UFO! The Real Life Battle of Los Angeles 1942

Was It The Greatest UFO Coverup Of All Time?

By TCC Team Member Dorraine Fisher

             1942 was a nervous year for the United States. It was still reeling from the shock of the bombing of Pearl Harbor the previous year. Everyone was on high alert and always looking to the skies for eminent threats. And ordinary citizens like Ernest Hemingway were asked to watch the oceans for enemy activity. Everyone was expected to do their part. But there’s another, more unusual war story from that period from California that exists in the underbelly of American society. One we don’t hear about so much.

            Early in the morning, around 3:00 AM, on February 2, 1942, the skies above Los Angeles were still  black when air raid sirens sounded in the city. And in light of the recent events, citizens fully expected to see raiding Japanese war planes overhead.  But instead of taking cover, many went outside to check the skies. But they never expected to see what they saw that morning.

            Hundreds of eye witnesses watched as, hovering above the skies of LA, was a giant UFO estimated to have measured 800 ft. across. Witnesses claimed it looked like a giant lantern hanging over the city.

            A total blackout of the city was ordered and the Army’s 37^th Coastal Artillery Brigade shined numerous spotlights onto the giant object in an attempt to see what they were dealing with.

             Witnesses, obviously mesmerized, described the scene.

            “It was just hovering there in the sky. It hardly moved. It looked like a lovely pale orange and about the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

            “I will never forget what a magnificent sight it was. Just gorgeous, and what beautiful colors!”

            Army aircraft were dispatched to attempt to destroy the object, and they pummeled it with anti-aircraft shells to no avail. The shells seemed to bounce off the surface of the object, doing no damage to it whatsoever.

             One eye witness stated, “It was like the Fourth of July only much louder. They were firing like crazy, but they couldn’t touch it.”

              However, on the ground, many injuries were reported and three deaths from the rain of shells ricocheting off the object’s surface. Three people were said to have suffered fatal heart attacks from the stress of the incident. And numerous buildings and other objects were damaged by flying shells.  The battle raged on and chaos ensued for an hour before the firing stopped, as the object seemed to float away and disappear.  The blackout order was lifted, and the all-clear was issued at 7:20 AM.

            The military was said to have believed it was a Japanese air attack, but Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox later is said to have reported it was a “false alarm.”

            The “attack” was reported by many newspapers in the days that followed, and many speculated about a military cover-up, but the whole incident seemed to disappear in the shadow of the world war and into remote history. And in 1983 the Office Of Air Force History finally stated the standard military response that it was likely a lost weather balloon.

            Really? That “balloon” obviously had a pretty hard surface to take so many hits and not be brought down by thousands of rounds of anti-aircraft shells.  Just sayin.’  *******

DF

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