BONUS: The Battle of Los Angeles (UFO/UAP)

[00:00:02] From the darkest reaches of space, to the deepest corners of your mind. Welcome to From The Void.

[00:00:19] At this point, even non-UFO enthusiasts are at least somewhat familiar with the famous Tic Tac video, or the Go Fast video, or have at least heard of the Roswell incident or the Phoenix Lights.

[00:00:30] But how many of you are familiar with the Battle of Los Angeles?

[00:00:34] The so-called Battle of LA was witnessed by thousands and is still shrouded in mystery to this day.

[00:00:40] Let's get into the details and we'll talk through the various theories.

[00:00:43] The Battle of Los Angeles took place just a month after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the entrance of the United States into World War II.

[00:00:50] The attack on Pearl Harbor took place on December 9th, 1941, and both the general public and the U.S. military were convinced that it was only a matter of time before the mainland was attacked.

[00:01:00] It wouldn't be long before that fear was confirmed, albeit on a smaller scale than most expected.

[00:01:05] U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson had warned Americans that they should prepare for, quote,

[00:01:10] occasional blows from enemy forces.

[00:01:12] And mere days later, on February 23rd, 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, and fired over a dozen artillery shells at an oil field and refinery.

[00:01:25] Even though the attack resulted in no casualties and very little damage, it fed the fears that already existed within the public consciousness.

[00:01:33] Additionally, it marked the first time the mainland had been bombed during World War II.

[00:01:37] A day later is when things escalated to an entirely different level.

[00:01:41] On the evening of February 24th, 1942, Naval Intelligence instructed units on the California border to prepare themselves for a potential Japanese attack.

[00:01:51] And in the early morning hours of February 25th, military radar actually picked up what appeared to be an enemy contact about 120 miles west of Los Angeles.

[00:02:02] Air raid sirens and a citywide blackout were quickly put into effect.

[00:02:05] And within minutes, troops scrambled into place and manned the anti-aircraft guns and began sweeping the skies with searchlights.

[00:02:13] Just after 3am, the shooting began. Multiple batteries opened fire in Santa Monica, at which point, quote, the air over Los Angeles erupted like a volcano.

[00:02:23] Once the firing began, it became nearly impossible to obtain reliable reports.

[00:02:28] Reports coming in from both military and civilian witnesses described anywhere from a single aircraft to as many as 50.

[00:02:35] When it was all said and done, the U.S. military fired over 1,400 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition into the sky.

[00:02:43] In the end, there were no aircraft recovered and no bombs dropped.

[00:02:47] The extent of the damage done was a result of falling debris from the anti-aircraft ammunition and car crashes due to the blackout and general panic.

[00:02:55] The entire incident lasted a little over an hour.

[00:02:58] But in the days following, confusion continued to reign as newspapers reported on what had occurred.

[00:03:03] And even the military itself couldn't seem to agree.

[00:03:06] Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, chalked it up to a false alarm brought on by, quote, jittery nerves.

[00:03:12] Whereas Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, sided with army brass in saying that at least 15 planes had buzzed the city.

[00:03:19] According to a letter written by coastal artillerymen named Charles Patrick, quote,

[00:03:23] I could barely see the planes, but they were up there all right.

[00:03:27] I could see six planes and shells were bursting all around them.

[00:03:30] Naturally, all of us fellows were anxious to get our two cents worth in.

[00:03:34] And when the command came, everybody cheered like a son of a gun.

[00:03:38] After the end of World War Two, Japan said that they had no planes in the area at the time of the raid.

[00:03:43] In order to even launch planes, the Japanese Navy would have had to have gotten fairly close to the coastline, which would have been spotted.

[00:03:50] So a Japanese raid seems unlikely.

[00:03:53] Another theory put forth by the military in 1983 is that it was a false alarm kicked off by a weather balloon, which I know we all love when the military blames it on balloons.

[00:04:03] But it's definitely a possibility.

[00:04:05] The third theory is perhaps the least likely but the most entertaining of them all.

[00:04:09] The fact remains that something was spotted on radar before all the shooting began.

[00:04:14] But what was it?

[00:04:16] Could it have been a UFO?

[00:04:18] It's not as far fetched as you'd think.

[00:04:21] There are actually numerous reports from World War Two pilots encountering strange objects in the sky.

[00:04:27] In fact, one of my favorite bands got their name from the nickname pilots gave these objects.

[00:04:32] Foo Fighters.

[00:04:33] The name Foo Fighter came from a popular firefighter cartoon called Smokey Stover.

[00:04:38] Many of the reports came from the end of the war from the 415th Knight Fighter Squadron, who were engaged in dogfights over the German-occupied Rhine Valley.

[00:04:47] Pilots began to report strange lights following their aircraft.

[00:04:51] They described seeing bright orange lights flying through the air at high speed.

[00:04:55] More and more pilots reported seeing similar objects of red or orange or green, either appearing one at a time or as many as 10 in formation.

[00:05:04] The even more confounding fact is that these objects often outmaneuvered the planes the pilots were flying and never showed up on radar.

[00:05:12] The reports were largely blamed on battle fatigue or explained away by saying the pilots had actually seen St. Elmo's fire, a natural occurrence.

[00:05:19] But these pilots were the best of the best who rejected all of these theories.

[00:05:23] They'd seen St. Elmo's fire before and knew it didn't move in the way they'd seen these objects move.

[00:05:28] In the end, the CIA took the report seriously enough to form a panel of six top scientists in the area of experimental aviation technology to determine if the lights constituted a national security threat.

[00:05:40] So in light of everything we now know as of 2024, is it as much of a reach as it once was?

[00:05:47] The US Navy has now publicly acknowledged that UFOs exist, but have stopped short of speculating on where they might be from or who may be piloting them.

[00:05:56] So, was the Battle of LA caused by a UFO UAP that was here to observe?

[00:06:02] Or was it a weather blend?

[00:06:03] I'll let you be the judge.

[00:06:06] Thanks for listening to From the Void.

[00:06:07] We'll be back next week with an all new mystery.

[00:06:10] And until then, happy Halloween.