The Battle of Los Angeles revisited

[aquatus1]

Firing at nothing but there own fears for hours on end. BULL! Come on guys. If all the search lights were on one spot then its pretty clear whether it is exploding AA shells or a solid object. Get off the grass!

Claiming that based on personal experience, I take it?

Or are you just guessing?

[Professor Buzzkill]

Even a monkey can tell the difference between a cloud and something solid

[aquatus1]

Even a monkey can tell the difference between a cloud and something solid

That explains all the humans that have mistaken clouds for UFO's.

Look, the simple fact of the matter is that at 3:00 in the morning, with air raid sirens blaring, and the radar bleeping, tensions are going to be high and people have a habit of shooting till they run out of ammo. It's happened before, it'll happen again.

[Czero 101]

That explains all the humans that have mistaken clouds for UFO's.

Look, the simple fact of the matter is that at 3:00 in the morning, with air raid sirens blaring, and the radar bleeping, tensions are going to be high and people have a habit of shooting till they run out of ammo. It's happened before, it'll happen again.

Lets also not forget that there was a general air of tension around that time. Naval Intelligence had issued a worning of a possible raid just hours before. As has been stated, it was only a few months after Pearl Harbour, Dolittle's raid hadn't happened yet, so the general feeling was that the Japanese were a formidable, almost untouchable enemy. Couple that with green troops on the guns (officers and grunts alike) with the still new technology of radar and you have an atmosphere ripe with tension and fear. The smallest thing could possibly set them off.

As to the searchlights, the beams are visible due to Rayleigh scattering, just as a laser pointer's beam (green lasers for example, which are typically used for star spotting in astronomy) is visible in the air. If you were to point 9 searchlights at the same spot, the area where the beams converge will appear to be brighter than the surrounding sky and the individual convergent beams. If by chance they were all focusing on either a low cloud or a flak burst, that brightness will make that cloud or flak burst look solid, and the beams would appear to "stop" at the cloud.

Cz

[:PsYKoTiC:BeHAvIoR:]

Well, if it was a Japanese airplane it sure made a wasted trip because it didn't shoot back, or drop any bombs.

I was thinking similarly. Japanese are known for being a kamikaze spectacle during that time as well.

[CurlyQLink]

Firing at nothing but there own fears for hours on end. BULL! Come on guys. If all the search lights were on one spot then its pretty clear whether it is exploding AA shells or a solid object. Get off the grass!

Wow, now that was quite an argument. So, you must have first hand knowledge on the psychological effects the trama of war had on the psyche of the soldiers and civilians alike. Please, enlighten me! (But put the doobie down first!)

[Professor Buzzkill]

Here is a radio report of a Blimp like object observed by many. I guess they all we seein things. Thats a much more likely explanation.

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP185xsDJ4s...feature=related

[CurlyQLink]

OK.....and? The report stated first unidentified aircraft, then mentioned planes, a possible blimb and more planes. They could have been shooting at a cloud for all I know. I wouldnt put alot of faith in news reports, as they always tend to sensationalize. They had reports of subs in the area and every one was very tense and looking for a fight. The first thing that moved, they opened fire. I still say it was nerves...

[aquatus1]

Here is a radio report of a Blimp like object observed by many. I guess they all we seein things. Thats a much more likely explanation.

It certainly is. Some were seeing clouds of smoke from the shells. Some where seeing imaginary enemies. Some weren't seeing anything but shooting anyway. All of these are things that we know to occur.

[Ashyne]

its actually very obvious what that 'craft' really is.

imagine that one searchlight thought that it spotted something in the sky and pointed the beam at it. in a dense, low-cloud-covered sky, the beam will cast a circular shape onto the bottom of the clouds. then, more searchlights are focused on that spot in the sky, presumably because the first searchlight team alerted the other searchlight teams of an alleged enemy plane in the sky.

as more and more searchlights are focused on a single point, a very bright spot will appear on the bottom of the clouds and take the appearance of a UFO. this explains why radar didn't pick up the 'object' and why anti-air shells did not manage to bring down the 'object'.

i have seen such similar shapes occasionally in real life and they look exactly like UFOs, especially if a car's headlights illuminate the clouds as it moves.

[bbdll18]

Radar was in its infancy then. Anything could have set it off. How about nerves? It was only a few days after Pearl harbor and the populace was on edge.

I agree with radar in its infancy. We couldn't really call it a software glitch either. 1942!! Computers took up entire rooms. Everything was in its infancy. To me, the close up image resembles the "craft" from the old 1953 version of "War of the Worlds". I realize that this was 11 years after this so called incident, which was approximately 45 years after it was written by H.G. Wells. It really could have been anything. I like the fact it was "photoshopped" to give detail. With photo enhancement, I am a sveldt goddess.