Evening star., 1942-02-25
ShropneI Falls
In City,; Planes
Delay Pursuit
By the Associated Press.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 25.-Antl-
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.
Some observers claimed to have
seen two planes over Long Beach.
Army Intelligence, although un-
communicative, scoffed at reports of
civilian observers that as many as
200 planes were over the area.
No Bombs Dropped.
No bombs were dropped and no
planes were shot down during the
anti-aircraft firing. the Western De-
fense Command announced in San
Francisco.
Cities in the Los Angeles area
were blacked out at 2:25 am. today
on orders from the 4th InterceptOr
Command when unidentified air
craft were reported in the area" the
Western Defense Command said.
Although reports are conflicting
and every effort is being made to
ascertain the facts, it is clear that
no bombs were dropped and no
planes were shot down
There was considerable amount
of anti-aircraft firing. The all
clear signal came at 7:21 am"
Property Damaged.
There were several instances of
damaged property from anti-air-
craft 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 mo-
ments before Miss Blanche Sedwick
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
am. tP. w. t. awakened most of
the Metropolitan areas 100000
citizens. A few minutes later, they
were treated to gigantic Fourth
of-July like display as huge search
lights flashed along 10-mile front
to the south, converging on a single
spot in the sky.
Shells Light Sky.
Moments later the antl-alrcraft
guns opened up, throwing a sheet Of
steel skyWard.
Tracer bullets and exploding shells
Lit the sky.
Three japanese. two men and
woman, were seized by police at
the beach city of Venice on suspicion
of signaling with flashlights near
the pier. They were removed to
F. B. I. 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, SO, 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 heart
attack apparently was responsible.
All Clear in Daylight.
90 1t was broad daylight before the
all-clear sounded.
Late homegoers and early workers,
who had been tagged down by air.
raid wardens, started moving.
-, Soon traffic was Snarled. Thou
sands were an hour or more late to
their jobs.
The blackout was the first cover
ing the metropolitan area since the
first week of the war.
49, There were isolated instances of
:. failure to comply with blackout reg
ulations. Neon signs were left glow
ing inside stores. Traffic signals
continued to flash in some areas.
Radio stations went off the air
with the first alert, and were not
permitted to resume broadcasting
until 1923 am.
The only private cars permitted to
~, (See LOS ANGELES, Page fA-3D