5.9 KiB
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February 25 : Battle of Los Angeles.
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2 h 25 : In Los Angeles, sirens designed to give an alert in case of an air raid start to wail. Anti-aircraft groups are on alert. Panic sets in in the city, which goes into a blackout.
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3:16: Anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) batteries begin firing at unidentified objects coming from the ocean, which searchlights attempt to corner in the sky. There appear to be at least two types of objects involved in the incident. Witnesses see small, red or silver objects flying at high altitude, moving quickly, appearing in formation and then seeming to weave through the AAA fire at speeds up to 8 km/s --- that's 29000 km/h. There is also a large object that remains stationary for a time, then is caught in the searchlight beams above Culver City, and then moves at a constant speed of 100 km/h to the Santa Monica coast and then south towards Long Beach before being lost from sight. This large object, according to reports, was hit by numerous projectiles. The AAA continues to fire at it.
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4:14: The AAA stops shooting. No bombs were dropped by the unknown aircrafts and no aircrafts were shot down.
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February 26: General Marshall reports to President Roosevelt regarding the incidents of the previous day in Los Angeles.
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Bright objects photographed in the middle of a formation of Tahikawa Ki 36 reconnaissance planes. See image at images/foofig_1.jpg. [[Jean-Luc Chaumeil, Le temps et les OVNI] ]{.source}
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5:35 PM: At the secret airbase of Banak (Finnmark province, Norway) the guard post gives the alarm; the men go to their combat posts, the pilots to their aircraft. Through binoculars, the observers see an engine approaching silently. Hauptmann Fischer (engineer in civilian life) takes off in a Messerschmitt 109 (fighter) to intercept it. At 3500 m altitude he approaches it, observes it, and gives a description over the radio: it is an enormous streamlined body, without any visible wings or openings; its length is about 100 m and its diameter about 15 m; at one end a group of rods resembling radar antennas. The "air whale" as Captain Fischer immediately nicknames it, maintains a horizontal position; suddenly it rises vertically at great speed and disappears; the pilot concludes that it cannot be a man-made engine. The report is signed by Captain Fischer, countersigned by the base commander. When, in Berlin, Air Marshal Hermann Goering reads it, he concludes that the harsh solitude of the Far North has played a nasty trick on his pilot Report sent to the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, Durrant 1973{.source}.
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A Banak (Norway), Fischer observed a large cigar-shaped object (apparently a hoax). Durrant 1970, 84] [OVNI Presence, 28/Dec 1983, 30/Jun 1984] [Liljegren: A bibliography of references to UFO incidents during World War II, 1987, 8{.source}
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August: In the Solomon Islands, Sergeant-Chief Stephen Brickner reported 150 UFOs flying in rectangular formation, 15 on the length and 10 on the width.
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Observation (pictured to the right) at Tientsien, in the province of Hopeh (Northern China). See image at images/1942.gif.
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Two young aviators on a simple surveillance mission take to the air in a dirigible to patrol along the California coast. Later, two fishermen spot the drifting craft, the gondola door open. There is no one on board. After investigation, it is learned that the dirigible had entirely risen above the clouds and was seen by an airplane, then descended again. Four ships saw it fly over a suspicious oil slick and suddenly rise back into the clouds.
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September
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Near Cresswell, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland (England), on an unusually cold night, Albert Lancashire (27 years old), armed with a rifle with a bayonet on the barrel, guards a radar base on the coast of the North Sea. A light appears on the horizon, then disappears behind a cloud. Then a second light appears, yellow, apparently a beam shot from the edge of a circular object. The beam, about 30 cm in diameter, oscillates around and then darts on Lancashire's face. The soldier drops his gun and raises his hands. He feels a strange floating sensation and loses consciousness. When he comes to a few minutes later, he lies a few meters from where he had seen the light. He remains shocked and dazed for 5 or 10 minutes before feeling fully recovered and able to resume his watch. In the years following this incident, Lancashire will have a number of strange dreams. In one of them, he will remember having been on board the object he saw, and having observed the sea below from a large window; a man in white told him he had to take him on board the craft. In another dream, Lancashire was still in the device and met a red-haired woman, wearing a skirt that stopped at the calves (in fashion in 1942) who handed him a pair of glasses. Years later, Lancashire came to think that the best explanation for his 1942 experience was that he had been abducted by extraterrestrials. He only reported the incident from his 70s [Mysterious Britain]{.source}.
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Photo above the Sea of Japan. See images/1942_MerDuJapon.jpg.
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September 17, 10:30: General Brehon Somervell informs Colonel Leslie Richard Groves that his assignment outside of American territory is cancelled, and assigns him to the Manhattan project.
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September 18: Groves orders the purchase of 1250 tons of high quality uranium from the Belgian Congo.
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September 19: Groves purchases 52000 acres of land for the future site of Oak Ridge.
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September 23: Groves is promoted to Brigadier General.
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October 3: After two unsuccessful attempts, third successful launch of a V-2.
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October 15: Groves asks Oppenheimer to take the lead of Project Y, the new central laboratory for physics research for weapon design.
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November: Observation in Norway.