23 Feb 1942
United States
United States
- Just after sunset, shortly after President Franklin Roosevelt began his Fireside Chat radio broadcast, I-17 surfaced and approached the Ellwood oil refinery at Goleta, California. I-17’s deck gun fired 17 rounds, with some falling short into the sea, some firing long into ranchland beyond the refinery, and some landing within the refinery’s boundaries. I-17 then withdrew, steaming on the surface southward through the Santa Barbara Channel. The shelling had caused only superficial damage to the installation. This was Japan’s first naval bombardment of the continental United States in World War II. ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | Ellwood, California | TH]
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