[Steve Van Doorn]

"‘On the evening of February 24, 1942, an anti-aircraft barrage of more than 1,440 rounds is launched at what is initially thought to be a Japanese aerial attack on the City of Angels. Five civilians die – three from traffic accidents spawned by the chaos and two from heart attacks.’"

My father was in high-school at the time and an official coastal observer which he would go to the coast and observe for ships/planes. He was in East LA area where he lived.

Anyway. The point is he observed the attack and a crash of a plane. Which he seen a body being pulled out of the plane by a fire crew.
The crash nor the plane was ever officially reported. Even know my father was one of those that did report it.

The Japanese had three of the I-400-class submarine or submarine aircraft carrier.
This took place a day after the Japanese shelling of Ellwood field near Santa Barbara California. My mom said the pump station that was hit was built by her uncle or helped build it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Ellwood

The objective of the mission seemed to do the same thing Doolittle Raid did after the attack. The Japanese pulled a great deal of forces from the front lines to the homeland. In our case we kept the whole attack a secret and didn't pull forces. At least that is my take on the reasoning it wasn't reported correctly.

[OldWarBaby]

-—kept secret the whole attack——: Yup, same thing was true with the Jap balloon bombs. No publicity so’s they never knew whether they were hitting anything.

[bitt]

great family story and good info!