratorial angles on this case there is a MUFON document available : Click Here

a reply to: mirageman

So here is how I look at things on topics like this and something like Roswell.

For this. After looking at everything and will hear both sides, then skip the people saying it was this or that, in this case the photo is accurate or not. Don't care. What I do care about is from what I understand it was fired on for over an hour. I think that's pretty standard line. So it wasnt a ufo in the et since, ok. What exactly was in the air that could handle being hit for all that time? Doesn' t answer the question but what it does do is eliminate was it wasn't. If it was say a weather balloon or a blimp or even any type of standard aircraft or whatever and it took that long to bring it down or for it to fly away or whatever, We had some serious issues with the military being able to do the job of protecting against an attack. Big problem we talking incompetence or are we talking a true ufo even if it was not alien in nature.

Roswell, won't argue, but one question. I can't remember the troop level on site but it was quite a few for cleanup process. Part of project mogul or whatever great. Why did all those troops need to be on site for 2-3 days to cleanup a balloon and some dummies? Even getting some scientific readings, shouldn't have taken all those troops all that time. A good crash recovery military unit these can cleanup in matter of hours or less. Lot more complex than a balloon. Or even sometthing as simple as the people trusted to work with atomic weapons weren't competent enough to identify this stuff from the get go.

Basically some questions on these events with timelines, etc that just don't make sense. Does it mean they were alien, no. But it does mean taking these into account that accepted versions arent making sense. When a lie is told than whatever the following up is, will also be suspect.

Maybe I am understanding some stories wrong , maybe details are wrong, etc. If so my bad, if not. Need better than balloons or other stuff that only the most gullible could believe

a reply to: Reallyfolks

Why did all those troops need to be on site for 2-3 days to cleanup a balloon and some dummies?

Because those items were considered classified. They would have expended as many troops and as much time as needed to do a total cleanup.

originally posted by: Peeple
a reply to: mirageman

Very nice OP, S&F, i never heard of it before, shame on me...

Weather balloons and they were in full war fear and started firing at them? That would be funny and sadly it is the most likely explanation, still cool.

I just love those weather balloons that manage to stay in place and intact for hours on end despite thousands of rounds of shells exploding around them!

Most likely explanation?
Well, certainly not weather balloons.

I wanted to add something about war jitters. The Japanese had attacked and invaded a number of "Western Interests" around the Pacific Region. Each invasion was preluded by air raids. The raid on Pearl Harbor left America sure of two things, the west coast was wide open and invasion was imminent.

Anything might set off a response by nervous gun crews who weren't going to be caught off guard like Pearl Harbor was.

If something was seen or heard in the sky, a searchlight might switch on and probe the darkness, sweeping their brilliant arc across the sky, searching for that first indication that planes were overhead.

If the searchlight sweep stopped for whatever reason, another crew might turn on another light and shine it there, too. Then another. And then a gun crew fires a round, thinking the bright spot of intersecting lights was targeting something. As soon as the first round was fired, more gun crews assume that searchlights are indicating a target that is being fired upon. Other crews fire into the growing puffs of cloud which become a mass of cloud, brightly lit, slowly drifting with the wind, drawing ever more fire…

then everyone opens up in general, just like the first night over Baghdad in the first gulf war. They aren't sure what they are shooting at, just what everyone else is.

Filling the air with flak is better than not, if it turns out to be an actual raid, not firing upon the enemy might be deemed cowardice in the face of the enemy.

Better to pop off a few rounds and be safe. Better to fill the skies with flak at a time when panic was on the horizon.

Thinking about that, what would people do today if Pearl Harbor was blown up and the Russians or Chinese were hitting every western base in the Pacific and Asia?

Hmmm?

originally posted by: iskander683

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: mirageman

Given the incident happened during the beginning of WWII......

Actually, it's just a little thing but the beginning of WW2 was in September 1939, not 1942.

If you want to get all technical, you could even go further back to around 1936 when Japan invaded China. Is it really that big of a deal?

originally posted by: Gothmog
a reply to: Reallyfolks

Why did all those troops need to be on site for 2-3 days to cleanup a balloon and some dummies?

Because those items were considered classified. They would have expended as many troops and as much time as needed to do a total cleanup.

It takes that amount of time to roll a balloon up, gather aluminium foil and some dummies? And sorry while the project may have been classified none of the material was. Believe what you choose. Not a chance it was a balloon. I could buy top secret military craft, weapon, technology, satellite. Balloon and dummies, absolutely not. Been better to say classified military equipment. A balloon and dummies. Ok.

As Phage Said:

Here's a question. When did the first claims that the "Battle of Los Angeles" involved UFOs or ET show up? As has been pointed out, eyewitness reports varied wildly.

As a good Guess,

Right after the Claims of Foo Fighters later on during the war
as both sides, has claimed to have had contact with these UFOs,
thinking it was a secret weapon from the Enemy


as Apparently they didn't have a clue what was going on in the early
beginning of the war. and at the beginning

They " Los Angeles" were Oblivious of what war machines, the Americans had or the Enemy had for the War


OR .......


It could be just, some young Soldiers & Sailors have been reading too much of SCI FI Pulp Mags




The Question was there Any Description of what they were Firing At ?
well they had all the Aerial Spot Lights on the Dam thing

as some claimed ...

The Description of the Object from Supposed Eyewitnesses
ranges The Size from being from 16 feet to 80 feet long ,
looking Bell Shaped ( NAZI Vril !! ) LOL
Oblong to even Round Shape ( Foo Fighter, Weather Balloon ) ,
www.strangehistory.org...

I known This isn't a Great Source,

for as this was done up and put together by a Youtuber
but at least hit has 30 seconds of actual film of the object (in loops) ,
and it has the CBS Radio Report of what Happened that night

as the Main Focus is for that 30 seconded of film and the CBS Report , Ignore the Rest! P&T
www.youtube.com...

a reply to: mirageman

I'm going to echo other posters- jolly good sleuthing.

When those reports came through, it was in war time and hindsight is brilliant-redundant at times, but brilliant. The scared populace would've associated a strange light in the sky as the enemy first and not aliens (though B grade sci-fi movies of the time made perfect allegories.)

Maybe the wires were crossed somewhere in time.

Some over zealous person "thought" they saw something and started shooting.
This leads to other shooting because the other guy is shooting....

Nerves of Jello at that time.

Nice work OP !!
S&F

a reply to: iskander683
Beginning of WWII for america though...

originally posted by: DogMeat
Some over zealous person "thought" they saw something and started shooting.
This leads to other shooting because the other guy is shooting....

Nerves of Jello at that time.

Nice work OP !!
S&F

I could see that more with a bunch of gun users together. Not so sure about what was being shot for the amount of time that it was. Possible I guess but the whole weather ballon is flat out crazy.

Question for all you folks ,

is there any in existence of The a Script
a word for word of the CBS Radio Broadcast REPORT
of the Battle of Los Angeles ?

still searching, on the Net if there is one ,

added:

While I was listening to Bryan Palmer CBS Broadcast Report

I think he said the object went 25 miles in a half an hour

and the one of most interesting thing to me is ,
Artillery fire exploded detonated near the object but not hitting it ??
as that 30 sec of film clearly shows .. thats kinda odd ?


a little more

According to Bryan Palmer form CBS Radio

The Object came after and was noticeable after a blackout

Army planes took the the sky , to intercept?
The Army say the will NOT comment. until it has a full report

Shells can be seen burtsing near the object but not hitting it. ( Strange )

There was Jap Sub detected in area . the day before

According to bryan plamer the object appered twice. ?

a reply to: Wolfenz

I think AA shells are designed to explode near the object taking it down via shrapnel..if Im wrong someone will correct me, but if it was a balloon you would think it should of come down.
I really don't know what to think but lean towards as an earlier poster put it "war jitters"
Nice effort OP

Jittery public expecting Japanese attacks at any minute......

Have to remember the context this happened in

Japanese had launched surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, crippling much of Pacific Fleet. Then launched attacks
against Singapore and Philippines - over running them in matter of weeks. Invaded and conquered Dutch East
Indies (Indonesia) at same time

Japanese submarines were active off West Coast sinking ships and shelling coastal installations (Aka Santa Barbara oil field
Fort Stevens Oregon)

www.combinedfleet.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

Large Japanese I Class submarines carried small floatplanes

en.wikipedia.org...

Japanese had launched a second attack against Pearl Harbor using large flying boats refueled by submarines at isolated atoll north of Pear Harbor (Operation K)

en.wikipedia.org...
In September the I 25 launched its floatplane, which made two attacks dropping incendiary bombs with intent of starting forest fires - fires started were small and quickly contained

www.combinedfleet.com...

Later in 1044-45 Japanese sent some 9000 paper balloons - each carrying number of small fragmentation and incendiary
bombs across pacific to spread panic

About 10 % reached US territory - some as far east as Michigan. Only casualties were women and 5 children in Oregon
who discovered crashed balloon and set off its bombs

en.wikipedia.org...

Put together jittery public and military when someone spots strange light in sky (balloon, aircraft, bright star ......)

Sets off panic, guns start firing, soon everyone is shooting - at what nobody knows

Simple case of mass hysteria

I've always thought this was a genuine UFO case that was legit, without much question. After reading everything on this thread so far, I'm not so sure now.
It was during a tough time for everyone. Paranoia and war jitters were in the air.
As for the thing in the sky being shot at, I'm not really sure what to think of that. An interesting case that's always sparked good debate in the UFO community for years, and will continue to do so.

Maybe someone should try the new unblur filter in photoshop on these shots......... Looks like they suffer from correctable long exposure camerashake.

a reply to: Aliensun

Given the incident happened during the beginning of WWII

It was 1942 though, not 1939

a reply to: mirageman

Thank you very much for putting real effort into this thread. ( you clearly got the memo ). Whether this story is valid or not. Your OP gave many good details of that night. And Kudos for keeping up with this thread, answering back to other members post.

This is what I believe was the perpetrator. " RAYTHEON ". Been in existence since 1922. They specialized in radar technology.

www.raytheon.com...

The above link is the company.. I tried to link the wiki but it does not work. But they have been in the blimp business since VERY early on.

Here's the currant tech.

www.raytheon.com...

These blimps are being deployed over seas and will/has been serving as Early Warning Missile Tech as well as right here at Aberdeen Maryland. It's ( sketchy ).... first hand knowledge they had blimps during the time of the Battle Of L.A. WWII.

I also love this event because it happened on this "Day In History" February 25th. My birthday.



Good thread Sir/M'am.....

I think AA shells are designed to explode near the object taking it down via shrapnel

a reply to: vonclod

AA shells at this time were detonated by time fuses - set to explode certain time after firing

A fuse setter was part of battery equipment. It was linked into the range finder/predictor -
a primitive analog computer which calculated distance to target and them calculated time of flight

This was sent to fuse setter which turned a clockwork device on nose of shell to time from the predictor