ALERT SOUNDS; CALIFORNIA SET FOR MORE RAIDS
Ack-Ack Guns Fire at Unidentified Object in Sky

Los Angeles, Feb. 25 - The Los Angeles area was ordered blacked out early today, but air raid warning headquarters said it could give no information. Extent of the blackout was not given. Anti-aircraft guns were in action.

It was the second alert of the night in Southern California.

Earlier the fourth interceptor command ordered a precautionary alert along 300 miles of California coastline from San Luis Obispo to the Mexican border. The all-clear signal followed this warning three hours later without a blackout.

An official source which declined to be quoted directly told the Associated Press that U.S. army planes quickly went into action. However, just before dawn, another official said no U.S. craft had gone in pursuit because of danger from their own anti-aircraft fire. He said anti-aircraft gunners reported seeing unidentified planes. No bombs were dropped. The all-clear sounded at 7:19 a.m. (10:10 a.m. E.D.T.)

Mrs. H. G. Landis phoned police that fragments of metal fell about her home and "a chunk of something" dug a hole in her backyard. An arms expert said the fragments were from an anti-aircraft shell.

Police at Venice, 14 miles west on the coast, arrested three Japanese for investigation of reports they were sending flashlight signals from the pier. Venice is just outside an area ordered evacuated of Japanese yesterday.

A newspaperman at San Pedro said airplanes passed over the Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor area. The craft were not identified.

United States army anti-aircraft guns fired round after round of ammunition and tracer bullets at an unidentified object which moved slowly down the United States coast from Santa Monica and disappeared south of the rich Signal Hill oil fields early today.

Army officials declined to comment but speculation quickly arose that an enemy blimp might have passed over the area. This was based on the fact the object required nearly 30 minutes to travel some 20 to 25 miles - far slower than an airplane.

There were no reports of any attempt to bomb this area from the air, although many war-vital factories, shipyards and other defence industries were on the route the object followed.

Although some watchers said they saw airplanes in the air, semi-official sources said they probably were the U.S. army's pursuits.

Spotlights in Action

All of the action, clearly spotlighted for ground observers by 20 or 30 searchlights, was just a few miles west of Los Angeles proper.

Observers said the object appeared to be 8,000 feet or higher.

Firing, first heard shortly after 3 a.m., ceased suddenly at 3:30 a.m. after the object disappeared south of Signal Hill, at the east edge of Long Beach. Anti-aircraft guns fired steadily for two-minute periods, were silent about 45 seconds, and continued that routine nearly half an hour.

All of Southern California from the San Joaquin valley to the Mexican border was blacked out. Los Angeles doused its lights first, at 2:25 a.m. San Diego, just 17 miles from the border, did not receive its lights-out order until 3:05 a.m.

Unofficial sources said army officials at Riverside, 40 miles east of Los Angeles, ordered the blackout.

It came 32 hours after a submarine fired 25 shrapnel shells at the Ellwood Tidelande oil field during President Roosevelt's war address Monday night. Damage in that attack was negligible - about $500 to an oil well engine housing and power lines. Only two of the shells scored hits; 23 fell harmlessly into pastures, foothills and the beach.

Los Angeles Guns Bark Blast at Mystery Raider
Tracer Bullets Banged at Unidentified Object As City Blacked Out

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25 - (AP) - Anti-aircraft guns fired round after round of ammunition and tracer bullets at an unidentified object which moved slowly down the United States coast from Santa Monica and disappeared south of the rich Signal Hill oil fields early today.

Army officials declined to comment but speculation quickly arose that an enemy blimp might have passed over the area. This was based on the fact the object required nearly 30 minutes to travel some 20 to 25 miles - far slower than an aircraft.

U.S. army planes quickly went into action but whether they made contact with the object was not announced. Army officials said they could not comment until they received reports of the action.

A newspaperman at San Pedro said the object moved south over the Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor area.

There were no reports of any attempt to bomb this area from the air although many war-vital factories, shipyards and other defence industries were on the route the object followed.

Although some watchers said they saw airplanes in the air, semi-official sources said they probably were the U.S. army's pursuits.

All of the action, clearly spotlighted for ground observers by 20 or 30 searchlights, was just a few miles west of Los Angeles proper.

Observers said the object appeared to be 8,000 feet or higher.

Fired Steadily

Firing, first heard shortly after 3 a.m., ceased suddenly at 3:30 a.m. after the object disappeared south of Signal Hill, at the east edge of Long Beach. Anti-aircraft guns, fired steadily for two-minute periods, were silent about 45 seconds, and continued that routine nearly half an hour.

All of southern California from the San Joaquin Valley to the Mexican border was blacked out. Los Angeles doused its lights first, at 2:25 a.m. San Diego, just 17 miles from the border, did not receive its lights-out order until 3:05 a.m.

Unofficial sources said army officials at Riverside, 40 miles east of Los Angeles, ordered the blackout.

It came 32 hours after a submarine fired 25 shrapnel shells at the Ellwood Tidelands oil field during President Roosevelt's war address Monday night. Damage in that attack was negligible - about $500 to an oil well engine housing and power lines. Only two of the shells scored hits; 23 fell harmlessly into pastures, foothills and the beach.

U.S. CITY FIRES ON PROWLER

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25. - (AP) Anti-aircraft guns thundered over the metropolitan area early today for the first time in the war, but hours later what they were shooting at remained a military secret. An unidentified object moving slowly down the coast from Santa Monica was variously reported as a balloon and an airplane.

Two Planes?

Some observers claimed to have seen two planes over Long Beach.

Army intelligence, although uncommunicative, scoffed at reports of civilian observers that as many as 200 planes were over the area.

There were no reports of bombing, but several instances of damaged property from anti-aircraft shells.

A garage door was ripped off in a Los Angeles residential district and fragments shattered windows and tore into a bed where a few moments before Miss Blanche Sedgwick and her niece, Josie Duffy, had been sleeping.

A Santa Monica bomb squad was dispatched to remove an unexploded anti-aircraft shell in a driveway there.

Wailing air raid sirens at 2:25 a.m. (5:25 E.D.T.) awakened most of the metropolitan area's 3,000,000 citizens. A few minutes later, they were treated to a gigantic display as huge searchlights flashed along a 10-mile front to the south, converging on a single spot high in the sky.

Moments later, the anti-aircraft guns opened up, throwing a sheet of steel skyward.

Tracer bullets and exploding shells lit the heavens.

Three Japanese, two men and a woman, were seized by police at the beach city of Venice on suspicion of signalling with flashlights near the pier. They were removed to Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters, where Richard B. Hood, local chief, said "at the request of army authorities we have nothing to say."

A Long Beach police sergeant, E. Larson, 59, was killed in a traffic accident while en route to an air raid post.

Henry B. Ayers, 63-year-old state guardsman, died at the wheel of an ammunition truck during the blackout. Physicians said a heart attack apparently was responsible.

North Bay, Ontario, DAILY NUGGET, 13 December 1944, Page 14

ODD SILVERY BALLS NEW NAZI DEFENCE

PARIS, Dec. 13 - As the Allied armies ground out new gains on the western front today, the Germans were disclosed to have thrown a new "device" into the war - mysterious silvery balls which float in the air.

Pilots report seeing these objects, both individually and in clusters, during forays over Germany. Purpose of the floaters was not immediately evident. It is possible they represent a new anti-aircraft defence instrument or weapon.

Germans Are Using New "V" Weapon

WITH THE U.S. 9TH ARMY IN GERMANY, Dec. 18 - (AP) - The Germans have launched a new "V" weapon on the western front and are bombarding rear areas with it by night and day.
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The dispatch gave no details concerning the weapon.

The Germans have used both their V-1 and V-2 weapons - the robot bomb and the "telegraph pole" rocket bomb - against troops and areas behind the front.

Supreme headquarters in Paris last week said pilots reported seeing clusters of "silver balls" over Germany, but gave no other information. It was speculated the silver balls might be a new anti-aircraft defence, or designed to interfere with Allied radio communication.

New Weapon Used Against Allied Aircraft

A U.S. Night Fighter Base, France, Jan. 2 - The enemy has thrown something new into the night skies over Germany - the weird, mysterious "Foo-Fighter," balls of fire which race alongside the wings of Allied Beaufighters flying intruder missions over Germany. The balls of fire appear suddenly and accompany the planes for miles. They appear to be radio-controlled and manage to keep up with planes flying 300 miles an hour.

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, DAILY STAR, 8 January 1945, Page 1

Japanese Using Type of Flying Bomb

KUNMING, CHINA, Jan. 8 - (AP) - The Japanese are using some kind of flying bomb for the air defence of China.

Sweden Studies "Ghost Rockets"

Stockholm, Aug. 12 - (AP) - Swedish military authorities plan to publish within the next few days a communique on an investigation they have been making of the "ghost rockets" that have been streaking daily over Sweden since early July leaving little doubt that the country has become an experimental target range.

Official sources have declined to speculate on the source of the mysterious spool-shaped missiles, but it is generally believed that the rocket-propelled objects come from some places along the Baltic coast of Germany. Only in a few cases, it is known that the missiles actually landed in Sweden.

"Ghost Rockets" Destroy Themselves

STOCKHOLM - (AP) - A trained observer described in the Stockholm Aftonbladet yesterday how a "ghost rocket" he saw Sunday exploded in a blinding one-second flash after it had stopped in the air and began to drop to the ground. His description seemed to bear out previous reports that the rockets are equipped with self-destruction devices which account for failure to find trace of them. Military officials believe Sweden is in a target area for experiments with remotely controlled missiles apparently sent from the German Baltic coast.

Ghost Bomb Explodes Over Swedish Lake

STOCKHOLM - (AP) - The newspaper Aftonbladet said yesterday that a "ghost bomb," bursting over a Swedish lake, had nearly caused casualties and criticized military authorities for their failure to explain the nature of the missiles, which have been reported almost daily by observers for the last two months.

The paper said that two persons boating on the lake, located in central Sweden, were nearly hit by the bomb, which burst into many parts.

The paper also reported that a rocket had been observed near Goeteberg by a group of boy scouts, who saw the flying missile turn and then return to its original course.

(From Copenhagen came the first report of a "ghost rocket" explosion over Denmark. Briand Jensen, a night watchman in Struer, West Jutland, said he saw a speeding missile, approaching from the northeast, explode with a blinding flash.)

Swedish military authorities said yesterday that they had received no tangible proof that the frequent celestial phenomena observed over the country resulted from foreign experiments with aerial missiles.

In retort, Aftonbladet said "it ought to be possible to state whether they are meteors or not, and if they are rockets, one should be caught."

The paper added that if they were rockets and of Russian origin, as has been suggested, there were two possible explanations for their appearance over Sweden:

1. "Sweden is systematically being dotted in on a Russian artillery map."

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, DAILY STAR, 14 August 1946, Page 6

Near Casualty By Ghost Rocket

STOCKHOLM - (AP) - The newspaper Aftonbladet said yesterday that two "ghost rockets" were observed in Sweden Monday and that one of them almost caused casualties. A couple boating on a lake in central Sweden were nearly hit by a diving bomb which burst into many parts and disappeared beneath the water, the newspaper said.