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The Forgotten WWII Battle of Los Angeles
Thousands of shells fired in LA County
Shortly after sunset on February 23, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-17 surfaced and positioned itself near Ellwood, California. The submarine was armed with a single deck gun, which was loaded and aimed. The target was an aviation fuel tank on the shore. However, due to rough seas and a dark night, the Japanese captain had little hope that his explosive shells would cause enough damage to ignite the fuel tank. He was right. Most of the shells fell harmlessly and caused minor damage. But I-17’s goal was not destruction but terror, and in that, it was highly successful.
Panic quickly spread through the Los Angeles region. Civilians were terrified that the shelling was the precursor to an invasion of the West Coast by Japanese forces. Soon, jumpy people began to spot Japanese cruisers off the coast in the gloom, and everyone began watching the skies with trepidation. There was no imminent Japanese invasion. The Japanese forces were thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, but that didn’t help assuage the fears of the population, who were convinced that they were about to be targeted, similar to Pearl Harbor barely two months earlier.
This cloud of fear is what caused the Battle of Los Angeles the following day.
On 24 February 1942, the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) issued a warning that Japanese activity could be expected within the next ten hours. A total blackout was ordered around Los Angeles, and defenders were ordered to their stations. Due to the blackout, numerous lights and flares were reported in the skies, but if there were any lights, they were friendly. But that didn’t stop air raid sirens from ringing around Los Angeles, starting at 2 AM. Then, the sky was suddenly filled with anti-aircraft fire.
Skittish defenders began firing upward into the sky. At first, the fire was just .50 caliber machine guns, but soon, large flak batteries also joined the fray. It is unclear who fired first but no order to fire was given. But once one person laid on the trigger, all nearby batteries followed suit.
For two hours, thousands of shells and bullets were thrown into the sky. Prudent commanders kept friendly aircraft grounded during the…
