cbs news report on the ufo sighting dubbed the battle of los angeles which took place in the late hours of febuary 24th and the early hours of febuary 25th 1942. The event that became known as The Battle of Los Angeles took place during the evening and early morning hours of February 24-25, 1942. Never fully explained, these events remain shrouded in mystery and the subject of intense speculation. One day earlier, on February 23, a Japanese submarine surfaced and fired upon an oil production facility near Santa Barbara, California. With reports indicating that the sub was headed south towards Los Angeles, people were on edge and tension was high. Beginning shortly after 2 am on February 25, and throughout the night, unidentified objects were reported over Los Angeles and the threat was so unusual that air raid sirens were sounded, and a total blackout was ordered. At 3:16 am, the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade began firing 12.8-pound antiaircraft shells at the objects -- more than 1400 shells were fired over the next 58 minutes as the objects moved south, from Santa Monica to Long Beach. "The obvious thought was that these were Japanese bombers come to attack the United States," says UFO expert Bill Birnes, publisher of UFO magazine. "But it wasn't. They were flying too high. And the astounding thing was, not one artillery shell could hit the craft -- out of all the hundreds of shells that were fired. People outside that night swore that it was neither a plane nor a balloon ...