In the early morning hours of February 25, 1942, the skies above Los Angeles erupted in chaos as anti-aircraft guns fired thousands of rounds at unidentified objects floating over the city. The incident, which became known as the Battle of Los Angeles, marked an unprecedented military response to unexplained aerial phenomena just months after the Pearl Harbor attack.
The night began with unusual radar signatures detected by operators at Fort MacArthur. At 2:15 AM, radar technician Robert Mills noted odd returns moving at speeds between 100 and 200 mph. These objects approached from the Pacific Ocean but displayed flight characteristics inconsistent with known aircraft of the period.
“The radar signatures pulsed strangely on our screens,” Mills wrote in his official report. “They would appear solid for several seconds, fade away, then reappear in a different location. I’d never seen anything like it during my three years of radar operation.”
By 2:25 AM, civilian defense spotters reported visual confirmation of unidentified objects near the coast. The first spotter, James Walder, described seeing “a large, silver-colored object, approximately 100 feet in diameter, moving slowly over Santa Monica Bay.” Within minutes, additional spotters confirmed similar sightings from multiple locations.
The 37th Coast Artillery Brigade quickly mobilized its forces. Colonel John Murphy ordered all anti-aircraft batteries to battle stations at 2:30 AM, and air raid sirens began blaring across Los Angeles County. The blackout order went into effect by 2:37 AM, plunging the city into darkness.
Lieutenant Sarah Martinez, who commanded a searchlight unit in Venice Beach, provided a detailed account of what happened next: “At 2:43 AM, my team illuminated a large object approximately 5,000 feet above the coast. The object appeared metallic and circular, with no visible propulsion system. When neighboring searchlight units converged on it, the object seemed to shimmer and became partially transparent.”
The military response escalated rapidly. At 3:16 AM, anti-aircraft batteries opened fire on the objects. Gun crews reported unusual phenomena as they engaged their targets. Sergeant Thomas Walker, commanding a gun emplacement in Culver City, stated: “Our shells burst right on target, confirmed by multiple spotters. But instead of causing damage, the explosions seemed to be absorbed by some kind of energy field around the object.”