Battle of LA - Army Fires on UFO in 1942, page 6

No, I'm not saying they were firing at nothing. There were many, many reports that night of groups of aircraft flying overhead. Marshall's report even mentioned aircraft. Maybe there is an aircraft where those beams converge but the film got saturated with all that light from the timed exposure.

from www.ufo.it...

After the firing started, careful observation was difficult because of drifting smoke from shell bursts; yet it was a clear weather night. The acting commander of the anti-aircraft artillery brigade in the area testified that he had first been convinced that he had seen fifteen planes in the air, but had quickly decided that he was seeing smoke.

It looks like aircraft sightings and blackouts were common after the Perl Harbor attack. Here's another excerpt from the source I quoted above:

On December 8, 1941 at 6:00 PM, the first air-raid warning of the night was sounded when air invaders were first detected 100 miles due west of the Golden Gate. First reparts stated that there were 50 planes but later reports gave a smaller number. They were thought tobe planes from a carriet Some of them were thought to have entered the Bay Area and headed southwest.The next night San Francisco underwent two alarms, the first at 1:45 AM,and then again at 2:02 AM. A Uackout was called for and almost immediately planes were heard in the sky all roundthe Bay Area. Another alert came at4:05 AM. Lt. General John L. DeWitt warned that there was a real attack by enemy planes and that California should be prepared. Wednesday December 10, 1941, allof Southern California and the area from Las Vegas to Boulder Coloradowere blacked out shortly after 8 PM. Anti-aircraft gunners were put on alert. Invading planes were reported in the Los Angeles area and south ofthe city. One of the longest blackouts of the war came on December 12th, at 7:20PM. Invading planes were first detected offshore; the first reports came from San Mateo. Invisible, they could be heard as they roared low over the tall buildings inSan Francisco' business district. Many reports during the blackouts were from people who heard planes overhead and assumed they were either Japanese planes or our own planes inpursuit. We know they were not ourplanes. If they were not Japanese planes, Wednesday December 10,1941, all of Southern California and the area from Las Vegas to Boulder Colorado were blacked outshortly after 8 PM. Anti-aircraft gunners were put on alert. Invading planes were reported in the Los Angeles area and south of the city.

The people of the west coast were paranoid of a Japanese attack, and rightly so. Look at all the nervousness and false alarms in the first few weeks after 9/11. There may even be something to the sightings of a large, slow moving object in the sky that night.

I'm not disputing that this event occured or that there were unknown objects in the sky that night, I just don't think we're seeing a pic of a flying saucer caught in searchlights. I think the picture has a shape that is suggestive of a flying saucer, so that is what our brain immediately interprets the object to be. Like when people see Jesus in a stain on the sidewalk, or Satan in a cloud of smoke. Some of the WTC pictures that show 'helicopters' and 'UFO's' above thw towers are just billows of smoke.

There are some cases that truly defy explanation that I believe are genuine UFO's. But I'm always skeptical at first. The sheer number of reports of flights or waves of aircraft greatly outweighs the number of reports of a slow, low flyer in this incident.

historynet.com...
The article above is an interesting one with more information than what the typical UFO sites give. It talks about how many Japanese-American citizens were arresting during and after the raid for signalling to the aircraft. There were reports of an aircraft plant being bombed but no damage was done to the plant. It also lists many witnesses who saw groups of aircraft in the sky.

I saw a website the other night that I can't find now which was an autobiography of a high ranking army officer who was in the area at the time. From the reading, it sounded like he was placed in charge of coastal defense for the west coast. He mentioned the 37th CA several times in the chapter I read. What was interesting is that he mentions barage baloon teams that were positioned up and down the coast. Maybe the reports of a large, slow moving object were simply a barage baloon?

I can find lots and lots of witness accounts that describe seeing formations of aircraft, and some that mention baloons, but none that mention anything that seems unusual, as in UFO activity.

Some of the sources I've found (like the last link I posted) mention there was a Congressional investigation into the incident because Congress was upset that all this damage had been done on the ground when the Navy official stated that there were no aircraft, it was just a mistake. I'm sure if we dig we can find the findings of the Congressional hearing. That may clarify things.

(edited to fix a missing /quote tag)

[edit on 15-4-2005 by PeanutButterJellyTime]