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October 4, 1954, Villers-le-Tilleul, Ardennes:

Reference for this case: 4-oct-54-Villers.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

The most reliable report - or less unreliable - on this case is the report written by the Gendarmerie National of Flize on October 12, 1954; however, this report was made public only in the 2000s. This report indicated the following:

On October 4, 1954, a young girl (the name is censored) told the gendarmes she "has been in the presence of a machine called "FLYING-SAUCER":

Between 06:40 p.m. and 07:00 p.m., she had just closed the cows into a park located at the east exit of Villers-le-Tilleul and about 200 meters from the last house of the village, when she saw a machine that caught her attention, posed 20 meters to her left in relation to her walking direction, on a grassy field opening into a small clearing and accessing a dirt road on which she was traveling.

As she was cycling, she stopped and thought at first that the thing was a camping tent.

She said that the craft was 2.50 to 3 meters high, and 2 meters wide, it was an oval body topped by a kind of conical but rounded hat. It rested on the ground on a rectangular part.

As she tried to approach, a hatch lifted from the bottom up, this hatch would have had a height of 1 meter, a width of about 0.60 meters, and was about 60 to 80 centimeters from the ground.

A human jumped out of this hatch and immediately closed it behind him. Then he stayed still for a moment.

During the time she was able to observe him, the girl noted that he was a man of normal size, appearing to have his head surrounded by a square shape, with very sharp eyes. His arms were hanging, his hands seemed to be in one piece with fingers welded to each other. The man wore a long, long-haired garment of red-brown color.

At one point, the man would have come towards the girl who got scared and fled on her bicycle without looking back.

The girl had been questioned by the teacher and other people in the village, and never changed her first statements. She was considered as very intelligent and recognized as being sane by her teacher and the doctor. She was not "emotional or suggestive" and reasoned like a child of her age, but seemed very thoughtful. According to her parents, she did not engage in "readings that would upset her mind."

The gendarmes note that a 24-year-old woman, whose name is censored, residing in one of the last houses at the east end of the village had not seen anything but had heard for a long time a noise resembling the one that makes a cream skimmer and this, in the direction where the girl had seen the craft, and at the same hour. She had even ventured on the road to check if it was a vehicle. She stated that she had not mistaken herself with a farm skimmer being very far away from the nearest one at the time of the audition.

The 49-year-old father of the girl, and another, 46-year-old, farmer, had arrived at the location that evening at 9 p.m. They noticed nothing abnormal, except that the grass had been somewhat wrinkled in a gyratory direction.

The Gendarmerie Brigade personnel went to the location on October 6, 1954 and found nothing.

The report concluded as follows:

"For his part, the Commanding Officer did not gather any further details on this affair. It is certain that the above information seems to have a certain "consistency" but it is difficult to admit that the statements of the young [X] are entirely true. The population of Villers/le Tilleul keeps cool. An important part of this population believes the statement made by the young [X] is sincere and real. In the most general opinion, it would be a sophisticated flying machine, sent by a foreign nation."

The first appearance of this case in the ufological literature is by ufologist Jacques Vallée in 1966, when in a "preliminary Catalog of 500 observations" he simply noted that there was an observation at "Villers le Thilleul" (sic) on October 4, 1954, at 06:40 p.m.

From 1966 on, in his catalog of "landings", he would note that on October 4, 1954, in Villers-le-Tilleul, "the young Bertiaux", aged 10, saw an object "shaped like a tent" (which will become "big as a tent" from the second version on, which is wrong, the girl had never said that, she had given dimensions, and the "tent" was only her first interpretation attempt of what the object could have been and not an indication of size that would have meant nothing anyway - and an "unknown person" near the object. Instead of specifying a source, he noted from 1969 on that the case is "Personal", which has sometimes been interpreted as a first hand knowledge by Jacques Vallée, but only means that he has a source in his personal file. The girl was changed to a boy because the English language in which his catalog first appeared lost the correct information, the error will persist in all the next versions of his catalogue. Vallée gives the name "Bertiaux", but one will find later in other ufologists writings on the case, "Bertieux", "Berthaux", "Bertaux", "Bertheaux" "Berteaux" and even "Berthieuz", with an age of sometimes 8, and most often 10 years old. As for the first name, it would be Eliane.

In 1975, the two French authors and ufologists Charles Garreau and Raymond Lavier report the case with a little more detail; which suggests that they had either read the Gendarmes report or talked to them. The report seems in fact at least partially in line with that of the gendarmes.

Garreau and Lavier specify that the witness was "Eliane Berthaux", 10 years old, and that it was her parents who had alerted the gendarmes of the Flize Brigade who had conducted the investigation. They quote the girl as saying:

"A little ahead of me, about ten meters to my left, I saw something I first took for a camping tent, and as I got closer I saw a hatch rise on the top of this thing that was not a tent but a 3-meter-high craft, and looking like a big egg. It rested on the ground by a rectangular foot. The hatch was one meter high, 0.60 meters wide, a little man appeared, jumped to the ground, his head was square-shaped, his eyes were piercing, his arms dangling, but seemed in one piece, with his fingers welded, he was wearing long-haired, red-brown clothes, and he walked in my direction, I was frightened, I fled at full speed, without looking back."

They confirm that two other testimonies partially confirmed Eliane Berthaux's story: first Mr. Antoine Barrois, 70-year-old, from the same village, who saw a luminous red craft rise, but did not care about it. Also, according to them, another resident of the same village, heard a noise, "a kind of buzz."

Garreau and Lavier then embark on their theory - inspired by the Australian ufologist Bruce Cathie - of a "grid" flown over France by UFOs; they were convinced that the observations are occurring at the corners of a network of 43-kilometer wide squares. They also believed that other cases of "hairy beings" in these same days were a "confirmation" of the reality of this case.

Since Garreau and Lavier were telling that the man the girl saw was a "little man", in many future sources he will become "a little being". Remember that in the report of the Gendarmes, it was just a "human being."

Since Garreau and Lavier had talked about a hatch on the upper part of the object, Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon would place it in their 1979 version "on the top" of the object. In the report of the Gendarmes, the hatch was located neither on the top nor on the upper part of the objet, it had simply opened as "raised from bottom to top".

In 1981, a ufologist from the region, Jean-Michel Ligeron, published about the case. He had found the witness, who had become "Madame C." He gave some details: the place where she parked the animals was the place called "Le Moulin", the path was a small stone path, the object in the form of a "tent" appearing on the ground was of red-orangeish color. The human pilot is now "a little being", and she saw it "a few split seconds" after seeing the object (it is no longer mentioned that he jumped out through the hatch), and his eyes are now "red-luminous" instead of being "very piercing". The hatch is described as a sliding door at the top of the object posed on the ground.

The trace in the grass disappears in this version: when Eliane's father, accompanied by a friend who was there, immediately went to the scene of the observation and inspected thoroughly the presumed location where the object had landed, they "did not find any trace on the ground, the grass was not even trampled."

The father, Ligeron told, returned to the scene the next morning, but found nothing.

Jean-Michel Ligeron said he had learned that a villager from Villers-le-Tilleul had time to observe a red-orange luminous object, just in the direction where Eliane was at the moment when she had fled. This witness would have been "Mr. Antoine Barrois, deceased since."

In 1995, in his "Regional Catalog of Humanoid Observations - 3rd issue", ufologist Raoul Robé gives ufology sources and summarizes the case, and for the first time, a prosaic explanation is proposed: "several elements still make think of a mistake with a helicopter?"

The next, Raoul Robé completed: J. M. Ligeron spoke of a shape of "tent", very different from that of an egg, and incoherent with the dimensions of 4.5 m high, 1.50 m wide; he recalls that there was no mention of a flying object for the witness because the object was seen only on the ground; the observation is done at sunset and "the color encourages to speak of a reflection of the sun." The witness heading southeast, then returning to the northwest, the UFO would be west-southwest and "might be a setting sun?" He points out that according to Eric Maillot it could have been a "complex misinterpretation?"

In 1997, Jean Sider gives the "Figuet" version but invents that the machine that Figuet reported as rested on a "rectangular foot" was posed on a "triangular" support.

The next year, Raoul Robé protested about Jean Sider's version, recalling that "we have advanced a hypothesis of complex misinterpretation (sunset and helicopter)..." while also pointing out that "the village of Omont ... is the nearest village (same source of confusion?)." "But J. Sider only used the 1986 version of our catalog (published in LDLN), and for good reason... he refuses to read us; "knowing our prose in advance" (mail received at the secretariat in 1996)."

In 2002, in Les Mystères de l'Est, the annual publication of the CNEGU, Eric Maillot mentions the case of October 4, 1954, in Villers-le-Tilleul at "more than 6 p.m. (twilight?)" as a close encounter of the third type described by Jean-Michel Ligeron as an object in the form of a tent, red orange, fixed to the ground, seen furtively, with a sliding door and a small hairy entity with red and bright eyes.

Eric Maillot assures that the case results from "media influence on a child wearing glasses", that the description is succinct and that it could have been "a goat or something else", and that "there was no flying object there."

Of course in those years, one continued to reproduce the meager version of Jacques Vallée and / or Garreau and Lavier on the Web, including the various errors.

In 2018, "skeptical" ufologist Dominique Caudron took things in hand. He recalled what was published by Vallée, Garreau and Lavier, and J. M. Ligeron, and also the report of the Gendarmerie that became available then. He believed that if the data had been available earlier, one would not have suggested that the "craft" was the setting sun - [the Sun with a hatch?!?], the Gendarmerie's report no longer allowing this explanation.

He notes that the characteristics of the craft of oval appearance, 2.50 to 3 meters high and 2 meters wide, surmounted by a rounded cone, with a hatch that opens upwards, producing a noise of farm cream skimmer, and the crumpling of the grass in a gyratory direction, are details that, together, inevitably designate the culprit: a helicopter.

Regarding the color, he notes that according to Jean-Michel Ligeron it was an orange-red color, but that the gendarmerie report says nothing about it, and as between 06:40 p.m. and 07:00 p.m. on that date, it was the hours "between dog and wolf", where one cannot see the colors too well. So if Mr. Barrois saw a very luminous red light rise, it must probably be because he was talking about the color of the helicopter's traffic light.

Dominique Caudron examined various models of helicopters, and found that it is the Sikorky S-51 which would be the best match, with its rotor at the top of a cone. Since "France did not use it in 1954", he envisages that such a Royal Canadian Air Force craft could have been in France on the NATO base of Marville-Montmédy.

As for the occupant, his "head surrounded by a square shape with very piercing eyes" would simply mean a helmet, with headphones, and special glasses. The "hanging arms" would simply mean that he stayed there for a few moments while the girl was looking at him. The "hands seeming in one piece with fingers welded to each other" would simply correspond to mittens. The most bizarre remains the "long-haired coat of red-brown hair", curious clothing to fly a helicopter in early October, but he believes that it is rather insufficient to make for a Martian, especially since he was described as a "man of normal size".

He concluded:

"The only thing that conforms to the mythology of the "hairy Martian" is therefore the long-haired garment, but since there is no 1.20 m being nor flying saucer, there has never been any "hairy Martian" in Villers-le-Tilleul."

Reports:

[Ref. gen1:] GENDARMERIE NATIONALE:

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National Gendarmerie.
2nd Legion
N ° 348/4

Mézières, on 12 October 1954.

REPORT

by Chief-of-Squadron [], Commander []

on the presence of a "flying saucer", in VILLERS/le/TILLEUL, (Ardennes). -.

-Reference; Note Nr 15/4. Legion of 1/11/1954. -.

- On October 4, 1954, the young [] said she was in the presence of a machine called "FLYING-SAUCER", under the following circumstances:

On October 4, 1954, between 6:40 p.m. and 7 p.m., this child who had just brought back the cows in a park located at the East exit of the locality and about 200 meters from the last house of the Village saw a machine that attracted her attention. According to the child, this machine was 20 meters on her left of her direction of march on a grassy field emerging in a small clearing and itself reaching a dirt road on which the child circulated.

[], who was riding a bicycle, stopped and thought she was in the presence of a "camping" tent. As she tried to approach, a trap opened from the bottom to the top from where a human being jumped and immediately closed the trap behind him and then remained motionless for a while. -

-That time would have been sufficient for the child, according to her words, to give the following description of the individual: a man of normal height, appearing to have his head surrounded by a square shape with very sharp eyes. Arms hanging down, hands appearing to be one of piece with fingers welded to each other. Dressed in a long long-haired garment of brown-red color. At one time, the man would have moved forward to the young [] who took fright ran away on her bicycle without looking back.

- From the words of the child, the machine might measure

..//......

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- 2 -

2 m. 50 to 3 m. of height, and 2 m. width, it had an oval body, crowned with like a hat of conical shape but rounded on the top and resting on the ground on a part of rectangular shape. The hatch would have dimensions as follows: height 1 meter, width 0 m. 60 approximately, ground distance: 60 to 80 centimeters approximately. -

The young [], questioned by mister [], teacher and by other people of the village never changed anything in her first affirmations. She is deemed very intelligent and recognized sane of mind by her teacher and doctor []. This child does not appear emotional or sensitive to suggestion. She reasons like a child of her age, but seems very thoughtful. According to her parents, she does not engage in readings that may disturb her reason. -

- Mrs [], aged 24, living in one of the last houses at the east exit to the country did not see anything but heard for a long time a sound resembling that done by a skimmer in the direction where the young girl had seen the machine and at the same moments. She even ventured on the road for the sole purpose of knowing if it was a vehicle. She says she did not mistake with a farm creamer, being very far from the nearest of them at the time of the hearing.

- Finally, it should be noted that Messrs. [], aged 49, father of the girl in question and [], aged 46, both farmers, went to the scene that same evening at 9 p.m. They did not notice anything abnormal except that the grass would have been somewhat crumpled in a roundabout way.

- Brigade Personal [] visited the scene on October 6, 1954 and was unable to make any findings. -

- For his part, the Company Commander did not gather further details on this case. It is certain that the above information seems to have a certain "consistency" but it is difficult to admit the declarations of the young girl to be entirely true. The population of Villers/le/Tilleul keeps all its composure. An important part of this population believes the declaration made by the young [] to be sincere and real and think there is something. The most general view is that it would be a sophisticated flying craft sent by a foreign nation

../......

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- 3 -

rather than a monster arriving from another planet.

To:

- Mr. The COLONEL, Cdt. The 2nd Legion of Gendarmerie (3 ex.) .-
- THE PREFECT OF THE ARDENNES. -
- The Commissioner for General Intelligence. -
- The Commander of Military Security of the 2nd Military Region.- Lille.-
- The Commander of Military Security "Air" 2nd Air Region. Paris.

No 942/3. Bis.- Transmitted to the GENERAL REGIONAL COMMANDER of the Gendarmerie Nationale of the 2nd Military Region
in Lille

- as a report -

Lille, October 14, 1954

The Colonel [] commanding the 2nd Gendarmerie Legion

Signed: [Signature]

N ° 8.469 / 3.- Transmitted to the GENERAL of the Corps d'Armée commanding the 2nd Military Region (General Staff - 2nd Bureau)
in Lille

- as a report -

Lille, October 15, 1954

Brigadier General [], Regional Commander of the Gendarmerie Nationale of the 2nd Military Region.

Signed: [Signature]

[Ref. jve8:] JACQUES VALLEE:

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4 Oct., 1954 Vil-Tilleul France

[Ref. jve9:] JACQUES VALLEE:

We will report here on two clusters of special interest: the Mezieres cluster and the Saint Quirin cluster. * Of the three observations near Mezieres, none has ever been reported in a national newspaper or a specialized publication. Two come from obscure local papers; the third one is a police report. They were unknown to Michel and Carrouges when they wrote their books. They have received no publicity. The sightings took place on October 4, 16, and 27 - roughly twelve days apart. The first case was reported by a child who said he saw an object "shaped like a tent" and an unknown individual near it. In the second case, a woman fainted as she saw an object land within thirty meters of her. In the third case, policemen in the immediate vicinity of the two other sightings saw a flying object that took off at dawn.

[...]

* A special investigation of this point is in progress within the framework of a complete study of the distribution of the landing sites over the French territory.

[Ref. jve5:] JACQUES VALLEE:

234 -004.72761 49.63500 04 10 1954 18 40 1 VILLERS LE THILLEUL F 0111 E

[Ref. jve6:] JACQUES VALLEE:

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55, Oct. 4. A ten-year-old child named Bertiaux saw an object 'shaped like a tent' which had landed near Villers-le-Tilleul (Ardennes). An unknown individual was standing near it.

[Ref. jve1:] JACQUES VALLEE:

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193) October 4, 1954 Villers-le-Tilleul (France):

The young Bertiaux, aged 10, saw an object "like a tent" and an unknown man near it. (Personal).

[Ref. jve3:] JACQUES VALLEE:

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193
Oct. 4,1954
1840

Villers-le-TilleuI (France). Ten-year-old Bertiaux saw an object "like a tent" and an unknown man near it. (Personal)

[Ref. ldl1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":

In a list of cases that the magazine called for investigation or re-investigation, there was:

193 10/4/54 Villers-les-Tilleuls [sic]

[Ref. prn1:] PETER ROGERSON:

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369 4 October 1954 1840 hrs

VILLERS-LES-TILLEUL [sic] (FRANCE) 10 year old Bertieux [sic] saw an object like a tent and an unknown man near it. (M193)

[Ref. jve4:] JACQUES VALLEE:

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4 octobre 1954, Villers-le-Tilleul (France):

The young Bertiaux, aged ten, saw an object big as "a tent" and an unknown man near (Personal).

[Ref. gal1:] CHARLES GARREAU AND RAYMOND LAVIER:

The two French authors and ufologists report on the observation at Villers-le-Thilleul in the Ardennes, October 4, 1954 at some time a bit later than 6 P.M..

Elianne Berthaux, a 10 years old girl, had just led the cows of her parent's farm in a park at the south-eastern exit of the community, at approximately 200 meters away of the last houses. She went on a bicycle to return, and at the end of a few tens of meters she had the strangest encounter which she narrated to the gendarmes that her parents alerted:

"A little in front of me, within ten meters on my left, I saw a thing which I initially took for a camping tent. While I approached, I saw a trap door being raised on the top of this thing; which was not a tent but a 3 meters high machine, and which resembled a large egg. It rested on the ground on a foot of rectangular shape. The trap door was about a meter high, and 0.60 meters broad. A small character appeared. He jumped to the ground. His head was surrounded by a square shape. His eyes were very sharp. He had hanging arms, but which seemed made of only one part, with fingers like welded together. He wore clothing with long hairs, of brown-russet-red color. He advanced in my direction. I became frightened. I fled at full speed, without looking back behind. "

The authors estimated that two other testimonies partly confirm the story by Eliane Berthaux:

Mr. Antoine Barrois, aged 70, of the same village, saw the rise of a sharp red luminous machine. He did not worry about it.

Also, another inhabitant of the same village heard a noise, "a kind of buzz."

The authors indicate that their sources are their personal file and an investigation report by the gendarmerie, and they indicate that it is the brigade of Flize in the Ardennes which carried out the investigation.

[Ref. jve2:] JACQUES VALLEE:

The author indicates that on October 4, 1954, a 10 year old child named Bertiaux saw an object "in the shape of tent", which landed close to Villers-le-Tilleul in the Ardennes. An individual was not far from the object.

[Ref. agd1:] ALAIN GAMARD:

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Case # Date Time Locality Department Witness(es) name
035 04/10/1954 18.00 Villers-le-Tilleul 08 Bertiaux

[Ref. jve7:] JACQUES VALLEE - "HISTORIA" MAGAZINE:

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October 4, 1954. Villers-le-Tilleul (Ardennes).

The young Bertiaux, aged ten, saw an object large like "a tent" and an unknown man next to.

[Ref. tbw1:] TED BLOECHER AND DAVID WEBB:

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54-45 Oct. 4, 1954 1840 Villers-le-Tilleul, France Type C

Ten-year-old Bertiaux saw an object "like a tent" and an unknown man near it.

Investigator:

Source: Vallee, Magonia, p. 217.

[Ref. fru1:] MICHEL FIGUET AND JEAN-LOUIS RUCHON:

The two authors indicate that in Villers-le-Thilleul in the Ardennes, on October 4, 1954 at 06:00 p.m., Eliane Bertiaux, a 10-year-old girl, had just lead the cows of her parents' farm in a park, in the south-eastern exit of the locality. To regain her residence, she uses her bicycle, and she sees, after having crossed a few tens of meters, a thing that she initially thought was a tent. While approaching, she observes the machine on the ground, it has the shape of a large egg which rests on a rectangular foot. A trap door of one meter height and broad of 60 cm opens at the top of the object. A small being appears and jumps to the ground. It has the head surrounded by a square shape, its eyes are piercing. It has hanging arms, but which seem made of only one part, with welded fingers. It wears clothing of long hairs, of red-brown color. The entity then advances towards her. "I became afraid, I fled at full speed without looking behind", the witness said.

A second witness, Antoine Barrois, aged 70, observed a luminous, very sharp red machine which rose. Finally, a third person heard an unusual buzz at the time of the events.

The authors indicate that their sources are the Vallée catalogue, case 193, and C. Garreau and R. Lavier in "Face aux E.T." pages 24-25.

[Ref. gep1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "GEPO":

04/10/54 (18.30) Villers le Tilleul i 407XV B 6m

[Ref. mft1:] MICHEL FIGUET:

Nr of the J. C. Fumoux list Nr of Francat list Localization Date Class Credibility Sources Number of W
031 127 Villers-le-Tilleul 04/10 CE3 Ni [= "Non identifié"] C.V. [= "Catalogue Vallée"] 2-p 117 1 T + 2

[Ref. cck1:] GILBERT CORNU AND HENRI CHALOUPEK:

The authors indicate that on October 4, 1954, several young children of Villers-le-Tilleul in the Ardennes had the vision of an object in the form of "a big egg" of a height of 3 meters with a "trap door" which opened at its top.

A small being with arms hanging and stiff as if they were made of only one part - an impression still confirmed by the fingers which seem welded together - suddenly jumped to the ground.

The 10-year-old young girl who was the main witness became frightened and fled, "without looking back," with the result that one is unaware of how it ended.

The authors indicate that the sources are the Vallée Catalogue, case 196; and Garreau and Lavier in "Face aux E.T." pages 24-25.

[Ref. mft2:] MICHEL FIGUET:

CAS Nr CLASSIFICATION DATE HOUR PLACE ZIP CODE CREDIBILITY SOURCE
127 CE3 04 10 1954 06.00 p.m. Villers-le-Tilleul 08 160 B3 NI [="Unidentified"] OVNI [= [fru1]]: p. 117

[Ref. jsx1:] JACQUES SCORNAUX:

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Garreau and Lavier, who report to us this case (83, pp. 31-33), recklessly comment that this landing and that of Villers-le-Tilleul on 4 October (21, pp. 117, 83, pp. 24-25) "mutually authenticate themselves" since the witnesses could not know each other's stories and both describe a little being carrying a garment with long hairs. In addition, these two landings are separated by a distance equal to three times the side of the grid "discovered" by the authors, and another landing (Vron, October 1) is distant of Voillecomte seven times this side of 43.2 km. Garreau and Lavier then proceed imprudently to the point of adding that "it would seem then that this terrestrial distance corresponds to an extraterrestrial unit of measurement". I write "imprudence", because, despite these impressive geometric confirmations (at least for those who do not have notions of calculating probabilities), the case of Voillecomte has all chances of being false (but I will refrain from inferring anything about the value of the cases of Villers-le-Tilleul and of Vron...).

[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:

October 4th. Villers-les-Tilleue [sic], France. (6:40 p.m.)

A 10-year-old child named Bertieux told authorities he had seen a strange object on the ground, and a "figure" next to it. The object was, he said, "shaped like a tent." 42.

[Ref. rre1:] RAOUL ROBE - CNEGU:

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Case #8:

On Monday, October 4, 1954, just before 06:00 p.m., a 10-year-old teenager, Eliane Bertaux, has just driven the cows from her parents' farm to a park at the south-east exit of the commune of Villers-le-Tilleul (08). She returns by bike, when, 200 meters from the first houses, she sees an object posed in a field. She approaches and discovers a machine resembling a big egg (3 m high) resting on the ground on a rectangular foot. A hatch lifts on the top and a little man appears. He jumps to the ground. His head is surrounded by a square shape, his eyes are very piercing. The hanging arms are terminated by hands with welded fingers. He wears "clothes with long red hairs". He walks towards the girl who is afraid and runs away.

Two other villagers confirm the unusual presence. One saw a luminous red phenomenon rise and the other heard a buzz.

Explanation: There are several things that make you think of a misinterpretation with a helicopter?

Sources: CH.Garreau "Face aux Extraterrestres" Mame (1975) pages 24-25 quoting a 1954 Flize Gendarmerie investigation; JM. Ligeron "OVNI dans les Ardennes" pages 27-29; C.Bowen "Enquêtes des Humanoïdes" J'Ai Lu; J.Vallée "Chronique des apparitions extraterrestres" Denoël (1972) page 291 (with an error: the girl is "the young Bertiaux"!), The local press does not mention this case?

[Ref. rre2:] RAOUL ROBE - CNEGU:

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Supplement to the 3rd issue of the Catalogue North-East of the Observations of Humanoïds

Thanks to the relevance of our readers and to the discovery of new entries, we offer you this complement to the catalog published in #1 of "Les Mystères de l'Est".

[...Other cases...]

Case nr. 8: Villers le Tilleul (08) October 4, 1954, J.M. Ligeron speaks of a shape of "tent" (very different from that of an egg and incoherent with the dimensions: 4.5m high, 1.50m wide!); there is no question of a flying object for E. Berteaux (the witness): it is on the ground!; the observation is done at sunset and the color encourages to speak of a solar reflection. Witness going south-east then returning to northwest, the UFO would be west/southwest (would it be a setting sun?); Complex misinterpretation? (E. Maillot).

[...Other cases...]

[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:

This ufologist documents the case as follows:

On October 4, 1954, at approximately 06:00 p.m. l, Eliane Berthieux, 8 years old, returned home by bicycle when she suddenly noticed a mass she initially took for a camp-site tent, the scene occurring in the very center of pastures crossed by a path.

She approached and noticed that it was actually an egg-shaped craft shape resting on a triangular support.

A trap door of approximately 1 meter in height and 60 cm broad opened at the top of the apparatus, then a small being came out and jumped to the ground.

Its head was surrounded by a square form and its eyes were piercing. Its arms seemed of only one part, the fingers appeared welded. It wore a clothing of long hairs, russet-red brown.

It moved towards the young girl who was seized by fright and fled at full speed without looking back.

A Mr. Barrois had seen a sharp luminous craft, and a third person, not named, had heard a buzzing sound.

Jean Sider indicates that the source is Michel Figuet, p. 117.

[Ref. rre3:] RAOUL ROBE - CNEGU:

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The case of Villers-le-Tilleul (08) of October 4 is reported as is from the book of Mr. Figuet. We have advanced a hypothesis of complex misinterpretation (sunset and helicopter) in Les Mystères de l'Est No. 2 page 005, noting also that the village of Omont (see case above) is the nearest village (same source of confusion?). But J. Sider only considered the 1986 edition of our catalog (published in LDLN), and for good reason... he refuses to read us; "knowing our prose in advance" (mail received at the secretariat in 1996).

[Ref. goe1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

The Belgian ufologist indicates in her catalogue that in 1954, on October 4, in France in "Villers le Thilleul (Flize)", around 18 hours, "Eliane Berteaux, ten-year-old young girl, comes to lead the cows in the meadow. She goes back by bicycle: 'A little in front of me, at some twenty meters on my left, I saw something like a camp-site tent. While I approached I saw a trap door being raised on the top of this thing which was not a tent, but a craft, 3m high, and resembling a large egg. It rested on the ground by a foot of rectangular shape. The trap door measured about 1 m in height and as 60 cm broad. A small being appeared. It jumped to the ground. Its head was surrounded by a square shape. Its eyes were very piercing. It had hanging arms but which seemed made of only one part, with welded fingers. It wore clothing of long hairs of russet-red brown color. It advanced in my direction. I became frightened. I fled at full speed without looking back.'"

"Mr. Antoine Barrois, 70-year-old, saw rising a luminous machine, red very sharp, but he did not worry about it. Another witness heard a sound, a kind of humming noise."

She indicates that the source is "GARREAU and LAVIER: 'Face aux extra-terrestres' - DELARGE 1975, J'ai Lu, p. 26, 27".

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":

3965: 1954/10/04 18:40 1 4:43:40 E 49:37:00 N 3333 WEU FRN ADN 9:8

VILLERS-le-TILLEUL,FR:CHILD:3M TENTLIKE OBJ LANDS:ODD MAN OUTSIDE:/r217p185

Ref# 30 FIGEUT[sic]&RUCHON: OVNI: Le 1er Dossier Page No. 117 : FOREST

[Ref. emt1:] ERIC MAILLOT:

Scan.

Eric Maillot mentions the case for October 4, 1954 in Villers le Tilleul at "more than 6 p.m. (twilight?)" as a close encounter of the third kind described by Jean-Michel Ligeron as an object in the shape of a tent, of red orange color, fixed on the ground, seen furtively, with a sliding door and a small hairy entity with red luminous eyes.

Eric Maillot notes that the case results from a media influence on a child who wears glasses, that the description is brief and that it could have been a goat or any other such thing, and that there was no flying object.

[Ref. fbn2:] FABRICE BONVIN:

In a table, Fabrice Bonvin notes selected cases of the 1954 Frnech flap, including this one:

Case Nmbr witnesses Hours Type objects
Villers-le-Tilleul 3 3 1

[Ref. djn1:] DONALD JOHNSON:

On this Day

October 4

[...]

1954 - Villers-le-Tilleul, France. Ten year old Bertiaux saw an object at 6:40 p.m. "like a tent" with an unknown man nearby. (Source: Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, p. 217).

[...]

[Ref. ars1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

122.

Location. Villers-le-Tilleul France

Date: October 4 1954

Time: 1840

10-year old Eliane Berteaux had just led the cows to pasture and was returning in her moped when she saw some meters to her left what appeared to be a metallic tent. While she approached she saw a trap door being raised to the top of the object, which was really an object resembling a large egg. It rested on the ground on a rectangular base. The trap door measured about 1 m in height and 60 cm in width. A small humanoid then appeared. It jumped to the ground. On his head he wore a large square helmet. It had very piercing eyes and arms that hung on its sides. It wore a russet red color outfit. The humanoid moved towards the witness and this one ran away in fear. In the same area, Antoine Barrois, 70 years of age saw a red luminous object rise from the ground.

Humcat 1954-73

Source: Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia

Type: C

[Ref. fbn1:] FABRICE BONVIN:

Fabrice Bonvin notes:

Case #012: 04/10/1954, p. 117 (Villers-le-Tilleul)

[Ref. ads2:] "L'ARDENNAIS" NEWSPAPER:

Scan.

[... Other cases...]

On October 3 [1954] at 9 p.m., a "red luminous object" described as "oval" or "elongated" depending on the position of witnesses is observed in Tagnon (08). The next evening, a 10-year-old cyclist sees in Villers-le-Tilleul, a "big egg of 3m height" posed vertically in a field. A little being whose head is surrounded by a square shape is at its front. The witness fled (found 25 years later, he will confirmed his observation).

[... Other cases...]

[Ref. cnu1:] CNEGU - "LES MYSTERES DE L'EST":

Scan.

[... Other cases...]

On October 3 [1954] at 9 p.m., a "red luminous object" described as "oval" or "elongated" depending on the position of witnesses is observed in Tagnon (08). The next evening, a 10-year-old cyclist sees in Villers-le-Tilleul, a "big egg of 3m height" posed vertically in a field. A little being whose head is surrounded by a square shape is at its front. The witness fled (found 25 years later, he will confirmed his observation).

[... Other cases...]

[Ref. jbu1:] JEROME BEAU:

Monday, 4 October 1954

[...]

In Villers-le-Tilleul (France), the young male witness Bertiaux (aged 10) sees 1 object large as a tent and 1 unknown man nearby.

[...]

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:

Luc Chastan notes in his database that in the Ardennes in Villers le Tilleul on October 4, 1954 at 18:00 hours, "a girl comes to lead the cows of the farm of her parents into a park, at the south-eastern exit of the locality. To go back home, she goes up on her bicycle, she sees, after having crossed several tens of meters, a thing which she initially takes for a camp-site tent. While approaching, she observes the craft on the ground, it has the shape of a large egg which rests on a rectangular foot. A trapdoor, one meter in height and 60 cm broad opens at the top of the object. A small being appears and jumps to the ground. Its head is surrounded by a square shape, its eyes are piercing. It has hanging arms, but which seem made of only one part, with welded fingers. It wears clothing of long hairs, of brown-russet-red color. The entity then advances towards her. 'I was seized by fear, I fled at full speed without looking back', the witness would say."

"A second witness as for him observed a luminous craft, of a very sharp red, which was rising. Finally a third person heard an unusual buzzing sound at the time of the facts."

Luc Chastan indicates as source: "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... by Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** Alain Lefeuvre pub. 1979".

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 4 October 1954 at 18:40 in Villers-le-Tilleul, France, "Ten-year-old Bertiaux saw an object 'like a tent' and an unknown man near it."

The website adds: "Villers-le-Tilleul, France. Ten year old Bertiaux saw an object at 6:40 p.m. "like a tent" with an unknown man nearby."

And: "Close encounter with an unidentified craft and its occupants. One tent-shaped object, about 10 feet across, was observed by one male 10-year-old witness in a forest. One humanoid was seen. 10-year old Eliane Berteaux had just led the cows to pasture and was returning in her moped when she saw some meters to her left what appeared to be a metallic tent. While she approached she saw a trap door being raised to the top of the object, which was really an object resembling a large egg. It rested on the ground on a rectangular base. The trap door measured about 1 m in height and 60 cm in width. A small humanoid then appeared. It jumped to the ground. On his head he wore a large square helmet. It had very piercing eyes and arms that hung on its sides. It wore a russet red color outfit. The humanoid moved towards the witness and this one ran away in fear. In the same area, Antoine Barrois, 70 years of age saw a red luminous object rise from the ground."

The sources are indicated as: "Webb, David, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports; Poher, Claude, Etudes Statistiques Portant sur 1000 Temoignag, Author, undated; Bowen, Charles, The Humanoids: FSR Special Edition No. 1, FSR, London, 1966; Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073); Vallee, Jacques, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1966; Vallee, Jacques, Preliminary Catalog (N = 500), (in JVallee01); Vallee, Jacques, A Century of Landings (N = 923), (in JVallee04), Chicago, 1969; Schoenherr, Luis, Computerized Catalog (N = 3173); Delaire, J. Bernard, UFO Register Volume 7 (1976), Data Research, Oxford, 1976; Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002; Rosales, Albert, Humanoid Sighting Reports Database".

[Ref. rte1:] RAYMOND TERRASSE:

The author declares that he creates a "new branch of ufology", "marifology, on mathematical bases: 9, 13, 46, the figure of head was the number of letters of the term our lady, allotted to the Blessed Virgin by Bernard de Clairvaux; 13 is the symbol of the letter M according to its place in the alphabet [!]; and 46, the numerical total of MARIE" [!]. He thus lists UFO cases whose witness name is 13 letters long and quotes among these: "Villers le Lac and Mrs. Eliane Bertaux" [sic].

[Ref. prn2:] PETER ROGERSON:

October 4 1954, 1840hrs.

VILLERS-LES-TILLEUL (ARDENNES : FRANCE)

10 year old Bertieuz [sic] saw an object like a tent and an unknown man near it. (Vallee Case 193, citing “Personal” information:: Vallee in FSR 10, 1, p.8)

[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

Location: Villers-le-Tilleul France

Date: October 4 1954

Time: 1840

10-year old Eliane Berteaux had just led the cows to pasture and was returning in her moped when she saw some meters to her left what appeared to be a metallic tent. While she approached she saw a trap door being raised to the top of the object, which was really an object resembling a large egg. It rested on the ground on a rectangular base. The trap door measured about 1 m in height and 60 cm in width. A small humanoid then appeared. It jumped to the ground. On his head he wore a large square helmet. It had very piercing eyes and arms that hung on its sides. It wore a russet red color outfit. The humanoid moved towards the witness and this one ran away in fear. In the same area, Antoine Barrois, 70 years of age saw a red luminous object rise from the ground. .

Source: Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia 193

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

*Oct. 4, 1954 - Villers-le-Tilleul, France. Ten year old Bertiaux saw an object at 6:40 p.m. "like a tent" with an unknown man nearby. (Source: Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia: A Century of Landings, p. 217, case # 193).

[Ref. jgz1:] JULIEN GONZALEZ:

The author indicates that there was a close encounter of the third type at Villers-le-Tilleul, in the Ardennes, on October 4, 1954, at 6:00 p.m..

It was not very cold, and the weather was clear and cloudless, with good visibility, but night fell. Eliane Berteaux, 10-year-old, led a herd of cows in the pasture which was about 400 to 500 meters from her parents' house. At the place known as "Le Moulin", she borrowed a small stone path with her flock, parked the animals, then returned to work by the same route.

At that moment, returning to her home by bicycle, she suddenly saw on her left a strange object in the form of a "tent" of red-orange color appearing on the ground. A few split seconds later, she was surprised to see, standing nearby, a little being who seemed to wear a kind of combination covered with long hair and with bright red eyes.

She just had time to discern a kind of up-sliding door on the object posed on the ground, but with great fright, she ran away without looking back to her parents' house, and reported to them what she had seen.

His father accompanied by a friend who was there decided to go immediately to the scene. They inspected the site where the object had allegedly been but did not find any trace on the ground, the grass was not even trampled.

In order to better understand, Mr. Berteaux returned to the scene the next morning, but found nothing.

Another inhabitant of Villers-le-Tilleul, Antoine Barrois, had time to observe a bright red-orange object, just in the direction in which Eliane Bertiaux was at the moment when she had fled.

A third person who remained anonymous is said to have heard a buzzing sound.

According to Eliane the object measured 4 to 4.5 meters high on 1 to 1.50 meters wide. She never heard any noise.

At the time, there had been an investigation by the Gendarmerie Nationale of the Brigade of Flize, and there was a counter-investigation almost 25 years later by Jean-Michel Ligeron during which Mrs. C..., formerly Miss Eliane Berteaux, had confirmed her statements of the time. She added that she refuses any literature relating to UFOs for fear of being frightened.

Sources are indicated as C. Garreau et R. Lavier, "Face aux Extra-Terrestres", pages 24-25; Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon, "OVNI, le premier dossier complet des rencontres rapprochées en France", page 117; Jean-Michel Ligeron, "OVNI en Ardennes", pages 27-29; Jean Sider, "Le dossier ]954 et l'imposture rationaliste", pages 185.

[Ref. gei1:] "GROUPE D'ETUDES ET D'INFORMATIONS SUR LES PHENOMENES AEROSPATIAUX NON IDENTIFIES":

VILLERS-LE-TILLEUL (08) 04.10.1954
Observed on: 10/04/1954
Region: Champagne-Ardenne
Department: Ardennes
Class: C
Summary: Observation by a child of a craft on the ground and a being: lack of information.
Description:

On October 4, 1954 between 6:40 and 7 p.m., a 10-year-old girl (T1) traveling by bicycle sees 20 m from her a "craft" that she first thinks to be a camping tent. According to the child, the oval-shaped craft might measure 2 m wide and 2.5-3 m high, with a conical shape above it, and rests on the ground on a rectangular basis. When she approaches the craft, a hatch (1 x 0.6 m) rises. A man jumps to the ground and closes the trap behind him and then stays motionless. Of normal size he has a "square shape" on the head, sharp eyes, a long garment with long brown-red hairs. When the man comes forward, the frightened child runs away without looking back.

Two other people reported at the same time and in the direction where the girl was standing, one "a luminous machine of a very bright red" about which he did not care, the other a sound of skimming that made her come out of her house. The father of the child and a neighbor go to the observation place the same day at 9 p.m. and note that the grass is "somewhat crumpled in a roundabout".

The gendarmerie will visit the scene on October 6 but will not be able to make any findings. No further details will be collected during the investigation.

In summary for this case there are four distinct facts:

- a unique witness who sees a craft and "a human being" near her path. She does not see the machine take off.

- simultaneously a farmer sees in the sky a luminous machine of a very bright red.

- a third person hears at length a sound resembling that made by a creamer.

-the father of the child and a farmer will find at 9 p.m. the same evening on the observation site of T1, grass crumpled in a roundabout.

There is no evidence that these four facts are related. If one considers that they are linked one can find a hypothesis to consider:

- several elements seem compatible with a helicopter, perhaps a Bell 47, seen from the front (oval shape): the support of the rotor, the hatch, the noise, the crumpling of the grass, the pilot. The place ("on a grassy path leading into a small clearing") could lend itself to a landing. On the other hand, the rectangular base, the position of the hatch (if it had been on the side, could the witness have noted its width?) And the red-hot light of the object are less easy to interpret.

This case turns out to be of average strangeness, since a simple hypothesis may be more or less appropriate. Its consistency is low relying essentially on a single witness (child) and with a short observation.

GEIPAN classifies this case in C for lack of information and corroboration.

Report: None.

Details of the testimony
witness
Date of the observation 04-10-1954
Document number
Age Child (under 13)
Profession Students
Sex Female
Reaction Active Curiosity;Flight;Feeling, Protection
Credibility Normal Credibility
Conditions
Environment Departemental paths,Roads
Weather conditions Not-specified
Hour of the observation Numbered: 6 p.m. 8 p.m.
Reference frame Landscape (trees, mountain, hill, sea,
Distance between phenomenon and witness Very close (- than 40 m)
Start of the observation Start of observation by witness
End of the observation End of observation by witness
Localization
Angle of the site Others;Others
Direction of observation Not-specified
Heading Not-specified
Trajectory Motionless;Motionless
Nature of the observation Craft;Others
Characteristic of the observation Unique
Global shape Oval, rugby balloon;Conical, triangle
Color Not-specified
Apparent size Numbered
Apparent speed Nul
Noise Not-specified
Effect on the environment Not-specified
Number: 1

Details of the testimony
witness
Date of the observation 10/04/1954
Document number
Age Adult (more than 60)
Profession Farmer (vinemakers, etc)
Sex Male
Reaction Passive Curiosity
Credibility Normal Credibility
Conditions
Environment Country
Weather conditions Not-specified
Hour of the observation Numbered: 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Reference frame Sky or clouds
Distance between phenomenon and witness Not-specified
Start of the observation Start of observation by witness
End of the observation End of observation by witness
Localization
Angle of the site Not-specified;Not-specified
Direction of observation Geographical landmarks (Name of city, village, numbered, etc.)
Heading Not-specified
Trajectory Not-specified;Not-specified
Nature of the observation Craft
Characteristic of the observation Unique
Global shape Not-specified
Colors Red
Apparente size Not-specified
Apparent speed Not-specified
Noise Not-specified
Effect on the environnement Not-specified
Number: 1

[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":

This database recorded this case 10 times:

Case Nr. New case Nr. Investigator Date of observation Zip Place of observation Country of observation Hour of observation Classification Comments Identification
19541004 04.10.1954 Villers France 18.40 CE III
19541004 04.10.1954 Villers Tilleul France 18.40 CE III
19541004 04.10.1954 Villers Tilleul France 18.40 CE III
19541004 04.10.1954 Villers Tilleul France 18.40 CE III
19541004 04.10.1954 Villers Tilleul France 18.40 CE III
19541004 04.10.1954 Villers Tilleul France 18.40 CE III
19541004 04.10.1954 Villers Tilleul France 18.40
19541004 04.10.1954 Villers Tilleul France 18.40 CE III
19541004 04.10.1954 Mezieres France 18.40
19541004 04.10.1954 Mezieres France 18.40 CE III

[Ref. prn3:] PETER ROGERSON - "INTCAT":

October 4 1954. 1815hrs.

VILLERS-LES-TILLEUL (ARDENNES : FRANCE)

Ms Elianne Berthaux (10) was leading the cows home on their farm 200m out of town, riding her bicycle, when after going a few metres, she saw about 10m to her left and a little ahead of her, something she first thought was a tent. Getting closer she saw it was an egg shaped machine, 3m high, resting on a triangular landing gear. From it emerged a little man, whose head was encased in a sort of square helmet. His eyes were sparkling, and his fingers seemed to come from straight from his arms. It had long red hair and wore some sort of suite. The little girl fled. Antoine Barrois (70) saw a red object rise from the ground, but took no notice and another resident heard a buzzing sound.

[Ref. dcn1:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:

Scan.

No Martian in Villers-le-tilleul

To talk about the case Villers-le-tilleul, ufologists, as usual, are recopying each other, citing Figuet, or Vallée. But Figuet himself quotes Garreau and Lavier, while in Vallée, he uses a "personal" source, and speaks of the young Bertiaux instead of the young Eliane Bertaux, which shows the value of his source.

Until the unfortunately late investigation by Jean-Michel Ligeron, our only source was therefore Garreau and Lavier's book, which is based on a gendarmerie investigation, obviously no more searchable, as Jean-Michel Ligeron was able to discover.

It was not until much later that GEIPAN published a gendarmerie report, this time from the departmental directorate, which contained the observations made at the time:

On October 4, 1954, between 06.:.40° p.m. and 7. p.m., this child who came back from confining cows in a park located at the east exit of the locality and about 200 meters from the last house the village saw a craft that caught her eye. This craft, according to the child, was 20 meters to her left in relation to her walking direction on a grassy path leading into a small clearing and accessing a dirt road on which the child was traveling

Eliane BERTAUX, who was riding a bicycle, stopped and thought first of all to be in the presence of a camping tent. As she tried to approach, a hatch was raised from top to bottom by which a human being jumped who immediately closed the hatch behind him and remained motionless for a moment.-

-This amount of time would have been enough for the child, according to her words, to give the following description of the individual: Man of normal height, appearing to have the head surrounded by a square shape with eyes very piercing. Arms drooping, hands seeming in one piece with fingers welded to each other. Wearing a long, long-haired garment of red-brown color. At one point, the man would have advanced towards the young BERTAUX, who has taken of fright, fled on her bicycle without looking back.

-From the words of the child, the craft might measure 2 m.50 to 3 m in height, and 2 m. in width.it presented an oval body, wearing a kind of conical hat but rounded on the top and resting on the ground on a part of rectangular shape: The hatch would have the dimensions as follows: height I meter; width 0 meters 6O approximately, distance from the ground: about 60 to 80 centimeters.-

Note [by Dominique Caudron]: This passage of the report is reconstituted in text mode, respecting the typography.

(Report of the Commander of the Gendarmerie of the Ardennes to the 2nd Legion, No. 348/4, October 12, 1954)

This multiple-page report has two other important details. First a 24-year-old lady, who heard the craft:

... but she heard for a long time a noise resembling that made by a cream separator in the direction where the young BERTAUX had seen the apparatus and at the same hour.

The father of Eliane Bertaux, and a friend...

... both farmers arrived at the scene that evening at 9 p.m. They did not notice anything abnormal except that the grass had been somewhat wrinkled in a gyratory direction.

It would also be very interesting to find this case in a local newspaper in the Ardennes. But it seems that ufologists are more inclined to copy each other than to search the archives.

As a result, this report having been obscured for decades, we first had, in 1975, only the less precise text of Garreau and Lavier:

It is a little over 6 p.m.. Eliane Bertaux, a 10-year-old girl, has just lead the cows from her parents' farm to a park at the south-east exit of the town, about 200 meters from the last houses. To get back, she gets on her bike. A few dozen meters, and this is the strange encounter. Eliane told the gendarmes, whom her parents had alerted.

   "A little ahead of me, about twenty meters to my left, I saw something I first took for a camping tent, and as I got closer, I saw a hatch rise on the top of this thing that was not a tent, but a craft 3 meters high, and that looked like a big egg. It rested on the ground by a rectangular foot. The hatch measured about 1 meter tall, 0.60 meters wide, a small man appeared, jumped to the ground, his head was square, his eyes were piercing, his arms hanging down, but which seemed made in one piece, with welded fingers, he was wearing long-haired, red-brown clothes, and it moved in my direction, I was scared, I fled at full speed, without looking back."

   Two other inhabitants of the village indirectly confirmed Eliane's testimony: Mr. Antoine Barrois, seventy-year-old, saw a luminous craft, very bright red. But he did not care. Another witness heard a noise, a "kind of buzz".

(Charles Garreau, Raymond Lavier, Face aux extraterrestres, Jean Pierre Delarge 1975, p 24)

Then in 1981, the book of Jean-Michel Ligeron, specifies some details, unfortunately false, because of the too late date of the investigation.

Having arrived at the place called "Le Moulin", the latter uses with her flock a small path of stones, parks the animals, then, her work finished, returns by the same route. It was then that, returning to her home by bicycle, her attention was suddenly drawn to her left, by the presence of a strange object in the shape of a red-orange "tent" appearing on the ground. A few fractions of a second later, she was astonished to see, standing nearby, a little being who seemed to be wearing a long-haired jumpsuit with luminous red eyes. The girl simply had time to discern a kind of sliding door to the top of the object placed on the ground, but taken of great fright, she fled without looking back to her parents home to whom she reported what she had just witnessed.

Eliane's father, accompanied by a friend who was there, decided to go immediately to the place of the observation. Inspecting up and down the alleged location where the object had landed, they found no trace on the ground, the grass was not even trampled.

In order to better [?], Mr. Berteaux (48-year-old at the time, now retired from agriculture), went to the scene the next morning, but he made no other observation.

I learned that an inhabitant of the village of Villers-le-Tilleul had time to observe a red-orange luminous object, just in the direction where Eliane was at the moment when she ran off hurriedly. This is Mr. Antoine Barrois, who has died since.

[Sketch:] The girl flees (J-M Ligeron)

(Jean-Michel Ligeron, O.V.N.I. en Ardennes, 1981, p 28)

Finally, 39 years after Garreau and Lavier, and 33 years after Ligeron, Julien Gonzalez includes this case in his CE3 catalog.

Villers-le-Tilleul, Ardennes, October 4, 1954, 06:00 p.m.

Eliane Bertiaux, 10, Mr. André Barrois and a third anonymous witness.

It is not very cold, the weather is clear, no clouds, good visibility, but night falls, Eliane Berteaux leads a herd of cows in the pasture which is about 400 to 500 meters from the house of her parents. Having arrived at the place called "Le Moulin", she uses with her flock, a small stone path, parks the animals, then, her work completed, returns by the same route. It was then that, returning to her home on a bicycle, her attention was suddenly drawn to her left, by the presence of a strange object in the shape of a "tent" of red-orange color appearing on the ground. A few fractions of a second later, she was surprised to see, standing nearby, a little being who seemed to be wearing a sort of long-haired jumpsuit with luminous red eyes.

Note [by Dominique Caudron]: Both the gendarmerie report (that Gonzalez did not read), and the book by Garreau and Lavier (that Gonzalez read) speak of piercing eyes, but Gonzalez prefers the less reliable version (after more than 25 years) of Ligeron, because it is more exotic.

The girl had just enough time to discern a kind of sliding door to the top of the object on the ground.

Note [by Dominique Caudron]: The gendarmerie report and the book by Garreau and Lavier speak of a hatch, but Gonzalez prefers Ligeron's sliding door.

but, terrified, she fled to her parents without looking back, to whom she reported what she had just witnessed. Eliane's father, accompanied by a friend who was there, decided to go immediately to the scene of the observation. Inspecting up and down the presumed location where the object had landed, they found no trace on the ground, the grass was not even trampled. In order to be more aware, Mr. Berteaux went to the scene the next morning, but he made no other observation.

Note [by Dominique Caudron]: Again, Gonzalez is based on Ligeron, but the gendarmerie report mentioned the observation of crumpled grass with a gyratory direction.

Another resident of Villers-le-Tîlleul, Mr. Antoine Barrois had time to observe a red-orange luminous object, just in the direction where Eliane Bertiaux was at the moment when she fled hurriedly. A third unnamed person reportedly heard a buzz.

Additional information:

  1. According to the witness, it appears that the object measured 4 to 4.50 meters high on 1 to 1.50 meters wide. At no time did the witness perceive any noise.
  2. At the time, this observation was the subject of an investigation by the National Gendarmerie of the Flize Brigade. In addition, a counter-investigation was carried out nearly 25 years later by Jean-Michel Ligeron during which Mrs. C ... (ex Miss Eliane Berteaux) confirmed her statements of the time.

Note [by Dominique Caudron]: Unfortunately Gonzalez was unable to consult the gendarmerie's investigation and had to be satisfied with the information gleaned by Ligeron.

(Julien Gonzalez, RR3 - Le Dossier des Rencontres du Troisième Type en France, Le Temps Présent, 2014, pp 109-110)

Analysis

Based on the information in the previous books, the young Eliane Bertaux was pedaling towards the village a little after 06:00 p.m., that is to say at almost sunset. But in one place, the horizon hitherto hidden by an embankment becomes visible, and the sun with it. If the hour indicated was the right one, we could suspect that the rounded object, orange-red, to the west, and having left no trace, was simply the setting sun itself. This hypothesis is compatible with the data of Garreau and Ligeron, but not with those, much more precise, of the gendarmerie report.

Indeed, in this report, it is a craft of oval appearance, of 2 m.50 to 3 m of height, and 2 m. wide, surmounted by a rounded cone. It has a hatch that opens up, it makes a sound of farm creamer, and it crumples the grass in a gyratory direction.

Taken together, these details inevitably refer to the culprit: it was simply a helicopter! (It's odd that the gendarmes did not notice it)

At that time, various NATO bases had begun to be established in the region. Most were not yet operational for airplanes, but were already operational for helicopters (which do not require a runway). It only remains to find which model corresponds to the description, and therefore on what air base it was in use.

To help us, it would be useful to know the color of the machine. Jean-Michel Ligeron speaks of a red-orange color, but the gendarmerie report says nothing. On the other hand between 18:40 p.m. and 7 p.m., on this date, it is he hour "between dog and wolf", where one cannot see the colors. So if Mr. Barrois saw a very bright red light coming up, it was probably that he was talking about the color of his traffic light. We do not know, in fact, the color of the craft.

A Bell helicopter does not fit the description. A French helicopter neither. A Sikorsky helicopter would be better. We have 3 candidates:

The Sikorsky H-5, or S 51: Launched in 1945, more than 300 were built until 1951.

The Sikorsky H-19, or S 55: Commissioned in 1950, more than 1500 have been built.

The Sikorsky H-34, or S 58: Put in service in 1954, 1800 were built, including 166 in France.

The S 55 and the S 58 have a similar silhouette, that of the S 58 may well be that of the craft seen in Socorro. But this silhouette does not match the description of Eliane Bertaux, the door does not match, and the S 58 was not yet in France in 1954.

[Photo:] A Sikorsky S 51 / H 5 Royal Canadian Air Force

So it is the S 51 that fits best, with its rotor at the top of a cone.

The Sikorsky H-5, or S 51 or "Dragonfly" was mainly used by the US Navy and many naval forces (including French naval aviation), but also by The Royal Canadian Air Force, and it is perhaps through this means that this craft could be found in France, on the NATO base of Marville-Montmédy. This base was installed in 1953, and while the first squadrons of F-86 were there only in April 1955, nothing prevented the helicopters from taking residence there from 1953 on. We do not have the proof of this domiciliation but since Eliane Bertaux saw a helicopter corresponding to the S 51, and that only the Canadians could have brought them to France, it seems very likely that it is from the base of Marville, at 53 km from Villers-le-tilleul that the machine came.

Remains the occupant. "head surrounded by a square shape with very piercing eyes" simply means that he had a headset, with headphones, and special glasses. "Hanging arms" simply means that he stayed there for a few moments while the girl looked at him. "hands seeming in one piece with fingers welded to each other" would simply correspond to mittens. The most bizarre is still "a long, long-haired, red-brown coat". Curious garment to fly a helicopter in early October, but it is rather insufficient to make a Martian. Since he is a "man of normal size", there is no reason to see anything other than a man on our planet, and probably a Canadian.

The only thing consistent with the mythology of "hairy Martian" is therefore the long-haired garment. But as there is no height of 1.20 m or flying saucer, there has never been a "hairy Martian" in Villers-le-Tilleul.

[Ref. dcn2:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:

Dominique Caudron lists cases if the French wave of 1954 in which "hairy Martians" were reported, including:

"10/04/1954 06:15 p.m. Villers-le-Tilleul (08) Eliane Berteaux (10 years old)"

He summarizes:

Scan.

No Martian in Villers-le-Tilleul.

The basic sources of the case of Villers-le-Tilleul, are the preliminary catalog of 500 observations, Vallée, imprecise and false, and that of Garreau and Lavier, based on a gendarmerie investigation, alas no more searchable. A more recent investigation by Jean-Michel Ligeron, cross-referenced with Garreau's data, suggests an astonishing hypothesis: The object may well have been just the setting sun.

But the elements of the investigation of the gendarmerie are found in a report of the commander of gendarmerie, archived by the GEIPAN and make it possible to understand: the appearance, the noise and the tracks of the object correspond to a Sikorsky S 51 helicopter.

A link "read the case file" directs to the specific case file by Dominique Caudron, see [dcn2].

Explanations:

Map.

Probable helicopter.

It should be obvious that as the witness was a child, so her words may be relatively unaccurate on some points.

Dominique Caudron seems to want to clear the proponents of the previous version proposing that the UFO was the setting sun, but it does not hold much: the hatch on the object already excluded the Sun in my opinion, and this hatch that opens was mentioned by Garreau and Lavier, the only source somehow detailed, as early as 1975. [*]

[*] Update on November 8, 2019 - Regarding the paragraph above, a reader draws my attention to the fact that it was on his advice in 2016 that Dominique Caudron was prompted to modify his own hypothesis of a misinterpretation of the setting son in his original text (before the Gendarmerie report appeared on the GEIPAN website) he was considering. My reader had then indicated to him in December 2016 various aspects to rectify, such as the real presence of the entity confirmed in the Gendarmes report, the misinterpratation with the sun which was not possible given the hour conformed in the Gendarmerie report; then it was ma reader who suggested Caudron should dig the track he considered more likely SH5 Dragonfly, which Dominique Caudron then did.

As noted by Raoul Robé in 1995, then by Dominique Caudron in 2018, there are details that suggest a helicopter; however, there are also details that do not quite "match", and no "formal proof" that it was a helicopter. Because there is even less formal proof that the craft and its occupant would have been extraterrestrial visitors, I also think it was probably a helicopter.

The Marville-Montmédy Air Base or "RCAF Station Marville" was installed as part of NATO installations for the Royal Canadian Air Force, in the Meuse department about 50 km East-South-East of Villers-le-Tilleul, and it was occupied by the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1953 to 1967. This is undoubtedly what made Dominique Caudron think of a Canadian helicopter.

Among the details that "match" badly:

It is almost obvious, but I must mention this: the door of the S-51 does not open from the bottom up, but slips to the side. An "upwards-opening" door would make the use of the craft for its rescue missions quite improbable:

Sikorski S51.

Some details reinforce the possibility of the helicopter, especially the noise, and the grass flattened "in a gyratory direction". According to the dimensions given by the girl - who says she was 20 meters from the craft - it was higher than wide; Jean Marie Ligeron's sketch makes it a vertical "egg". Of course this position explains that the girl reported no insignia, no cockade, no mark such as "RESCUE", "US NAVY" and other registrations of an American S-51 or cockades of French naval aviation, and other marks of other countries. It also explains that she did not mention the color because from the front this helicopter shows almost only Plexiglas:

Sikorski S51.

But again, from the front too, there is no possibility of a door that opens from the bottom to the top.

On J. M. Ligeron's sketch, the craft is indeed "vertical". The door is not at all "in the right place" for an S-51. Unfortunately I have no element that allows to consider the sketch as reliable; I do not know, for example, whether it was "approved" by the witness or made according to his own ideas by J. M. Ligeron, who probably did not think to ask the witness for a sketch, and in any case, did not propose any sketch by the witness...

French Naval Aviation had two Sikorsky S-51s, the first purchased in 1951, the next in 1952, assigned to Escadrille 58S on the Arromanches aircraft carrier. The French Army had acquired Sikorsky WS-51 "Dragonfly", S-51s built under license from Westland in the United Kingdom, since 1952 to replace, the Hiller 360 bought from 1950 on; in 1954, the French military had at least 9 Sikorsky WS-51 "Dragonfly", used by the Army Health Service, headed by the doctor-general Robert; they had been in Vietnam theaters of operations, and in 1954 the "surviving" apparatuses had been brought back to Metropolitan France for training at the Rochefort school (Charente-Maritime) and on the Bourget-du-Lac field (Savoy); others will serve in Algeria, but after November 1, 1954.

The Canadian military bought their first Sikorsky S-51 in 1947, there were only 5 left in 1955, and I could not find any indication that these Canadian helicopters were in France even once.

The S-51s were obviously also used by the US Air Force, the US Navy and the US Marines, the British Royal Navy and the British Royal Air Force, Italy, from 1950 onwards.

About the surname of the witness, with such variable spellings: the statistics of the births between 1941 and 1965 unfortunately do not allow to decide firmly:

Berteaux:578 including 25 in the Ardennes.
Bertaux1088 mainly in the Nord but with 21 in the Ardennes.
Bertiaux150 including 1 in the Ardennes.
Bertieux1 including 0 in the Ardennes.
Berthaux194 including 1 in the Ardennes and 15 in nearby department the Aisne.
Bertheaux7 including 2 in the Ardennes.

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

Villers-le-Tilleul, Ardennes, Eliane Bertiaux, Berthaux, Berthiaux, Antoine Barrois, tent, trap, door, hatch, foot, egg-shaped, square, occupant, arms, eyes, fingers, red, brown, object, camper, luminous, buzz

Sources:

Document history:

Version: Created/Changed by: Date: Change Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross May 5, 2003 First published.
1.0 Patrick Gross March 15, 2009 Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [goe1], [djn1], [jbu1], [uda1].
1.1 Patrick Gross June 22, 2010 Addition [jve5].
1.2 Patrick Gross July 9, 2010 Addition [fbn2].
1.3 Patrick Gross August 14, 2013 Addition [prn2].
1.4 Patrick Gross October 8, 2014 Additions [jve7], [tai1], [nip1].
1.5 Patrick Gross October 12, 2016 Addition [jsr1].
1.6 Patrick Gross December 17, 2016 Additions [lgs1], [ubk1].
1.7 Patrick Gross January 30, 2017 Additions [gn1], [jgz1], [gen1].
1.8 Patrick Gross November 5, 2019 Additions [jve6], [agd1], [prn1], [mft1], [mft2], [jsx1], [rre1], [rre2], [lhh1], [ads2], [cnu1], [prn3], [dcn1], [dcn2], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet."
1.8 Patrick Gross November 8, 2019 In the Explanations, addition of the note "[*] Update on November 8, 2019"
1.9 Patrick Gross August 29, 2021 Addition [tbw1].
2.0 Patrick Gross April 27, 2022 Additions [ldl1], [gep1].
2.1 Patrick Gross June 10, 2022 Addition [jve9].
2.2 Patrick Gross June 26, 2022 Addition [jve8].

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