Battle of Los Angeles

Battle of Los Angeles. Page B of the February 26, 1942, Los Angeles Times, showing the coverage of the Battle of Los Angeles and its aftermath. editing by sookietex. More about this image and story at Public Domain Clip Art - http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/2015/02/battle-of-los-angeles.html

Initially, the target of the aerial barrage was thought to be an attacking force from Japan, but speaking at a press conference shortly afterward, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called the incident a "false alarm." Newspapers of the time published a number of reports and speculations of a cover-up.

Some modern-day UFOlogists have suggested the targets were extraterrestrial spacecraft. When documenting the incident in 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History attributed the event to a case of "war nerves" likely triggered by a lost weather balloon and exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from adjoining batteries.

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