The Battle of Los Angeles (1942): Misidentification, Wartime Nerves, and the Unresolved Mystery
To the point
During the 1942 Los Angeles air scare, hours of searchlights and anti-aircraft fire occurred with no confirmed enemy attack, and Henry Stimson and Franklin D. Roosevelt attributed it to misidentification and weather balloons while J. M. Wainwright’s memo and Tom Moulton’s now-debunked photo highlighted fear, misperception, and rumor as the driving factors.
