The Battle of Los Angeles, also called the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, occurred during the night of February 24-25, 1942. It was believed to be a Japanese assault on the United States.
However, the situation was not as it seemed. Alarms were sounded, search lights were directed upwards, and anti-aircraft artillery was deployed. Nonetheless, the following day revealed no trace of anything significant.
With the exception of some buildings and cars damaged by artillery shells, the incident was deemed a false alarm, potentially triggered by a misplaced weather balloon. Nevertheless, numerous theories surround the event, including those involving UFO conspiracies.
Allied flight crews began witnessing peculiar lights in the sky, which they referred to as "foo fighters." These orbs of light exhibited peculiar behavior, tracking and maneuvering swiftly alongside the planes. Essentially, they were unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
"Foo fighters" were not hostile aircraft and never posed a threat to Allied crews. Different explanations have been suggested, including German secret weapons, pilot hallucinations due to fatigue, electrostatic phenomena, and even extraterrestrial involvement.
The Nazis constructed an underground tunnel network for the alleged purpose of transporting stolen treasures. According to reports, a train carrying gold is believed to be stuck in a collapsed tunnel located in Lower Silesia, near Wroclaw, Poland.
The train remains undiscovered despite extensive search attempts, leading some historians to doubt its existence. However, there is no concrete evidence supporting either view, leaving the mystery unsolved till now.
The 'Lady Be Good,' an American B-24D Liberator aircraft, vanished during its journey to a Libyan airfield on April 5, 1943.
The wreckage was discovered in May 1948 in the desert south of the airfield, but the crew was nowhere to be found.
Remains were discovered in 1960, indicating that the crew had used parachutes at a distance of about 16 miles (25 km) from the crash site. What exactly happened remains a mystery to this day.
The Columbus Globe for State and Industry Leaders, also known as "Hitler's Globe," popularized by Charlie Chaplin in 'The Great Dictator' (1940), was actually owned by the Nazi leader. What happened to such a prized possession? No one knows.
On December 5, 1945, a group of five bombers called Flight 19 disappeared. Subsequently, the search and rescue planes dispatched to locate them also disappeared. No evidence of wreckage or bodies was ever discovered. Flight 19 is among the numerous enigmatic vanishings in the Bermuda Triangle.
Operation Paperclip led to the relocation of numerous German scientists in the US, while others sought refuge in Europe through escape networks called ratlines.
Adolf Eichmann, who played a significant role in the Holocaust, was ultimately apprehended by Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, in Argentina. He was subsequently given a death sentence.
It is not exactly known how ratlines worked and who was involved. However, Pope Pius XII is said to have played a part, but unfortunately there are no known documents in the Vatican to prove it one way or the other.
The Amber Room was an actual room inside the Catherine House, a royal palace in Pushkin, Russia. This photo from 1917 is the only color record of the Amber Room before World War II.
In 1941, the Nazis entered the room and took the detailed amber and gold panels. These panels were rumored to have been sent to Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia), and were never seen again. The room has since been recreated (pictured).
In 1941, a Scottish farmer discovered a plane wreckage on his property, and alongside it stood Rudolf Hess, a prominent figure in the Nazi Party.
The high-ranking Nazi official traveled from Germany to Scotland without detection, avoiding both radars and anti-aircraft artillery. However, his escape was halted when he eventually crashed upon reaching Scotland.
Hess' supposed reason to fly to Scotland was that he wanted to negotiate peace with the UK, but no one bought his excuse.
Rudolf Hess was captured and eventually spent his last last days in the Allied-control Spandau Prison in Berlin, where he remained until in death in 1987.
Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita reportedly buried a looted treasure somewhere in the Philippines. Yamashita was eventually executed by American forces in 1946, so the secret might have died with him. It goes without saying that a treasure hunt begun.
A man named Rogelio Roxas reportedly found part of the treasure in 1971. He then sued former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos for confiscating it. Roxas won, but the court ruling came after he had died. As for the rest of the treasure, well, no one knows.
Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, is acclaimed as a hero of World War II for rescuing numerous Jews in Nazi-controlled Hungary.
Wallenberg was captured by Soviet officers in early 1945. The exact details of his fate remain unknown. The Soviets claimed that he died in 1947, but sightings were reported as late as the 1980s.
The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941. The following day, on December 8, 1942, a Navy radar detected an aircraft from Japan. Navy pilots were sent to intercept, but they mistakenly identified an American P-40 fighter instead of an enemy plane.
The P-40 fighter aircraft had damage in the form of bullet holes and destroyed landing gear. The pilot, drenched in blood, gestured towards them. Subsequently, the plane crashed, yet the pilot's whereabouts remained unknown. Until now, the authenticity of this account remains a subject of disagreement, with several questioning its existence as an urban legend.
The Blood Flag acquired its name due to being stained with blood during Hitler's unsuccessful coup, known as the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. It held great significance for the party, but disappeared following the war's conclusion. Its fate, whether destroyed or still in existence, remains unknown and unanswered.
Die Glocke was a rumored Nazi secret Wunderwaffe (German for "Wonder Weapon") in the shape of a bell. It has been dismissed by many experts as a conspiracy theory, but is it?
World War II was a unique conflict where Allies and Axis powers clashed for six years, resulting in countless lives lost and leaving a lasting impact on the world. To this day, there remain numerous unanswered questions surrounding this dark chapter in history, including unresolved enigmas that occurred amidst and after the war. Ranging from perplexing disappearances to undiscovered treasures, this gallery explores the most significant unsolved mysteries of World War II.
Click through and delve deeper into these captivating stories on World War II.
Mysterious unsolved cases from World War II
What ever happened to the train fun of looted gold?
LIFESTYLE History
World War II was a unique conflict where Allies and Axis powers clashed for six years, resulting in countless lives lost and leaving a lasting impact on the world. To this day, there remain numerous unanswered questions surrounding this dark chapter in history, including unresolved enigmas that occurred amidst and after the war. Ranging from perplexing disappearances to undiscovered treasures, this gallery explores the most significant unsolved mysteries of World War II.
Click through and delve deeper into these captivating stories on World War II.