Famous Days for Students of English

24-02-1942

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was at war with Japan. The Japanese army was strong. They controlled more and more territories in the Pacific. They attacked the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, and also Australia.

The Americans started to be afraid that the cities on the Pacific coast of the United States could become the next target.

On February 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine attacked American oil factories near Los Angeles. People in Los Angeles started to panic.

The next night, on February 24, 1942, US radars showed an object which was coming to Los Angeles from the west. It could be a Japanese plane. The Americans turned off the lights in the city and they were preparing for the attack.

Then it all started at about 3 o’clock in the morning. The American soldiers probably saw something in the air because they started shooting. They were shooting at something in the air for one hour.

When they stopped, they understood that they didn’t hit any Japanese plane. It was a mystery.

The next morning, people asked what had happened that night. The investigation showed that there were no Japanese planes over Los Angeles that night. So what was the thing in the air?

The government wasn’t able to give a clear explanation. Then a mysterious photograph was shown in the newspapers. It explained the possible reason for the attack. When people saw the photograph, many of them had a clear explanation. At night, the American soldiers were shooting at a UFO.

Difficult words: coast (the area where the land meets the sea), target (a place which you want to attack), submarine (a ship underwater), mystery (a situation which can’t be explained), investigation (an official search for the truth).