In the early morning hours of February 25th 1942, air raid sirens woke the fitfully sleeping population of Los Angeles at 2:25 AM. Antiaircraft batteries trained their barrels skyward and opened up on targets lighted by arcing searchlights. About 1400 rounds were fired for the next two hours, hitting nothing but homes and cars throughout the L.A. Basin. There were three deaths, and three elderly residents reportedly died of heart attacks. There was also one reported murder committed during the blackout of the city.

The day before, a Japanese submarine surfaced off Santa Barbara and shelled an oil facility in the small coastal town of Goleta. Combined with the recent bombing of Pearl Harbor almost three months before, public awareness was at a wartime high. full story