Searchlights and anti-aircraft fire over Los Angeles.
Late on February 24 and in the early hours of February 25, 1942, anti-aircraft guns in Los Angeles fired 1,400 shells at unidentified objects spotted in a sky illuminated by searchlights. Subsequently described as a false-alarm due to “war nerves,” the incident followed the shelling on February 23 of an oil-field near Santa Barbara by a Japanese submarine.
Three civilians were killed by the anti-aircraft fire in the so-called Battle of Los Angeles. A contemporary radio broadcast can be heard here. I learned all this researching the movie they’re shooting a block from my house which, it appears, will be quite bad.
