ALSACAT -> Home ☰

Cette page en français

ALSACAT:

< Previous case Next case >

Case of Bollwiller, on October 22, 1954:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1954-10-24-BOLLWILLER-1

Summary:

On October 23, 1954, the newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin published an article headlined "Flying Disc above Bollwiller", telling that the night before, thus on October 22, 1954, around 10:30 p.m., a train engineer, at the train station of Bollwiller, had noticed a very bright disc going towards the forest of the Hardt and disappearing "after some time."

The newspaper added that other people in the Bollwiller station had also seen "the curious appearance."

The next day, October 24, 1954, the newspaper L'Alsace stated that employees of the national railroad company, on duty at the Bollwiller station, had claimed to have seen on October 22, 1954 in the evening "a luminous craft; which moved at a few hundred meters above them."

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

[Ref. dnh1:] NEWSPAPER "LES DERNIERES NOUVELLES DU HAUT-RHIN":

[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":

[Ref. aldl:] MRS. GUEUDELOT, "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT" ARCHIVE:

[Ref. bul1:] "BUHL - PAGE D'HISTOIRE":

[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

Christian Valentin notes that on Friday October 22, 1954 in the evening later than 06:30 p.m. at the station of Bollwiller, a train driver and some other people see a luminous disc moving towards the forest of the Hardt.

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:

Luc Chastan indicates that in the Haut Rhin in Bollwiller on October 24, 1954, "the employees of the S.N.C.F., on duty at the station of Bollwiller, claim to have seen in the evening a luminous machine which moved at a few hundreds of meters above them."

The source is indicated as being my website at http://ufologie.net. [Which is the old URL of my home page.]

[Ref. rre1:] RAOUL ROBE:

In the article on an Alsatian alleged sighting, that of Merxheim, the author shows a series of other "known UFO sightings around" that location, including:

BOLLWILLER - 10/22/54 at 5,6 km S. S.West [from Merxheim]

[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.

In this book, he reports that the newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for October 23, 1954, had published this article about an observation on October 22, 1954, in Bollwiller in the Haut-Rhin:

He notes his slight doubt about the late hour because it would have been be just before the publication of the newspaper, but thinks it is not impossible as this happened with other cases, and the newspaper L'Alsace for October 24, 1954, confirms the observation:

[Ref. spa1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "SPICA":

Discussion:

With the indication that the thing had gone "above" and was going towards the Hardt forest, one would have dreamed to have at least a heading, but it remains very approximate. The Hardt forest is East of Bollwiller, but with an extent too important to get a precise heading:

With the lack of quantitative data - "some time" for example is not a useful data - and an assessment of height of "a few hundred meters" that has no reliability for something unknown seen against the background of the sky, I do not see why the thing would not have been a meteor, for example, as the cigar shape and brightness suggest.

Christian Valentin [cvn2] expresses doubts on the hour. I wonder if the sighting could be the same object than in Guebwiller at 06:30 p.m., probably a meteor: indeed a correspondent might have told the newspaper is was at "six heures trente" (6:30 p.m.) and have been misunderstood as "dix heures trente" (10:30 p.m.). The pronunciation is quite close and a misunderstanding in bot impossible of the low quality phone lines of the time.

Evaluation:

Possible meteor or plane.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

• [dnh1] * Article in the regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin, France, October 23, 1954.
• [lae1] * Article in the regional newspaper L'Alsace, Mulhouse, October 24, 1954.
• [ald1] * Record of the archive by Mrs. Gueudelot, of the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, not dated, published circa 2020 by the ufology association SCEAU, France, at https://sceau-archives-ovni.org/fonds/fond_gueudelot/base_guy_jpr_fiches_gueudelot.html
• [bul1] * "C'était en 1954 - Cela fait déjà 50 ans", article on the web page "Buhl - Page d'Histoire", was at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/mjc.buhl/Elfaluter/1954.htm
• [cvn1] * "1954, l'année des OVNIS - Des observations par dizaines, des témoins par centaines", article by Christian Valentin in "Saisons d'Alsace", quarterly magazine, Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace publisher, Strasbourg, page 93, summer 2004.
• [lcn1] * Base OVNI France, website by Luc Chastan, France, circa 2005, at http://baseovnifrance.free.fr/detobs.php?numobs=1181
• [rre1] * "Une Rencontre du IIIe Type... Type Soupe aux Choux Allemande", electronic article by Raoul Robé, CNEGU ufology group, found in 2014, at http://cnegu.info/manuals/UNE%20RENCONTRE%20DU%20IIIE%20TYPE%20Merxheim.pdf?osCsid=ee817df634b558cb272432e5a3b3ed17
• [cvn2] * "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés - Histoire des soucoupes volantes en Alsace jusqu'en 1980", book by Christian Valentin, Grimoires d'Alsace publishers, France, page 49, 2012.
• [spa1] * "DEPARTEMENT 68 - HAUT-RHIN", listing of UFO sighting reports by the Alsatian ufology group SPICA, Alsace, France, not dated, found in May 2015, at http://www.spica.org/Page_Listing_68.htm

File history:

Authoring:

Changes history:

Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home

This page was last updated on September 2, 2023.