Japanese Sub shells the Santa Barbara area

On 23 February 1942. the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarine I-17, under the command of Commander Nishino Kozo, surfaces shells the oil refinery near Santa Barbara. Before the war, as skipper of an oil tanker, Nishino had refueled there. The shelling does only minor damages to a pier and an oil well derrick, but creates "invasion" fears along the West Coast.

Contemporary newspaper accounts describe the attack as off the Ellwood oil fields 12 miles north of Santa Barbara, and report 16 shells fired, beginning at 7:15 p.m. on the 23rd of February 1942. Three shells struck near the Bankline Co. oil refinery, the apparent target of the shelling. Rigging and pumping equipment at a well about 1,000 yards inland were destroyed but otherwise no damage was caused. One shell overshot the target by three miles and landed on the Tecolote ranch, where it exploded. Another landed on the nearby Staniff ranch, dug a hole five feet deep, but failed to explode. Eleven other shells fell short and dropped into the sea. Description of the attack and damage to the oil refinery was provided by the superintendent, F.W. Borden. The first report of the attack was called in to police by Mrs. George Heaney of San Marcos Pass, who observed the submarine through binoculars and reported it was about a mile offshore. Oil refinery worker Bob Miller also called in a report during the attack. According to the official report of the 11th Naval District, the I-17 surfaced at 7:10 pm, Pacific War Time (2 hours ahead of standard time, so about a half hour after sunset), shortly after President Roosevelt's weekly fireside "chat" began. At 7:15 pm, the submarine began firing from its deck gun at the oil refinery. It ceased firing at 7:35 and departed on the surface; it was observed still on the surface exiting the south end of the Santa Barbara Channel at 8:30.

I believe they have one of those at Fort Stevens in Oregoon as well.

True. It was the same submarine. My family was living in Wilmington, California at the time. I remember the blackout and the search lights. My Father was a night shift foreman at Terminal Island so he wasn't home at the time. Mom pulled back the curtains to watch the search lights and told me there wasn't anything to worry about as it was "practice". There was some gunfire, although it was denied. There were rumors of a Japanese plane being shot down and crashing into a building in downtown Long Beach which later was proved to be false. Although Mom tried to calm my fears we were later scared [bleep]. Interesting times.

Wonder what was the ultimate fate of I-17?

It sounds like Megaladon and Godzilla didn't give them enough gunnery practice................

I-17 History and Fate!

Phil

Steven Spielberg "1941" told us every thing we needed to know about this.

If they'd like to come back and train their guns on Hollywood, I'll sponsor a shell or 2.

That wasn't the only assault by the Japenese during WWII on the US, they also sent balloons from Japan using the prevailing winds carrying high explosives a number of these balloons made it to the West Coast landing in both Washington and Oregon causing little damage. If memory serves me right there was only one fatality from these balloons, it was a preacher on a boy scout outing in Oregon. These attacks were documented, but not reported until after the war for security purposes as the government didn't want the Japanese to know that balloons had made it US Soil.

[b][color:#3333FF]Battle of Attu..?[/color][/b]

True, I read somewhere that attack on Attu was more or less a diversion to draw our Pacific Fleet North to the Aleutian Islands in preparation for their attack on Midway.