Anti-air shelling during WWII in Los Angeles, CA, against apparently nothing
A false alarm anti-aircraft barrage over Los Angeles in 1942 exposed wartime anxiety and military incompetence shortly after Pearl Harbor.
Key Facts
- Date
- February 24–25, 1942
- Trigger identified (1949)
- Meteorological balloon sent aloft at 1:00 am
- Official assessment (1983)
- War nerves triggered by lost weather balloon
- Navy Secretary's verdict
- False alarm, per Secretary Frank Knox
- Context
- Less than 3 months after U.S. entered WWII
- Preceding event
- Bombardment of Ellwood, CA, February 23, 1942
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Heightened war anxiety gripped the U.S. West Coast following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and a Japanese submarine shelling of Ellwood near Santa Barbara on February 23, 1942. A meteorological balloon released at 1:00 am on February 25 triggered nervous gunners to open fire.
From late February 24 to early February 25, 1942, U.S. anti-aircraft batteries unleashed a sustained artillery barrage over Los Angeles in response to what gunners believed was a Japanese aerial attack. No enemy aircraft were present; once firing began, observers reported imaginary targets throughout the sky and nearby batteries joined in.
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox promptly declared the event a false alarm, but newspapers speculated about a government cover-up. The incident became a widely cited example of wartime incompetence and mass panic, later officially attributed to war nerves exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from neighboring batteries.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent