1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right.
When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
retouched.jpg-untouched.jpg
The touched and untouched images respectively.
To dismiss the events of that night due to one retouched photograph (which IMO dosen't affect the main interest of the image) is incorrrect. The offical report (below) and several eyewitness accounts state that something strange was happening in the skies of Caifornia that night. What it was is the debate.
The Army Air Forces in World War II, edited by Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate. In Volume I, Chapter III, Section 8, page 282
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/I/index.html
" During the night of 24/25 February 1942, unidentified objects caused a succession of alerts in southern California. On the 24th, a warning issued by naval intelligence indicated that an attack could be expected within the next ten hours.76 That evening a large number of flares and blinking lights were reported from the vicinity of defense plants. An alert called at 1918 was lifted at 2223, and the tension temporarily relaxed. But early in the morning of the 25th renewed activity began. Radars picked up an unidentified target 120 miles west of Los Angeles. Antiaircraft batteries were alerted at 0215 and were put on Green Alert--ready to fire--a few minutes later. The AAF kept its pursuit planes on the ground, preferring to await indications of the scale and direction of any attack before committing its limited fighter force.77 Radars tracked the approaching target to within a few miles of the coast, and at 0221 the regional controller ordered a blackout.78 Thereafter the information center was flooded with reports of "enemy planes," even though the mysterious object tracked in from sea seems to have vanished. At 0243, planes were reported near Long Beach, and a few minutes later a coast artillery colonel spotted "about 25 planes at 12,000 feet" over Los Angeles. At 0306 a balloon carrying a red flare was seen over Santa Monica and four batteries of antiaircraft artillery opened fire, whereupon "the air over Los Angeles erupted like a volcano." From this point on reports were hopelessly at variance.
Probably much of the confusion came from the fact the antiaircraft shell busts, caught by the searchlights, were themselves mistaken for enemy planes. In any case, the next three hours produced some of the most imaginative reporting of the war: "swarms" of planes (or, sometime,s balloons) of all possible sizes, numbering from one to several hundred, traveling at altitudes which ranged from a few thousand feet to more than 20,000 and flying at speeds which were said to have
--283--
varied from "very slow" to over 200 miles per hour, were observed to parade across the skies.79 These mysterious forces dropped no bombs and, despite the fact that 1,440 rounds of antiaircraft ammunition were directed against them, suffered no losses. There were reports, to be sure, that four enemy planes had been shot down, and one was supposed to have landed in flames at a Hollywood intersection.80 Residents in a forth-mile arc along the coast watched from hills or rooftops as the play of guns and searchlights provided the first real drama of the war for citizens of the mainland. The dawn, which ended the shooting and the fantasy, also proved that the only damage which resulted to the city was such as had been caused by the excitement (there was at least one death from heart failure), by traffic accidents in the black-out streets, or by shell fragments from the artillery barrage.81
Attempts to arrive at an explanation of the event quickly became as involved and mysterious as the "battle" itself. The Navy immediately insisted that there was no evidence of the presence of enemy planes, and Secretary knox announced at a press conference on 25 February that the raid was just a false alarm.82 At the same conference he admitted that attacks were always possible and indicated that vital industries located along the coast ought to be moved inland. The Army had a hard time making up its mind on the cause of the alert. A report to Washington, made by the Western Defense Command shortly after the raid had ended, indicated that the credibility of reports of an attack had begun to be shaken before the blackout was lifted. This message predicted that developments would prove "that most previous reports had been greatly exaggerated."83 The Fourth Air Force had indicated its belief that there were no planes over Los Angeles. But the Army did not publish these initial conclusions. Instead, it waited a day, until after a thorough examination of witnesses had been finished.84 On the basis of these hearings, local commanders altered their verdict and indicated a belief that from one to five unidentified airplanes had been over Los Angeles.85 Secretary Stimson announced this conclusion as the War Department version of the incident, and he advanced two theories to account for the mysterious craft: either they were commercial planes operated by an enemy from secrete fields in California or Mexico, or they were light planes launched from Japanese submarines.86 In either case, the enemy's purpose must have been to locate antiaircraft defenses in the area or to deliver a blow at civilian morale."
Thanks for the reminder, SolFlickan. It is helpful to recognize when propaganda is being utilized and foisted upon us & from which sources.Originally Posted by SolFlickan
lifebattleLA.jpg
It's also helpful to keep in mind that we cannot control what it is which we are seeing on our television sets either. All of that footage can be manipulated before it is aired for public consumption.
Anyone besides me, remember the video feeds which CNN has provided since the opening night of the 1st Gulf War air campaign over Baghdad in January 1991? Or those in the years since, whenever CNN, FOX or MSNBC deemed such footage to be a boost to viewership?
No spotlights (or very few) utilized to illuminate the skies over Baghdad. What were they shooting at? What were they using to acquire targets with? Their radar systems? It appeared to me that they were just firing randomly. The common thought is that the US damaged Iraqi radar systems with Tomahawk strikes, before flying overhead with the F117s and later the B2s.
I doubt that the US 37th Coast Artillery Brigade in February 1942, as technologically advanced as they were at the time (in Los Angeles) had managed to synch up their computer systems between their radar tracking systems, their spotlight control mechanisms and their ground-to-air gunnery.
But the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade were obviously firing at something, and surely if it was something they were ballooning over the coast, they wouldn't have been conducting a massive effort to knock it down. Wouldn't they have known that spent shrapnel falls back to ground causing a good deal of collateral damage? Maybe they didn't care about the secondary effects so much at the time...
Cheb and PC - you're just confusing poor Solly with the facts.
Some great insight and thoughts as to what happened that night!
Hahahahaha!
So how old are you? Four? Five?
Wow. Great come back. I am humbled......
Let's see.....
- witnessed by tens of thousands of people
- caused a military response
- the response was an open and coordinated attack upon the object
Yep, nothing to see here. Move along. Sunny is here to protect you all.
OK, got it. You're four.
Ouch. Stung again.
Your wit is surpassed only by your insight into the history and significance of these events.
There is obviously much for you to learn here. Try to read and comprehend. Study. Learn. Then respond.
"Tis better to be thought a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
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