Battle of Los Angeles Searchlight Photograph
Type: Historical Photograph
Source: Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1942
This photograph documents the searchlights and anti-aircraft activity during the Great Los Angeles Air Raid of February 25, 1942. The widely circulated newspaper version is not an untouched photographic record: a later Los Angeles Times archival investigation found that the published image had been retouched, including alterations to searchlight beams and the removal or modification of visual details. The bright spots visible around the searchlights' convergence have often been interpreted as an unidentified object, but the image alone cannot establish the identity, shape, or physical properties of anything in the sky. It is included as historical photographic evidence of the incident and the contemporary public record, not as conclusive proof of an anomalous craft.
Evidence Files
