During WWII, Los Angeles Braced for a Japanese Invasion

**Antipodean Andy** · 03-05-2008, 06:17 PM

Not something you hear of too often but the guys in Coastal Artillery still did their service and deserve greater recognition. Would have been long hours of nothing with the occasional alert that amounted to nothing and, perhaps rarer still, action of some sort. A lot of batteries, such as the ones on Rottnest Island about 35 kms from where I sit would have only fired in exercises.

Oliver Hill Battery, Rottnest Island, Western Australia during WW2
Olivers Hill Battery, Rottnest Island, WA Profile

Einzelkampfer · 02-15-2009, 01:09 AM

My in-laws lived near Burbank just before the war, and my father-in-law was working at Douglas building DC3s and C47s. Just after the war started, a flight of Army planes flew over the city and activated the air raid systems. My in-laws swear to this day that, "the Japs tried to bomb LA when we lived out there".

My father-in-law was an "air raid" warden for the apartments where they lived. He was offered a better job at Northrup, so he quit at Douglas and went over to Northrup and they said that they wouldn't be having another wave of new-hires for two weeks. He had the job, but Northrup didn't notify the draft board when he accepted the position, and Douglas notified them the day he quit (they were mad). So, while the paperwork crossed paths in the mail, he was drafted the following week!

He went from top wages to 30-bucks a month, plus a 50-dollar allotment for my mother-in-law. She went up to Richmond (near Oakland) and built Liberty ships for top wages while he "slaved away" on Kauai

working on P40s, Catalinas and Hudsons.