Battle of Los Angeles: Evidence Towards And Against The Conspiracy Theory

Abstract

The essay provides evidence towards and against the conspiracy theory created about the Battle of Los Angeles that extra-terrestrial objects hovered the sky of Los Angeles and the anti-aircraft guns fired 1400 rounds of anti-aircraft artillery towards it. The research provided information that a memo was discovered claiming the existence of two unidentified aircraft. But according to the army generals the radar identified weather balloons and not any sort of aircrafts that night.

Battle of Los Angeles

“On February 25, 1942, an infamous false alarm saw American military units unleash a torrent of anti-aircraft fire in the skies over Los Angeles.” (Andrews, 2017)

The quote aptly describes what happened in Battle of Los Angeles. Anti-aircraft guns were being fired in the open sky without any target. According to reports, the guns fired 1430 rounds of antiaircraft artillery which showered 8.5 tons of shrapnel on the lands of Los Angeles (Dunning, 2009). These couple of months were very difficult times for America and its security. Recently, the Pearl Harbor attack took place where the Japanese Airforce had raided Pearl Harbor which resulted in very high casualties and property damage. Due to these recent events, entire Western coast of America was on high alert for imminent threat from the Japanese army (Dunning, 2009). On February 23 one Japanese submarine surfaced near Santa Monica and attacked an oil field marking it as the first-ever direct strike on the mainland. (Andrews, 2017)

The conspiracy theory developed on this battle is that some mysterious aircraft or extra-terrestrial aircrafts attacked the city of Los Angeles. Shooters claimed that they fired multiple shots at an aircraft, but those aircraft suffered no damage at all. In addition to that the details in photos released in the paper resemble an extra-terrestrial object claimed by witnesses (Lenoir, 2019) In addition to this the Marshal/Roosevelt Memo says that two unidentified aircraft have been recovered one at sea and the other east of Los Angeles. ( (Dunning, 2009)

Evidence against the proposed theory is that the military targeted a weather balloon. Anti-aircraft guns require meteorological balloon for reconnaissance every 6 hours. These balloons have red flare and the radar tracked this as an enemy aircraft under the influence/fear of imminent war threat. In addition to this all of this was just a huge mistake by the American army. The firing was a result of jittery nerves. Two days before this battle a Japanese submarine was sighted near Santa Monica raising the fear of war coming to the mainland at any time. Before the Santa Monica incident the attack on Pearl Harbor took place. (Lenoir, 2019) The Japanese air-force also claimed that they never flew any sort of aircrafts towards Los Angeles on the morning of February 25th. (Andrews, 2017)

Considering the above evidence, it is pretty clear that the conspiracy theory of UFO’s hovering above Los Angeles is just a myth created to intrigue the public and keep them from the ugly truth that the guns were fired at their own reconnaissance balloons and not at Japanese aircraft. The memo is the only proof of the existence of alien aircraft was declared fake by the FBI in 1988. (Dunning, 2009) The years of both the World Wars were very difficult for the citizens of all countries. The constant fear of death made their mindsets so weak that any information fed by the media was considered the sole truth and this was the reason that general people and the gunmen believed that they sighted large flying saucers and in this fear started firing at their own weather balloons.

Bibliography

1. Andrews, E. (2017, Feb 23). World War II’s Bizarre “Battle of Los Angeles”. Retrieved from History: https://www.history.com/news/world-war-iis-bizarre-battle-of-los-angeles
2. Dunning, B. (2009, Sep 15). The Battle of Los Angeles. Retrieved from Skeptoid Media: https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4171
3. Lenoir, A. (2019, September 21). Battle Of Los Angeles: The False Alarm That Left LA In Chaos. Retrieved from all that’s interesting: https://allthatsinteresting.com/battle-of-los-angeles