What You Don't Know About The 1942 Battle Of Los Angeles UFO Event ...by Bill Knell
The now infamous Battle Of Los Angeles, California, began on the night of February 24, 1942 and continued into the early morning hours of February 25, 1942. The timing was perfect to blame this event on the Imperial Japanese forces. It was just three months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and just one day after a Japanese submarine surfaced and used a deck gun to shell an oil refinery near Santa Barbara. However, these events really have nothing to do with the L.A. incident. Proof of that comes from other things that occurred within days of the incident.
Even before the oil refinery in Ellwood was shelled at least a dozen Defense Workers at several different factories located within one hundred miles of Los Angeles contacted authorities about seeing "unusual ariel phenomena", as one of them described it. Odd lights, no sound, low flying, sometimes remained stationary in the air and no hostile actions taken. These were the conclusions drawn from interviews conducted by the FBI. Within a day all that information was turned over to Naval Intelligence. Why? Not because this was considered a Navy problem. That obviously was not the case.
Over the years a number of U.S. Whistle Blowers have stated that it was the Navy that had the primary role of dealing with the "UFO problem" for the .U.S. Government. Specifically, Naval Intelligence. These include William Cooper, a former Navy Petty Officer, and William English, a former Green Beret who viewed a secret government report about UFOs known as Bluebook Report 13. With this in mind it is no surprise that it was Naval Intelligence that issued a warning about a potential attack on Los Angeles. How could they know that? They obviously had access to more sensitive information than just a few interviews with factory workers.
Today we are told that 1,200 rounds of ammunition were fired at one or more objects above L.A. in the early morning hours of February 25, 1942. The army initially said that around 5,000 rounds were fired during that incident. Given the amount of damage caused by the falling shells I tend to believe the Army's estimate. Even today we have no idea how many people were injured or killed, not to mention the property damage. Officially, six were killed. The important point is that after firing all that ammo at what appeared to be a large object hovering over the city, no aeriel objects were shot down. Add to that the fact that the next day Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, claimed the entire thing was a "false alarm".
After reviewing both American and Japanese war records a 1949 Statement from the Navy said that it was a weather balloon that hovered above L.A. and caused the false alarm. Wow, that must have been a very sturdy balloon! They also concluded that Japanese Forces were not involved in any way. Almost immedtely after the L.A. event another incident occurred in the San Gabriel Mountains. Sometime around February 26-27, 1942 a caravan of cars, trucks and troops headed towards an area near the San Gabriel Mountains. Their mission was to recover some odd material that might be related to the L.A. event.
I heard this story in 1993 from Richard Stone (not his actual last name), a former Navy Seal and Special Forces Operator. He heard it from his father who was an officer in the Army in those days. His dad told him the story in the late 1980s when he was dying of cancer. He had kept the secret all those years, but after watching a TV show called "UFO Cover-Up Live" he decided to tell his son. I'll call his dad Jay. He was stationed in the Los Angeles area and became part of a rapidly assembled group to look into reports of a downed aircraft.
Jay knew this was no ordinary assignment because he found himself in the company of Army, Army Air Force, Navy and Marine officers and troops. The group of around three hundred also included some civilian government employees, Navy Medical personnel and Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy. No press. The Navy ran the show. When they arrived at a certain point guards were posted and duties quickly assigned. Some sort of Special Forces troops had arrived much earlier to secure the crash zone. Jay and other officers were given assignments and put in charge of small groups, then sent into the crash area.
Amongst the rugged terrain was what seemed like thousands of pieces of odd material. From Jay's description it sounded a lot like what was found at the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash. Flame and possibly ammunition resistant material that was strong, yet light and flexible. Despite that something had caused it to be shattered into a million pieces. I later heard from another source, a technologically saavy source, that certain experimental radar frequencies of the type being used at Roswell and some other bases might be able to somehow cause a UFO to malfunction and crash.
Jay and his group carefully searched the area for larger pieces of wreckage while other groups wearing special gloves picked up what had already been found. A short while later he and another group were called to another area where pieces of wreckage the size of several trucks were found. While Jay awaited further instructions he saw military photographers and medical personnel nearby talking to a couple of generals and Frank Knox. Everyone seemed distressed. A short time later what he assumed were four bodies were carried out of the wreckage, already in odd looking cloth bags. A strange odor like he had never smelled before accompanied the bodies.
Jay and his group were tasked with helping others load the larger pieces of wreckage onto trucks. They were all made to put on fire suits and wear heavy gloves. When they all gathered at a Meetup area later Jay noticed that a buddy of his and fellow officer had headed up the team that collected and bagged the bodies. Jay approached his friend with a smile on his face. The guy immediately waved him off saying, "Don't ask." After several days the job was done. Jay and most others were transferred to different assignments after that and warned in no certain terms that they were never to speak about what they did or saw during that short mission.
Jay never saw his buddy again and did not try to locate him. I don't know if this was related to the L.A. event, but Jay was certain that whatever was found during that mission was not something made by people on this planet. There were many more incidents during World War II involving UFOs the world over. So called Foo Fighters hounded Allied and enemy aircrafts. UFOs may have crashed or been shot down in Germany and Swedish Territory. It is not unreasonable to suspect that Frank Knox had a lot more on his mind than the war. In 1944 he died of a heart attack. James Forrestal, his successor, would have been the go to guy for Roswell and any other UFO crashes. He died in 1949 having committed suicide during treatment for mental illness at the Navy Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.
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CBS News Radio Report from 1942.
Bill Knell is a professional writer. Although semi-retired, he still accepts various writing assignments. Articles on most any topic are his specialty. Bill is also a talented ghost writer for people who have an idea or story to tell without the skills to create a submittable book manuscript. Sorry, Bill does not accept term paper or technical writing assignments. Bill can be contacted on
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