US struck again - Pearl Harbor 2

jamesintucson · **Joined:** Sat Jan 29, 2005 1:42 am **Posts:** 546

Django wrote:

Cubs wrote:

On a warbird note, a story that has circulated for many years was that a Japanese aerial armada actually got within 100 or so miles of Los Angeles and turned back.

Really??

Never happened. The only way an "armada" of Japanese planes could have gotten anywhere near LA would be from carriers. The histories of all the IJN carriers is very well documented and there is nothing to indicate that they ever came East of Hawaii. Realistically there is only a six month window from December '41 to May '42 where it was even within the capability of the Japanese to consider such a thing. Also, if they had gotten to within 100 miles of LA, why turn back? The carriers would have had to be within a couple hundred miles of the coast, if the Japanese were able to do that then nothing would have stopped them from carrying out an attack regardless of potential losses. To move the fleet that far away from supply and support they would have to be considered expendable. The IJN wasn't adverse to taking risks but not foolish ones with no hope of success. At least not in the first months of the war.

There was a lot of hysteria on the West Coast about impending Japanese attacks on California in the first half of 1942 but apart from a few submarines no IJN warships ever got anywhere near the U.S. mainland.

James

maxum96 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:43 pm

Django wrote:

Hahaha, or was it Santa Monica to Barstow? :lol:

You got it all wrong, it was hidden Japanese airstrips in the alfalfa fields near Pomona!

:rolleyes:

I love that movie!

n5151ts · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:07 pm

...by mitsubishi, honda, toyota etc....

Chris Brame · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:24 pm

Don't forget the E14Y-1 Glen that was used to drop incendiaries to start forest fires in Oregon...

http://www.j-aircraft.org/smf/index.php?topic=937.0

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:45 pm

the emily fly over was just that...... a recon mission, no attack.

David_Aiken · **Joined:** Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:31 pm **Posts:** 403

tom d. friedman wrote:

the emily fly over was just that...... a recon mission, no attack.

In March 1942 night mission, the two EMILY boats had four harrassment bombs each... one dropped blindly near the channel entrance to the harbor; the other dropped blindly on the slope of Mount Tantalus near enough to a home to cause damage which was photographed by the Hoonolulu Star-Bulletin 4 March 1942.

HTH,
Cheers,
David Aiken

The caption to the 4 March photo reads, "Esuyako Kiyota, left, and Harue Shirati survey damage to windows in the home of Lt. Harrison R. Cooke, USN, on Tantalus Drive, by concussion from three sharp detonations which awoke Honolulans at 2:10 this morning."
http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/hwrd/ ... s/791f.gif

The two 5 March photos showed more of the damage. One caption reads, "Soldiers search crater on lower slopes of Tantalus where four bombs burst in a shrub-covered area early yesterday morning. The craters were about 25 feet long, 20 wide and 10 deep, and apparently were made by bombs weighing from 300 to 600 pounds. Ordnance officers sought tell-tale splinters at the spot."

http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/hwrd/ ... s/731f.gif
http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/hwrd/ ... s/732f.gif

David_Aiken · **Joined:** Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:31 pm **Posts:** 403

EMILY "Y-71" trains with the submarine refueling portion of the Pearl Harbor Attack #2

http://www.warbirdphotographs.com/NavyJB&W/H8K-5.jpg

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Thu Jul 03, 2008 2:01 pm

i stand corrected!!

David_Aiken · **Joined:** Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:31 pm **Posts:** 403

tom d. friedman wrote:

i stand corrected!!

Hi Tom,
Sit a spell... standing can get tireing. ;-)

My goal was only to help guide us toward "the knowns".
Cheers,
David

mikoyan29 · **Joined:** Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:59 pm **Posts:** 42

Cubs wrote:

Other reported attacks on U.S. soil, I have heard stories of a Japanese sub. taking pot shots at oil tanks in California, a U-boat also taking shots at oil tanks in Southport, NC. Since this is a warBIRD forum this not really germane (yes, that's a pun) to this topic. On a warbird note, a story that has circulated for many years was that a Japanese aerial armada actually got within 100 or so miles of Los Angeles and turned back. Of course, the unmanned balloons that bombed Oregon(??)

I heard the Japanese sub had a German U-boat commander on it...

Robbie Roberts · **Posted:** Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:16 am

I seem to remember one of the Japanese subs with the hangar and floatplane had its a/c drop a bomb somewhere in the northwest US. Don't remember particulars...

Robbie

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:59 am

an oregon forest, it carried incendiary bombs to start a forest fire.

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:11 am

There is a very interesting recording of a CBS radio news report from the 25th of February 1942, on the link below - it is about 3/4 the way down the page here?

http://www.stelzriede.com/ms/html/sub/mshws.htm#ww2

Search for the entry "News report of possible Japanese air attack on the Los Angeles area (February 25, 1942) -- (833 KB) "

It's a fascinating report of how an unidentified object thought to be a blimp was tracked and attacked by US forces for several hours down the coast of Los Angeles. It says that searchlights had it coned and guns shot at it throughout. However it seems they never shot it down.

Trying to find out the reason behind this, I discovered it seems to remain something of a mystery. See here:

http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist9/aaf2.html

It's a great listen, and must have caused quite some panic at the time - like the 1939 War of the Worlds broadcast did I'd think. Only for real.

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US struck again - Pearl Harbor 2

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