ALSACAT-1954-10-30-MERTZEN-1
The regional newspaper Le Nouveau Rhin Français for November 4, 1954, had reported that on Saturday, October 30, 1954, at about 8 p.m. between Mertzen and Strueth in the Haut-Rhin, three young men saw a big ball of bright light followed by a long luminous trail moving at very high speed.
| Date: | October 30, 1954 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ~08:00 p.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | November 4, 1954 |
| Reporting delay: | Day, 5 days. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Mertzen |
| Place: | Between Mertzen and Strueth |
| Latitude: | 47.587 |
| Longitude: | 7.122 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 1 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 to 3 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Young. |
| Witness(es) types: | Young people. |
| Reporting channel: | The regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | Country between two villages. |
| Visibility conditions: | Night |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Probable meteor. |
[Ref. nrf1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEAU RHIN FRANCAIS":
Between Mertzen and Strueth, several young people saw the following occurrence around 8 p.m.: it was a big ball of bright light followed by a long luminous trail, which moved at very high speed. 3 witnesses watched the nightly light show.
[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Journalist Christian Valentin indicates that on October 30, 1954, at 08:00 p.m., three young people saw a luminous ball followed by a long tail, passing, between Mertzen and Strueth.
[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 an observation on Saturday, October 30, 1954, at 08:00 p.m. in Strueth in the Upper Rhine was narrated as follows in Le Nouveau Rhin Français for Thursday, November 7, 1954, bilingual issue; of which he gives his translation:
Between Mertzen and Strueth, several young people saw the following occurrence around 8 p.m.: it was a big ball of bright light followed by a long luminous trail, which moved at very high speed. 3 witnesses watched the nightly light show.
|
Mertzen and Strueth are two villages with less than one kilometer between their centers.
What was described seems very much like a meteor.
Probable meteor.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editeur: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | December 3, 2005 | First published in the France 1954 catalogue. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 14, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | October 30, 2011 | A search on the web and in my documentation did not reveal other sources. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | March 14, 2014 | Added to the ALSACAT catalogue. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | May 2, 2015 | Additions [nrf1], [cvn2], Summary. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | May 2, 2015 | First published in the ALSACAT catalogue. |
