How a UFO Caused the Battle of Los Angeles

[Music]. on february 25th 1942 at about 2 30 in. the morning the people of los angeles. were jolted awake by the sound of air. raid sirens the city was ordered to. black out and prepare for an attack. search lights sprang to life frantically. scanning the sky above the city for. enemy aircraft finally the lights. converged on a single object as. frightened citizens stepped out of their. homes to get a glimpse of the target the. sky erupted with hundreds of explosions. of fire smoke and steel the battle of.

los angeles had begun. [Music]. after the december 7th attack on pearl. harbor the entire west coast of the. united states was on edge henry stimson. the secretary of war warned that. american cities should be prepared for. attacks from enemy forces blackouts and. nightly curfews were common from alaska. all the way to san diego and rumors. circulated about japanese battle groups. invading the coast and of enemy spies. infiltrating the local population in the.

early morning of february 23rd just. weeks after the pearl harbor attack the. japanese submarine i-17 stalked off the. coast of santa barbara it quickly. surfaced fired 25 explosive shells at an. oil field then slipped back beneath the. sea though the physical damage was minor. the psychological message was clear. america's coast was vulnerable to any. attack at any time the word went out. from u.s military intelligence west. coast city should brace for an attack. within the next eight to twelve hours.

the entire la area was put on high alert. and early the following day just after 1. 30 in the morning a radar station picked. up a strange object in the sky over the. pacific about 200 miles from la by 2 am. two other radar stations confirmed the. object now only 120 miles off the coast. it was big moving fast and headed. directly for the city by 3 am the object. which was now reported as about 25. planes at 12 000 feet was just off the. coast of santa monica only a few miles.

from downtown l.a the city was ordered. to black out anti-aircraft batteries. were spun up manned loaded and told to. shoot on sight then suddenly the object. vanished from radar it disappeared well. from radar yes but visual sightings were. coming in from all over the city some. people reported seeing one large ship. others saw multiple aircraft flying in. formation at about 3 15 am the 37th. coast artillery brigade saw six planes. and for the next hour anti-aircraft.

explosions lit up the sky as shrapnel. rained on the city below sightings. continued to come in the large object. had turned south and eventually. disappeared over long beach at 4 14 am. all clear was sounded and a few hours. later the blackout order was lifted when. the sun came up and the smoke cleared. over 1400 high-explosive artillery. shells and countless 50 caliber rounds. had been fired several people on the. ground had been killed in car accidents. or died of heart attacks from the stress. of the barrage but there was no evidence.

of any downed aircraft no bombs had been. dropped the only damage was from. friendly fire so civilians and military. personnel alike were asking. what were we shooting at. [Music]. in the 80 years since the battle of los. angeles la has been one of the busiest. hot spots in the world for ufo sightings. and some of these reports come from. highly credible experienced military. sources and these sightings are covered. in project blue book the air force. program that investigated over 12 000.

ufos between 1952 and 1969 and project. blue book was able to identify the vast. majority of the sightings as birds. clouds. right out of the 12 000 cases there is. still 701 unsolved unexplained objects. that have been documented in project. bluebook of the 700 cases the object. over la in 1942 remains unexplained. i am here to discuss the so-called. flying saucers.

we have received and analyzed between. one and two thousand reports we've been. able to explain them as. hoaxes as erroneously identified. friendly aircraft as meteorological or. electronic phenomena or as light. aberrations. however there have been a certain. percentage of this volume of reports. that have been made by credible. observers. of relatively incredible things. we can say that the recent sightings are.

in no way connected. with any secret development by any. agency of the united states. a japanese air attack was the most. logical explanation. even though 250 anti-aircraft guns. filled the sky with explosions and. shrapnel there were no confirmed hits or. downed targets after the war the. japanese military claimed they had no. aircraft in the area at that time just. the one sub a local police officer. claims he saw two planes shot down but.

there was no evidence of that on the. ground secretary of the navy frank knox. said this was just a false alarm an. overreaction due to jitters but the army. disagreed they said the alert was. absolutely real the army report said as. many as 15 planes may have been involved. flying at various speeds and altitudes. the after action reports from the fourth. anti-aircraft command gives us a. timeline of what transpired that morning. at 2 43 am a gun officer reports. identified planes near long beach at 3.

28 am battery g of the 78th coastal. artillery reports at least 25 heavy. bombers in the area and at 3 33 am 15. planes are spotted there are 37 separate. military reports including one from a. colonel all saw something over la during. this time if this event was nothing more. than jitters why are there so many. eyewitness reports of something in the. sky and how does that explain three. separate radar hits radar tracked an. object for 45 minutes for over 100 miles.

so what was it well let's look at the. clues. [Music]. major keyhole what is your opinion of. these new sightings of unidentified. objects with all due respect to the air. force i believe that some of them will. prove to be of interplanetary origin. during a three-year investigation i. found that many police have described. objects of substance and high speed one. case polish reported their plane was. buffeted by an object which passed them. at 500 miles an hour obviously this was.

a solid object that i believe was from. outer space. supporters of the ufo theory say the. radar hits are absolute proof of a ufo. but remember this is 1942 radar. technology wasn't perfect a world war ii. radar system could be thrown off by. weather birds or any number of naturally. occurring phenomena in fact one of the. three radar operators reported the. target as being doubtful there's a 70. page report in project blue book of a.

ufo spotted just south of la a few years. later it was tracked on radar for eight. hours and seen by 30 people helicopters. and jets were dispatched to track it but. there was nothing there the official. report is radar was confused by the. weather and eyewitness accounts were due. to people's overreactive imaginations. skeptics say this is what happened in. 1942. dirty people imagine the same. thing that's the report ufo makes more. sense i can't disagree but what about. the famous photograph of the object over.

la this photo is printed in the la times. we can clearly see the searchlights. converging on something in the sky which. is in the shape of a saucer or football. but it turns out this photo was enhanced. and possibly retouched now this isn't. necessarily scandalous it was very. common to enhance photos to make them. more visible in newsprint the photo was. definitely doctored but it wasn't faked. but the original photo is very different. than what was printed it's underexposed. and doesn't really show anything besides. the lights which look very faint and.

there's no way to track the original. because the negative is gone the. negative that's in the la times photo. archives is not the original something. that's only recently been discovered. when investigators worked with the la. times to try to track down the original. they came to the conclusion that the. photo used in the la times isn't. actually a photo from an la times. photographer so where did it come from. nobody knows we can see that some of the. light beams go through the object but a. couple of the beams do stop if there was.

nothing in the sky wouldn't we expect. the light to continue into the distance. so if there's an object there why wasn't. it shot down by the ordinance that was. in the air that night well some people. say it was shot down and they claim they. can prove it. [Music]. the unidentified object moved slowly. down the pacific coast from santa monica. and disappeared south of long beach. several observers say they saw one or. more planes spotlighted by 20 or 30. searchlights shells frequently could be. seen bursting near the object but none.

appeared to hit it approximately 20. minutes after the firing died down the. ship returned and headed westward from. long beach towards santa monica then the. ship disappeared for the second time. over the ocean. some military historians and. investigators researching the battle of. los angeles believed something was. definitely in the air that night and the. answer is in the official report the. report from the fourth anti-aircraft. command reveals that large weather. balloons were launched at 3am i can't. believe it i know.

i know who's launching balloons in the. middle of a freaking attack now that's a. fair question but it was common practice. to check weather conditions in order to. assist anti-aircraft gunners with. targeting if there was a balloon over. los angeles it definitely would have. been spotted you had over 250 guns. pointed at the sky and there were over a. thousand civilian air raid wardens also. keeping watch they couldn't miss it so. the report claims when the commander. realized there was a weather balloon in. a hot zone he ordered it destroyed but.

once the shooting starts people are. going to panic and there's going to be. more shooting. story hey that's the theory. then what about all the reports of. planes and bombers and what have you. well there's no explanation for those. there are also multiple reports of an. actual crashed aircraft in the middle of. the city and this was confirmed by the. lapd's 77th precinct so. what do they find. now it's one thing to be a tinfoil hat. claiming to see a crashed ufo.

no offense. but it's another thing when there's an. actual police report about it but the. official government responses whatever. fell from the sky was likely shrapnel. and burnt embers from all the exploding. shells obviously the government had to. explain what happened especially with. this level of war paranoia but saying. this was an alien craft or even. admitting they didn't know what the. object was wasn't going to fly the late. dr robert wood believed there was a. cover-up he was an aerospace engineer.

who worked for sikorsky hughes mcdonald. douglas and lockheed the usual suspects. yep after he retired dr wood researched. and exposed majestic 12 and other secret. government projects he was sent five. leaked documents about the battle of los. angeles and at least one of them has. been authenticated one of the documents. is a memo between fdr and george. marshall the army's chief of staff it's. dated one week after the incident the. memo says that two craft were shot down. one over the ocean and another over the.

san bernardino mountains near la the. document reads this headquarters has. come to a determination that the mystery. airplanes are in fact not earthly and. according to secret intelligence sources. they are in all probability of. interplanetary origin well that settles. it aliens well not so fast the. government denies the memo that means. it's definitely true and dr wood. received photocopies not originals so. there's no way to test the paper or the. ink or authenticate them as genuine and. you really can't trust an anonymous.

source and it doesn't stop the media. that's a good point still there's no. conclusive evidence and this case 80. years later remains unsolved. so if there was a flying object in the. skies above los angeles in february 1942. to this day it remains unidentified. [Music]. thanks so much for hanging out with me. today my name is aj that's hecklefish. this has been the y-files if you had fun. or learned anything do me a favor and. like subscribe comment share that stuff.

really helps out a small channel and. until next time be safe be kind and know. that you are appreciated. [Music].