The 1954 French flap:

New "rain" of flying saucers

A hairy Martian, wearing an orange corset and a plush hat, visits a roadmender in the Haute-Marne

SAINT-DIZIER, October 7 ("France-soir" dispatch).

The strange passage of a flying saucer was observed in Haute-Marne, according to the account of Mr. Narcy, 48 years old, father of seven children, a road worker with the Highways Department at Wassy for nineteen years, and living in Mertrud.

Mr. Narcy had left his home very early to cycle to a worksite near Wassy. He took a local road to get there. It was between La-Neuveville-à-Rémy and Voillecomte that he saw the "thing."

- "It was 7:15," he recounted. "While riding, I was approaching the 'old tile factory,' when, to my left, in the fields, I saw something orange-colored. I first thought it was a tree whose leaves had turned yellow. Getting closer, I thought it was a tarp spread out on the ground, or a camper's tent."

"Suddenly, I realized it was a mysterious craft. Leaving my motorbike at the side of the road, I ran into the pasture toward the thing. The craft was sitting on the ground, at the bottom of a hollow where clay used to be extracted for the now-ruined tile factory. From afar, I had only seen the top of the saucer, which gradually revealed itself completely."

Milky traces

"I was about a hundred meters away and beginning to discern all the details, when I saw a being standing next to the craft. He was about 1.20 meters tall. He appeared to be entirely covered in hair, or wearing a very tight fur suit. Around his waist, he wore a kind of wide orange corset. On his head, he had a kind of plush hat. Motionless, he seemed to be watching me. I got scared. I stopped. Waving, I called out to him. Then he quickly re-entered his machine."

"When he bent over to enter through a round porthole, I could clearly see he had arms. I had time to observe the saucer precisely. Spherical in shape, it had a diameter of about ten meters. Under the sphere, there was a sort of spindle. The porthole was located between the sphere and the spindle; it closed over the little being."

"A kind of smoke came out of one end of the spindle, while a great swirling occurred under the saucer, which rose vertically. Everything disappeared very quickly into the rather low clouds that morning. I only heard a sort of rustling sound, like that of an electric motor."

Traces of the craft in the grass and dew - in particular a milky substance and skid marks - were observed by Mr. Narcy and other road workers whom he had fetched.

The passengers of a flying soup tureen were normal.

LIMOGES, October 7 (A.F.P.). -- A farmer from Chaleix (Dordogne), Mr. Garreau, affirmed "on his honor" that he had seen a "flying tureen" land on his property. Mr. Garreau stated that two perfectly normal men, wearing khaki overalls, descended from it, shook his hand, and spoke to him in an unknown language. Mr. Garreau, stunned, did not respond. The two men petted his dog and returned to their craft, which took off silently at a dizzying speed. At the spot indicated by Mr. Garreau, it was noted that the grass had been trampled.

A LARGE DISC 8 to 10 meters in diameter, moving at an altitude of 400 meters, was observed for 20 minutes, at Jouy-sur-Morin (Seine-et-Marne), by Mr. Farnier, a member of the Society of Civil Engineers of France, former commissioner of the Aero-Club of France, and former aviator.

THE PARIS REGION IN TURN CONTAMINATED. -- "Little rods" and saucers were reported to us above Père Lachaise, at the corner of rue de la Convention and rue de Dantzig (15th arrondissement), and avenue Victor Hugo, in Clamart.

A LUMINOUS CRAFT in the shape of a saucer, spiraling upward, was observed at Valence by military aircraft detection specialists, who were able to "track" it in their optical device for a few seconds.

A "REGULAR SERVICE OF FLYING SAUCERS" seems to have been established between the Marais Poitevin and La Rochelle, according to the expression of witnesses who observed a real shuttle of strange craft.

A "FLYING CHAMBER POT" was seen in the Rambouillet region by Mr. Georges Leroux, brother-in-law of a minister of the principality of Monaco. The craft emitted a dazzling green light.

A RED-ORANGE LUMINOUS CRAFT was observed at Poncey-sur-Igny [sic], by Mrs. Thérèse Fournet [sic], 23 years old. The craft landed in front of her, to her great fright, and other residents also saw it. Very clear traces in the grass were noted by gendarmes, who took soil samples.

A SORT OF GREENISH ROCKET landed in front of Mr. Defix, 26 years old, a central heating installer, and Labonne, a 63-year-old retiree, both from Bergerac, who saw three crutches supporting the aircraft and felt a violent gust of wind when it took off vertically. Traces resembling blackish mushrooms were visible for a few moments.

The Greeks have them too...

ATHENS, October 7 ("France-soir" dispatch). -- The inhabitants of the island of Mytilene declared that they had seen a luminous object yesterday afternoon. These sightings are confirmed by the mayor of the commune of Vrissas, who made an official report to the Greek Ministry of the Interior.

For fifteen minutes, numerous witnesses watched a luminous object move about, which, due to its great distance, looked like a large star. The saucer moved rapidly toward the northeast, then headed north, and finally disappeared toward the west.

Flying Saucers

Continued from Page 1 - Col. 7

...tude. Vertically, of course. Two Parisians still on vacation nearby, Mr. and Mrs. Laroche, quickly confirmed Mr. Simonetti's observation.

The Spanish border also appears to have been under special surveillance by these mysterious craft, since before the observation of a long green trail by a customs officer from Behobie, a police officer in Biarritz saw a rather chubby machine with two nozzles emitting pink and yellow lights, and a Biarritz-based painter, Dimitri Ziko, saw a rather oval craft trailing black smoke. The latter must be color-blind, despite being an artist.

A significant testimony in favor of flying household items was provided by the brother-in-law of a minister from the Principality of Monaco, Mr. Georges Leront [sic], who, over Rambouillet, tracked the movements of a "chamber pot" emitting a dazzling green light and believed he was being doused by its contents. It turned out to be just a rain shower.

It's turning into a real fireworks display: while out walking with his wife, Mr. Landrain, the waterworks official in Duclair (Seine-Inférieure), was blinded by a beam of light.

But the pilots of these craft are still hesitant to make contact with Earthlings. As Mr. Defiz, a central heating installer from Bergerac, approached a sort of greenish rocket resting on struts, he felt a strong rush of air. The craft, leaving behind traces resembling dark mushrooms visible for a few moments, was literally sucked into the atmosphere.

However, one Martian dared to descend at 7:15 a.m. through a porthole of a 10-meter-wide orange sphere, into a field called "La Vieille Tuilerie," in Mertrud (Haute-Marne), 100 meters from a road worker, Mr. André Narcy, 48 years old.

– "It was an individual about 1.20 meters tall, completely covered in hair, wearing a fur coat, with a wide salmon-colored belt around the waist, and a plush hat on his head. He stared at me, motionless. I was scared, stopped, and made a gesture to address him. The individual turned on his heels and rushed into his machine. A kind of smoke spurted from a kind of spindle, and a large vaporous swirl occurred with a buzzing sound like an electric motor."

When Mr. Narcy returned to the scene with some colleagues, the dew had vanished from a specific area, the grass had turned milky, and twelve parallel marks stretched over a certain distance, as if the craft had landed in a series of small bounces. Like a mere airplane...

J. D. [Jacques Derogy]

In the Côte-d'Or, MYSTERIOUS CRAFT SPOTTED IN PONCEY-SUR-L'IGNON

Did a "saucer" haunt the skies over Poncey-sur-l'Ignon? Did it try to land in a field near the asbestos factory?

Let the witnesses speak, who are nothing if not certain.

The first mysterious craft seen by the inhabitants of Poncey had the shape of a vertical cylinder. Let's hear from the first witness, Mrs. Gainait, wife of the former mayor.

- It happened Saturday evening, around 7:40 p.m. I had just finished milking my cows and as I stepped out of the barn, I saw the farmyard completely lit up... I looked up at the sky and that's when I saw it...

- What did you see, madam?

- Well, sir, a flying cylinder, orange in color, surrounded by a square of pale green light.

- Was the cylinder moving?

- Yes, above the little woods, there, about a kilometer away... So I called my husband, my daughter Yvette, and a neighbor, Mrs. Mugneret, and we watched the cylinder move.

- For how long, approximately?

- Ten minutes, maybe. Then it disappeared, at the speed of a large airplane, silently, in the direction of Chanceaux.

And Mr. Gainait concludes: You know, I didn't believe in these crafts before, but now I have to, since I saw one!

I SAW AN ORANGE DISC AS BIG AS MY STOVE!

Obviously... But things got even more disturbing. Two days later, on Monday, the cylinder returned to Poncey, this time transformed into a flying disc of the most classic kind.

It was 7:30 p.m. A young woman, Mrs. Fourneret, née Thérèse Thieblot, 23 years old, was about to close the shutters of her bedroom, in the small house she shares with her husband next to the asbestos factory. Suddenly, through the open window, just fifty meters away, she saw a disc emitting a soft orange light, flattened at both ends "as big as my stove," specifies Mrs. Fourneret, which seemed to be hovering above a plum tree in the nearby field.

Panic-stricken, Mrs. Fourneret fled to her neighbor's house. The two terrified women barricaded themselves in and waited for an hour for their husbands to arrive.

Armed with rifles (just in case!), and carrying flashlights, the men went to "check things out."

UNEXPLAINABLE TRACES

At the spot where the saucer had landed in a field, they found fresh traces.

We saw these traces. What do they consist of?

A rectangular surface of 1.5 m by 0.6 m had been neatly cleared of weeds and the soil leveled, as if tamped down. Around the perimeter, about ten meters in a circle, the uprooted clods had been scattered. A curious thing: perennial plants like dandelions and couch grass remained rooted, which proves it wasn't a matter of digging. A farmer, Mr. Cazet, mayor of Poncey, is certain: "These aren't tool marks... It's too well done," he said.

That's where things stand for now. Chief Clément of the Sainte-Seine-l'Abbaye gendarmerie was informed and went to the scene. Captain Millet from the Semur division has opened an investigation. Is this a well-orchestrated hoax? If so, congratulations to the clever prankster - and no hard feelings!

On that note, let us point out that in the preceding days, Mrs. Fourneret had been the target of some light-hearted pranks by locals, and on the very evening in question, the prankster group had planned to trick her into believing a saucer had landed... But they arrived too late - the real one" had landed in the meantime... So, what now?

THE PASSENGERS OF A FLYING SOUP TUREEN WERE "NORMAL"

LIMOGES. -- A farmer from Chaleix (Dordogne), Mr. Garreau, swore "on his honor" that he saw a "flying soup tureen" land on his property. Mr. Garreau said two perfectly normal-looking men, wearing khaki overalls, got out, shook his hand, and spoke to him in an unknown language. Mr. Garreau, stunned, did not reply. The two men petted his dog and got back into their craft, which took off silently at a dizzying speed. At the location Mr. Garreau indicated, it was found that the grass had been trampled.

- A luminous saucer-shaped craft, spiraling through the air, was observed in Valence by military aircraft detection specialists, who managed to "track" it with their optical equipment for a few seconds.

- A "regular flying saucer service" seems to have been established between the Poitevin marsh and La Rochelle, according to witnesses who observed a veritable shuttle of strange crafts.

- A "flying chamber pot" was seen in the Rambouillet region by Mr. Georges Leroux, brother-in-law of a minister of the Principality of Monaco. The craft emitted a dazzling green light.

- A red-orange luminous craft was observed in Pontoise [sic, Poncey], by Miss Thérèse Fournet [sic, Fourneret], 23 years old. The craft landed in front of her, to her great fright, and other residents saw it as well. Very clear traces in the grass were noted by the gendarmes, who took soil samples.

- A kind of greenish rocket landed in front of Mr. Defiz, 26, a central heating technician, and Mr. Labonne, a 63-year-old retiree from Bergerac. They saw three struts supporting the craft and felt a strong suction of air as it took off vertically. Traces resembling "black mushrooms" [sic] were visible for a few moments.

- Saucers, cigars, spheres, and various crafts were also seen in Thénon (Dordogne), in Puiset (Eure-et-Loir), in Biarritz and in Béhobie, in Duclair (Seine-Inférieure), in Duclair (Seine-Inférieure), in Heyrieux (Isère), in Dieulanvollon (Côtes-du-nord), in Jort (Calvados) and in the Island of Ré.

SAUCERS (continued)

The military governor of Metz studies the report of Commander Cottel, who saw a luminous craft caught in a spotlight beam

(From our special correspondent Henry Pignolet)

METZ, October 13 (by telephone).

The military governor of Metz, General Navereau, commander of the 6th region, is this morning awaiting the report from Commander Cottel, a specialist in ground-based anti-aircraft forces, regarding the presence last Sunday in the city's sky of a mysterious craft that remained for three hours in the beam of a powerful army spotlight.

It's easy to imagine the caution with which the commander of the A.A.G.F. (Anti-Aircraft Ground Forces) drafted this report. Commander Cottel was in charge of the radar station installed at the army booth at the Metz trade fair, which had just closed. The station had a powerful spotlight that, throughout the duration of the fair, scanned the city's sky. About ten men were around the device when, on Sunday evening, the beam suddenly froze on a motionless globe in the sky, "sparkling," the commander told me, "like a Christmas tree ornament."

The beam was vertical. The "thing" appeared to be at 10,000 meters. At least, that's what the experts said. No one panicked, to be fair.

- "It's a weather balloon," suggested one of the spotlight operators.

- "Impossible, 'that' must be fifty meters in diameter."

Everyone agreed.

But then?

The radar detected nothing

So, not wanting to believe in flying saucers, they decided to clean the lenses and even replace the carbon rods in the spotlight. When they turned it back on, the balloon was still there.

The onlookers, who had gathered around the spotlight, also saw the "Christmas tree ornament." They watched it until around 11 p.m., when the spotlight was finally turned off. They weren't the only ones; residents of the suburbs of Sablon and Queuleu also reported witnessing the phenomenon the next day.

The radar, however, whose beam had continuously swept the skies, detected nothing.

- "The 'thing'," explained a technician, "was not metallic. It is not detectable by radar."

The day before yesterday, the Metz fair, which had drawn over 600,000 visitors, closed. No more spotlight, no more radar, no more mysterious sphere. All that remained were the testimonies of about fifteen people - spotlight operators, an officer from the army's geographic service, and Commander Cottel - whose report, eagerly and curiously awaited at the military governor's palace, will determine this chapter in the history of flying saucers.

Three "little beings" in an electric saucer

NEVERS, October 13. ("France-Soir" dispatch). -- Two shopkeepers from Clamecy, Mr. Louis Vigneron and Henri Gallois, who were driving their van to the Corbigny fair early yesterday morning around 6 a.m., saw in a field about fifty meters from the road a cylindrical-shaped craft of considerable diameter.

At that moment, the van's engine stopped and the headlights went out.

- "I was breathless," said Mr. Gallois. "My body felt a sort of electric shock. I could clearly see the craft, which looked like a saucer."

"I saw, moving around the machine, three small beings that seemed oddly shaped. We were immobilized inside the vehicle and unable to move. Only after the craft flew off at incredible speed were we able to resume our journey."

Mr. Vigneron confirmed his companion's account, as did a third witness, Mr. Henri Chameau, a cartwright in La Carie, a village near Clamecy.

A boy meets a "Martian" who speaks French

CHATEAUBRIANT, October 13 (A.F.P.). - A 13-year-old boy, young Gilbert Lelay, claims to have seen last night around 10:30 p.m. a mysterious craft in a meadow about 600 meters from his parents' home in the village of Sainte-Marie-en-Erbray, near Châteaubriant.

The child said he observed the object from about ten meters away for ten minutes. It was shaped like a glowing cigar. A passenger, a man dressed in a suit and gray hat and wearing boots, reportedly said to him in French:

"Look, but don't touch." He put a hand on the boy's shoulder while holding a ball emitting violet lights in the other hand. He climbed into the craft through a door that slammed shut. On what appeared to be a control panel, there were several multicolored buttons.

According to the child, the craft then rose vertically, slowly, emitting lights in all directions, circled in the air twice, and suddenly vanished.

The Austrian Serge Lifar saw one too...

VIENNA, October 13 (A.F.P.) - Mr. Harald Kreutzberg, known as the Austrian Serge Lifar, living in Seefeld, Tyrol, observed a flying saucer while in his garden. It flew over the small town for a few seconds before heading north and disappearing behind the mountains.

A GIANT ROCKET, taking off from a field, was seen by Mr. Pierre Vidal, a cook living in Croix Daurade near Toulouse, and his nephew, Angel Hurle. It disappeared in an orange and pale green luminous trail. At the presumed location of the rocket, the grass was covered with an oily vapor smelling of petroleum.

A MATHEMATICS TEACHER from Lisieux, Mr. Bon, saw in Saint-Germain-de-Livet, above a forest, silver discs about seven to eight meters wide, which rose silently into the sky while spinning. After diving from an altitude of about 800 meters, it flew off horizontally at dizzying speed.

A COUNTY COUNCILLOR, a café owner, a rugby player, and a swimming champion saw a flying saucer resembling a ball of fire above the chapel of Brouilly heading toward Montgelas (Rhône).

MR. GEORGES LEROUX, 33 avenue de la Motte-Picquet, Paris, who, according to some reports, was said to have seen a flying chamber pot in the Rambouillet area, informs us that he has never seen any mysterious craft. Case closed.