The 1954 French flap:

The round of saucers
now flies
in the sky of the Basin
of the Sambre

Saucers and other flying cigars hitherto had seemed to ignore the often obscured sky of the Sambre Basin.

Did they take advantage of the nice days that this early Autumn gave us? We cannot say, but dozens of people in turn claim to have seen craft moving. The most curious story was told to us by Mr. Gilbert Mozin, butcher in Louvroil, who is known throughout the region.

A saucer
on the road to Avesnes

"I was coming back from Avesnes, last Saturday, around 11 p.m., said the popular butcher when, a little beyond the cafe run by Mr. Rina, my wife, who accompanied me, pointed out to me that something abnormal was happening far ahead of us. "It was an accident," I replied, and I slowed down. I was going very slowly," continues Mr. Mozin. "About ten meters from where something was actually happening, my headlights went low. In the passing, my wife and I had time to detail this something: in this case, a bizarre apparatus posed on the grass between the ditch and the road. It had no wheels and had no headlights. Inside a dazzling clarity reigned. In front of this craft, it seemed to us, was a man not very tall, but wide. My headlights turned on normally "au Violin." Mr. Mozin added: "Last Sunday, accompanied by a supporter of the soccer team, and passing on this same road, I stopped at this place. We noticed several small holes forming a circle inside which the grass was flattened. I believe, concludes the butcher, in secret craft."

Saturday, a bit everywhere

A trustworthy person, living on rue Anatole-France, in Boussois, saw on Saturday around 9 p.m. in his garden, a silent craft moving at a very fast speed and accompanied by sparks. Several people from the region, notably from Ferrière-la-Grande, from Louvroil, saw a saucer, the same evening and at the same hour.

Monday evening at Ferrière

Monday evening, between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., several people from Ferrière witnessed a rare and dazzling spectacle that could be compared to an atmospheric phenomenon. Mr. Maxime Liénard, a guard-apparitor, accompanied by two neighbors, MM. Decruck father and son, saw, leaving his home, a large luminous ball moving above the city. Shortly after, several people passing by La Digue: Mr. Roneid Maufry, who was accompanied by his sisters-in-law, Solange and Gisèle Sauvage; of her brother-in-law, Pierre Sauvage, and of a neighbor, Mrs. Mireille Buivestre, were dazzled by a ball which gave them the impression that it was bursting, causing a reddish gleam seen by other people circulating at the same time in the streets of the town.

All of this, of course, cannot keep us from thinking about the more down-to-earth problem that plagues us and that it is up to us to fix to get a better life. Saucer or not saucer, the wages have to be increased and the rearmament of Germany not to be accepted.