The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: midsep-54-Colmar.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book about the history of UFO or flying saucers sightings in Alsace, and he tells that there was a sighting in Colmar in mid-September 1954, according to an article in the newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for Saturday, September 25, 1954, in the bilingual edition; of which gives this translation:
"A gatekeeper told us these days the following fact: in the day, around 3 p.m., he saw suddenly above the Church of St. Joseph a luminous and transparent ball which descended vertically and fairly slowly over the street of Logelbach before rising above the warehouse of the Red Cross in Talbahnstrasse. It seemed to our correspondent that there was like a door on this ball."
[Ref. spa1:] "SPICA" UFOLOGY ASSOCIATION:
[... Other cases...]
In September several observations, a luminous ball in broad daylight in Colmar,
[... Other cases...]
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book about the history of UFO or flying saucers sightings in Alsace, and he tells that there was a sighting in Colmar in mid-September 1954, according to an article in the newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for Saturday, September 25, 1954, in the bilingual edition; of which gives this translation:
A gatekeeper told us these days the following fact: in the day, around 3 p.m., he saw suddenly above the church of St. Joseph a luminous and transparent ball which descended vertically and fairly slowly over the street of Logelbach before rising above the warehouse of the Red Cross in Talbahnstrasse. It seemed to our correspondent that there was like a door on this ball.
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It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left), ref. [cvn2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.
I think Alsatian ufologist and generally people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.
The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)
The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!
The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com
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We have some localization information for this case, but insufficient because the witness is not located. First, here is a close up view of the Saint-Joseph church :
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The witness said that the thing was over the church - a sure landmark - and above the street of Logelbach, a less obvious landmark since we do not know where above this street. I have the impression that he was at the east or south-east of the church, and the UFO was West or Northwest, but it is not certain. Of course, the UFO could be very far away, we do not know anything about the distance.
I have not been able to locate the "warehouse of the Red Cross in the Talbahnstrasse". The "Bahnstrasse" would rue de la Gare now. Talbahnstrasse would rather means "street of the train to the Valley", a street that would be along the train up to the valleys of the Vosges to the west, as opposed to Bahnstrasse, the main North-South railway of the Alsace valley, perhaps.
On my map, I show the street of the station, "rue de la Gare", the train station, the Red Cross which is probably now in a different place than in 1954, the street of Logelbach, the church, and the railway track which was towards the Vosges (blue line) along which there may have been a street known as "Talbahnstrasse" in 1954.
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As to what it would have been... A "luminous and transparent ball," with maybe a "door", going down and up. A helicopter? A bouncing meteor?
So this is an "unidentified" but without enough information, to me.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Colmar, Haut-Rhin, gatekeeper, church, ball, luminous, transparent, descent, vertical, slow, rise, maneuver, door
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | March 27, 2014 | First published, [cvn2]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | October 13, 2016 | Addition [spa1]. |
