The Night Los Angeles Fought Nobody (1942) #shorts

In Feb 1942, Los Angeles blacked out and fired over 1,400 shells at "enemy planes." No bombs fell. No wreckage was ever found. 🔦 The Battle of Los Angeles happened on the night of Feb 24-25, 1942, less than three months after Pearl Harbor and one day after a Japanese submarine shelled the Ellwood oil field near Santa Barbara. Radar picked up unidentified aircraft, a blackout was ordered, and searchlights locked onto a glowing object above Culver City. Anti-aircraft batteries fired for about an hour. Falling shell fragments damaged buildings and cars, and five civilians died in the chaos from accidents and heart attacks. No enemy aircraft were ever found, and Japan later reported that it had not sent planes over Los Angeles. The Army and Navy disagreed publicly, and historians generally point to war nerves, and possibly stray weather balloons, as the cause. 📚 Sources: - US National Archives records on the 1942 incident - Army Air Forces historical study of the Los Angeles air raid - Los Angeles Times archives, Feb 25, 1942 🔔 Follow for more WWII stories they never taught you. #WWII #BattleOfLosAngeles #History #HistoryShorts #WeirdHistory #Shorts #AncientHistory #Civilizations #Documentary #HistoryDocumentary