The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 16-Oct-54-Ham.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard reported on page 3 for October 21, 1954:
"Two young people from Croix-Moligneaux, MM. Marc and Gilles Lemaire, and a third, Mr. Jean Yvart, from Douilly, are formal: they saw a mysterious craft."
"On Saturday evening October 16, MM. Marc and Gilles Lemaire, as well as Mr. Jean Yvart, went to their work, in Ham. All three are employed at night at the sugar factory, at the S.I.A.S. Mr. Yvart had already noticed in the sky, around 9:23 p.m., on the side of Mr. Mulliez's farm, a red disc followed by a flaming cone which, according to his statements, sailed at the height of a postal plane."
"Mr. Marc Lemaire and Mr. Jean Yvart arrived by motorbike at a place called the Bois de Sancourt; Mr. Gilles Lemaire followed at come distance, driving a moped. The Lemaire brothers then saw, far in the atmosphere, a small orange mass whose shape they could not specify because of the distance, but which was moving from East to West."
"As the phenomenon was vertical to Mr. Marc Lemaire, the latter's motorcycle suddenly failed from ignition and the headlight stopped functioning. Same disturbance in the operation of Mr. Yvart's machine."
"A second later, perhaps only a fraction of a second, and the motorcycles, which benefited from their momentum, started off again. The headlights again scanned the road with their beam of light."
"The two men are stunned. Did they see a flying saucer? Should we see a correlation between the passage of this saucer and the mechanical incident?"
"So many questions currently being asked."
"The gendarmerie, for its part, is investigating these rather disturbing facts."
In 1979, the "skeptical" ufologists Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker indicated without sources nor more details, that in Ham in the Somme, on October 16, 1954, around 09:30 p.m.: "investigation. Most of the witnesses are dead, the others cannot be found."
Further in their book, they claim that "the few serious investigators" who had admitted that the cases of October 16, 1954, around 09:30 p.m. were caused by a meteor were technicians from the scientific bureau of the Air Force. (In fact, ufologist Aimé Michel had also explained this, before Barthel and Brucker, in his 1958 book).
In 1997, the ufologist Jean Sider gave more information. He stated that he found the case in the newspaper Le Courier Picard for October 21, 1954, and that he give the synthesis:
On October 16, 1954, at 09:25 p.m., at the Bois de Sancourt near Ham in the Somme, Mr. G. Lemaire, Mr. M. Lemaire and Mr. Jean Yvart were riding mopeds, when a red disk passed above their heads, at the height of a postal plane.
Jean Sider says: "The ignition and lighting of the mopeds are cut off."
One or two seconds later, the engines of the two mopeds started again and their headlights started functioning again.
[Ref. cpd1:] NEWSPAPER "LE COURRIER PICARD":
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No offense to some bitter minds who accuse the newspapers of maintaining a collective psychosis by the daily report of "visions" in the sky, we continue to do our duty of information by signaling here - with the usual reserves - the testimonies that each day brings us.
Besides, people who are perfectly trustworthy because they offer moral or mental guarantees, come to talk to us about unusual phenomena they have witnessed.
Most wishing to remain anonymous, cannot therefore be accused of "telling stories to have their name on the newspaper."
This discretion therefore seems to reinforce the degree of credibility that can be given to their stories.
***
This is how a young finance official, riding on Monday evening, on a scooter between Moreuil and Amiens, was able to observe a strange circular machine posed a hundred meters from the road and which suddenly rose in a shower of lights. Frightened, the witness, who had stopped his machine, started again without asking for more...
***
Tuesday, in Amiens, between noon and 15 past noon, at the corner of rue Jules-Barni and rue de Croy, more than 70 gathered people were able to observe the presence at a high altitude, of a craft which appeared to spin on itself and was "stuffed" with lights of different colors.
Before disappearing, the craft emitted a beam of green rays which dazzled all the observers. So much so that they noticed (among themselves) that there was still, a few moments later, a retinal persistence that made them see everything, not in pink... but in green!
Note, on the other hand, that the day before, that is to say Monday, around 9, an identical phenomenon had been observed above Saint-Acheul.
***
In Curchy, yesterday morning, a PTT conveyor, who was on a train, saw a disc in the sky initially visible at full surface, sometimes only by the "edge", which gave it the appearance of the famous "cigars".
The apparition was silver-colored.
***
Monday evening, shortly before 9 p.m., Miss Francine Leblond, residing on rue Croix-Saint-Firmin, in Amiens, went in her yard in order to draw water from it, when she saw, in the sky, a kind of luminous cigar which was moving at high speed in the direction of the North.
The girl went home somewhat frightened.
***
Two young people from Croix-Moligneaux, MM. Marc and Gilles Lemaire, and a third, Mr. Jean Yvart, from Douilly, are formal: they saw a mysterious craft.
On Saturday evening October 16, MM. Marc and Gilles Lemaire, as well as Mr. Jean Yvart, went to their work, in Ham. All three are employed at night at the sugar factory, at the S.I.A.S. Mr. Yvart had already noticed in the sky, around 9:23 p.m., on the side of Mr. Mulliez's farm, a red disc followed by a flaming cone which, according to his statements, sailed at the height of a postal plane.
Mr. Marc Lemaire and Mr. Jean Yvart arrived by motorbike at a place called the Bois de Sancourt; Mr. Gilles Lemaire followed at come distance, driving a moped. The Lemaire brothers then saw, far in the atmosphere, a small orange mass whose shape they could not specify because of the distance, but which was moving from East to West.
As the phenomenon was vertical to Mr. Marc Lemaire, the latter's motorcycle suddenly failed from ignition and the headlight stopped functioning. Same disturbance in the operation of Mr. Yvart's machine.
A second later, perhaps only a fraction of a second, and the motorcycles, which benefited from their momentum, started off again. The headlights again scanned the road with their beam of light.
The two men are stunned. Did they see a flying saucer? Should we see a correlation between the passage of this saucer and the mechanical incident?
So many questions currently being asked.
The gendarmerie, for its part, is investigating these rather disturbing facts.
***
Finally, we were informed in many places of the passage of luminous balls barely larger than the stars and which traced in the sky impressive multicolored trails. It seems, if we want some day to clarify the "saucers mystery" that we should no longer dwell on such phenomena, unless their trajectory offers really curious features.
One of our collaborators observed, in Amiens, Monday evening, the fall of a pale green "object", but he did not think for a moment about an interstellar craft. "Meteor," he said without being moved. He was undoubtedly in the truth and it would be hoped that everyone now shows the same composure, when he will have the chance to be in the presence of an unprecedented celestial manifestation...
[Ref. vdn1:] NEWSPAPER "LA VOIX DU NORD":
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If, in front of the abundance of flying saucers in our departments, we gave up presenting, in this page, all the "visions" worthy of faith or not which would cover each day several columns, we do point out cases that go beyond the commonplace.
Thus, near Ham, the passage of a mysterious craft was marked by a curious phenomenon. Two residents of the region were traveling side by side, one on a motorcycle, the other on a moped, when they saw an orange mass moving in the sky. When this mass was above them, the two engines suddenly broke down and did not resume until the mass was gone.
This phenomenon has already been observed in France, but it is to our knowledge the first time that it occurs in our region.
[Ref. vdn2:] NEWSPAPER "LA VOIX DU NORD":
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In all regions of the Somme, flying saucers appear and we receive numerous testimonies every day. Most of the witnesses do not seek publicity since they refuse to let their names be published.
This is the case for a Finance official, who circulated by scooter in the region of Moreuil, who saw a mysterious craft posed at the ground circular in shape and which rose rapidly in a shower of sparks. In Amiens, about fifty people, at the corner of rue de Croy and rue Jules-Barni, followed the moves of a craft which finally disappeared after having sent a green ray which remained for a long time impressed on the retina of the "earthlings".
A P.T.T. conveyor who was in a train near Curchy, also saw a silver disc moving in the sky at high altitude. A young woman, Miss Francine Leblond, from Amiens, claims to have seen a luminous cigar pass in the evening above Amiens.
But the most interesting observations lead us to the region of Ham where a curious but not new phenomenon was observed: when a mysterious machine passed, the engine of a moped stopped. Here are the details:
Marc and Gilles Lemaire, from Croix-Moligneaux, and Jean Yvart, from Douilly, went to Ham in the evening to work in a sugar factory. Mr. Yvart was the first to notice a kind of flaming cone moving in the sky. Marc Lemaire and Jean Yvart arriving at the Bois de Sancours, then saw an orange mass which was moving from East to West. As the craft was exactly vertical to Mr. Marc Lemaire, his motorcycle failed the ignition and therefore the headlight no longer worked. M. Yvart's Machine was also a victim of the same phenomenon. A second later, the motorcycles and cyclos having continued their momentum regained the use of their engines and the headlights resumed their functions: the craft was already moving away fairly quickly.
The gendarmerie has been notified; they are investigating.
[Ref. nnm1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEAU NORD MARITIME":
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Few flying saucers have appeared in France in the past 24 hours, and those that have appeared, according to people who have seen them, were moving without much fantasy. One of them, near Luzy, even contented itself, affirm a pensioner of the Nevers railways, his wife and his son, to take the form of a metal airship flying at a very low altitude, but, it is true, at a "dizzying" speed...
Near Ham (Somme), the passage of a mysterious craft was marked by a curious phenomenon. Two inhabitants of the region were traveling side by side, one on a motorbike, the other on a moped, when they saw an orange mass moving in the sky. When this mass was above them, the two engines suddenly failed and did not resume until the mass had moved away.
On national road 393, near Turquestein, the engine of a truck was suddenly stopped again by a "luminous apparition." The driver, Mr. Schonbrenner, hands riveted at the wheel as if he was paralyzed, saw a kind of cone with a phosphorescent base, the tip of which was yellow-orange, which moved in the sky while lighting the ground.
Mr. Schonbrenner said he felt a warm feeling, as did other people in similar circumstances.
- Also in Lorient, a retired navy worker, Mr. Jean Roignant, saw a circular white craft which emitted white and purple gleams. It is a disc, orange in color this time, that was seen by Mr. Leonard Roumy, deputy mayor of Raveau. In Chevenon, near Imphy, Guy Chevrier only saw a kind of rocket.
Melun, 22. - Many witnesses, inhabitants of the regions of Bray-sur-Seine, Lagny, Moret, Thomery, said they saw a strange phenomenon after dark: an oval-shaped object, yellow orange in color, measuring more than 20 meters, at 300 or 400 meters of altitude. Note: the 20 meters would be the real measure of the object and not its size as it appeared to them.
The craft remained motionless for a while and disappeared at breakneck speed.
One of the witnesses, Mr. André L..., weather specialist, who lives in Thomery, believes that the speed of craft was in the order of 10,000 kilometers an hour, quite simply. M. L... clarified:
"I am absolutely certain, because I know this question well, that it is neither an airplane nor a weather balloon."
For their part, several riders from a horse center in La Rochelle claim to have seen a character flee from their park. "He was strange, they say. It could only be a Martian."
[Ref. jdh1:] "JOURNAL DE HAM" NEWSPAPER:
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Riding a bicycle on the road to Saint-Quentin on Saturday evening, near the Picart farm in St-Sulpice, Mr. Paul Vinl, of St-Sulpice, saw an illuminated spherical object followed of a jet of light. The appearance was brief. The time to get off the bike and the phenomenon was gone.
Also, Mr. Raymond Fernet, a resident of rue de l'Arquebuse in Ham, saw a gleam in the sky from his street which disappeared at high speed.
The same evening, MM. Marc and Gilles Lemaire of Croix-Moligneux and Jean Yvart, of Douilly, went to Ham at their work and being on the road from Péronne towards the wood of Sancourt, saw the same phenomenon. A small orange mass, the shape of which they could not specify, which went from East to West.
Several people in the region also observed the same phenomenon.
Was it a flying saucer!
[Ref. pat1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PAYS D'AUGE - TRIBUNE":
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In Audruicq (P.-de-C.), MM. Maurice Ramette and Léon Gégnier saw, high in the sky, an object of round shape and white in color which was moving towards them. Suddenly, the craft tilted and disappeared at breakneck speed.
In Hesdin (P.-de-C.), Mr. Jean Gambier, a police officer, was on his way to his duty when his attention was attracted to a blaze in the sky. Above the forest, a red object seemed to descend from the starry sky. The lower part of the craft left behind a luminous trail.
Many residents of Huby-Saint-Leu, a village near Hesdin, also witnessed this phenomenon.
A resident of the village of Prades (Pyrénées-Orientales), to whom two motorcyclists wanted to request information, fled, the other day, shouting: "The Martians are coming". Caught by the bikers, who, to reassure him, had removed their helmets, the farmer admitted that if he had had a gun in his hands he would have killed them.
A saucer was seen by the supervisor of a penitentiary center in Ecrouves, Mr. Roger Thiriet, residing in Blénod-les-Toul (Meurthe-et-Moselle). The jailer's saucer is not exactly fresh since it would have appeared on October 10. But Mr. Thiriet remained silent for a long time "fearing to be the laughing stock of his colleagues". However, his secret seemed to him too burdensome, and here is the account given to the gendarmes by this balanced man:
- I returned to the center by motorbike, when around 6:30 a.m., near the railway bridge, near Charmes-la-Côte, my headlight lighted an aluminum-colored saucer appearing from the fog, posed on the ground. The craft was 2 meters in diameter and 1.40 meters high. It was surmounted by a dome pierced by two portholes.
"I stopped my engine immediately; but as I approached, the saucer rose without noise."
It turns out that, this same October 10, a machine identical to [Continued on page 3]
A very bright flying disc was seen by a group of workers over a street in Rome. It is one of the innumerable appearances of the "flying saucers" which visit Italy at the moment. Their arrival provokes a strong emotion. In Livorno, a young man, Bruno Senesi, was sent urgently to the mad house. He had presented himself, very agitated, at the city hospital, shouting: "They come to take me... I saw them land in a field... Discs big like that, all in light and in smoke, full of Martians, small and red."
The people of Bondowoso, in east Java, were terrified when they saw a white and green disc, which passed at high speed over the city and disappeared in half a minute. Witnesses described the object as a "large plate" with a rotating movement.
A "Stratojet" plane which flies daily over the Rhône valley, at an altitude of about 10,000 meters, was mistaken the other day, by several inhabitants of Vienna, for a flying saucer.
Indeed, a strange phenomenon occurred after the passage of the powerful jet plane. Kinds of parachutes were formed in the sky, animated of strange movements, which soon reached the ground.
The witnesses of the phenomenon seized this matter and one of them put a little of the substance in a box and had it photographed immediately. A few hours later, the contents of the box, although waterproof, had evaporated.
It seems that the condensation in the rarefied and cold atmosphere of certain compounds of the "stratojet" fuel can cause white or iridescent formations moving at high speed and thus gives rise to various interpretations.
This observation made above the aerodrome of Vienne, is identical to that already reported in its time, by a resident of Oloron.
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(continued from page 1)
Aussay, a small town near Dieppe, was overflown by a mysterious craft which emitted a strange whistling sound. It had the shape of a gigantic cigar thay could reach 15 to 18 meters in length; in the center of the craft there was a disc surmounted by a dome.
In Villepinte (Aude), Mr. Henri Rouquet, 22, was returning home when he noticed a luminous form that was moving at high altitude. Suddenly, the craft lands not far from the farm where the young man lives. Mr. Bouquet then hastened to warn his family and several neighbors, who were able to observe the saucer distinctly. After a few minutes, the disc rose silently and quickly disappeared.
In Ham (Somme), three motorcyclists, MM. Marc and Gilles Lemaire, and Jean Ivard, were going to their work when they noticed in the sky a red disc followed by a flaming cone which advanced at the speed of an airplane. At the precise moment when the craft was above the motorcyclists, the engines of their machines stopped suddenly and the headlights went out. Everything returned to normal when the mysterious object moved away.
A motorist in the Cherbonnières region was driving with his 3 and a half year old son on the road from Sérifère to Paillé when, around 9:30 p.m., he and the child experienced painful tingling sensations, similar to electric shocks; which increased as they progressed.
The car engine suddenly stopped and the headlights went out. The child started to cry. A bright glow, passing from bright red to orange, dazzled the occupants of the car, who see a motionless craft in space. Then what they recognized as a flying saucer disappeared in the night.
been seen in Longwy, in the north of the department.
- It must be a secret weapon, said Mr. Thiriet (who does not believe in Martians), built by a foreign power. I think the craft would come from Antarctica.
Two motorists from Royan, Mr. Labestière and his wife, saw in the sky "a kind of waddling balance".
- The scourge was dazzling green, witnesses said. One of the plates was red, the other orange. After remaining motionless, the two plates detached and landed in a field. Two little beings came out of it and, after crossing paths, changed their plates. The "flying balance" then disappeared, plates included, in a dazzling flash.
In Ollainville, near Arpajon, six residents of the locality noticed an incandescent object which at first looked like a star and was revealed as it approached in the shape of a cigar. Coming from the west, the object disappeared to the east.
In Saint-Fiacre, not far from Etampes, several people saw a craft in the shape of a gigantic star spinning above the village for 20 minutes.
The mayor of Nexon (Haute Vienne) saw a very bright metallic hemisphere hovering at breakneck speed, without noise.
A very brilliant disc was even seen in Boulogne-sur-Seine, by a dozen workers from the Régie Renault. The phenomenon had been observed in broad daylight for half an hour.
In Trevedec (C.-du-N.), several people saw a flying saucer hovering over the sea.
Near Aire-sur-Lys, a worker at the steel works in Isbergues saw a luminous sphere descend slowly. When it touched the ground, the sky lit up.
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
Aimé Michel wrote about the October 16, 1954, 09:30 p.m. meteor:
THE TEST OF THE METEOR. October 16, as if it was purposely, a splendid meteor crossed the north of France towards 09:30 p.m.. It was observed on a score of departments by thousands of people, from the Allier to Lorraine and from the Swiss border to Paris. Naturally many witnesses believed to have seen a Flying Saucer and said so. The newspapers printed "Flying Saucer in Orly", or "in Montididier", or "in Metz." But once again the description made by all these weak brains appeared of a remarkable honesty.
[...]
The innumerable gathered testimonys show indeed that even when the witnesses called "Flying saucer" the observed object, their description is identical on 200.000 square kilometres where the visible phenomenon was visible: an "orange ball followed by a trail", a "large luminous ball with a tail", a "flying egg followed by a trail", a "bottle's bottom with a trail of thirty times its diameter", etc. The same phenomenon is uniformly described.
[...]
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors note this case of October 16, 1954:
"Ham - 80 - at about 09:30 p.m.: investigation. The witnesses are almost all deceased, the others are untraceable."
Further in their book, they claim that "the few serious investigators" who had admitted the fact that it was a meteor which had generated this type of observations were the technicians of the scientific office of the Air Force.
[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:
Jean Sider found this case out in the newspaper "Le Courier Picard" for October 21, 1954, and summarizes:
On October 16, 1954, at 09:25 p.m., in the wood of Sancourt near Ham in the Somme, M. G. Lemaire, M. M. Lemaire amd M. Jean Yvart are riding motorcycles.
A red disk pass overhead, at the height of a postal airplane.
The lighting and ignition of the motorcycle are interrupted.
One or two seconds later, on their own impulse the engines of the two motorcycles start again and the headlights are on again.
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
4163: 1954/10/16 21:30 2 3:04:20 E 49:44:20 N 3333 WEU FRN SMM 8:7
HAM,FR:2 OBS:DISK+CONE >E in SEQUENCE:ORG OBJ BUZZES MOTORBIKES that QUIT/EME
Ref#194 LUMIERES dans la NUIT.(LDLN France) Issue No. 321 : ROAD+RAILS
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Somme in Ham on October 16, 1954 at 21:25 hours "At the Wood of Sancourt 3 people drive by motorcycles. A red disc passes at their vertical, at the height of a mail plane. The ignition and the lighting of the motorcycles are cut. One or two seconds later, on their impetus, the engines of the two machines start again and their headlights function again."
The source is said to be my website: "Les OVNI vus de près par Gross Patrick ** http://ufologie.net"
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website says that on 16 October 1954 at 21:30, in Ham, France, "Nocturnal lights were reported on a road."
The source is said to be "Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002".
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That night around this hour, over this area among other areas, the "big meteor" that had generated a lot of reports indeed passed in the sky.
The points to consider here seem to me to be:
The version by Barthel and Brucker is of total poverty. No indication of what would have happened, no source.
Barthel and Brucker seem to be giving an indication that their "investigation" may have been fictitious. There were three witnesses according to the press quoted by Sider later. Barthel and Brucker say that some t hem, so at least 2, are dead, and the others, so at least 2 more, were impossible for them to find. This gives us at least 4 witnesses, for a case in which the witnesses are together riding mopeds thus with little probability of an indeterminate number of witnesses or another witness being uncounted. I find this curious at least, even suspicious.
Barthel and Brucker do not give any witnesses name, although it appears that they were given in the press beforehand, indicatng that the witnesses had not requested anonymity. They claim they could not find them and that it rests their case, but by not giving the names, they were preventing anyone else from trying to do better than them. Here is another thing that makes me suspicious - this is also very usual on their part.
The indication of the height of the phenomenon given by the witnesses (or at least one of them) that one finds in Sider's version does not mean much. The "height of a postal plane" can only suggest that it did not pass a few meters above them, but rather a few hundred meters or even much more above them. The witnesses did not know the size of the "disk", therefore they cannot give a precise distance.
We understand that for Sider, the extinction of the engines and headlights of the two mopeds and their apparently spontaneous reignition give its strangeness to the case, which would be classified as s CE2 instead of NL case.
There are a number of cases of "engine shutdowns" and "extinguishing headlights" or other "radio crackle" during the passage of phenomena unidentified by their witnesses, during the French wave of 1954, and in other countries and other years.
It is sometimes rightly pointed out that under the influence of emotion, a witness may stall his engine involuntarily and even unconsciously.
Here, we have two different mopeds for whicj both the engine stops and the headlight goes out, and for both moped the engine and headlights went back on spontaneously, if at least we believe the version given by Jean Sider. Can this happen unintentionally and unconsciously? Maybe, but I'm not sure at all.
But is it correctly reported by Sider and the newspaper he said he based his version on? For lack of the original copy so far, I prefer to stick with "possibly the 09:30 p.m. meteor."
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Ham, Somme, Lemaire, Jean Yvart, wood, Sancourt, motor, engine, headlight, failure, stall, multiple, road, night, disc, red, airplane, motorcycle, motorbike
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | October 23, 2004 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 27, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1], [uda1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | November 24, 2019 | Additions [lhh1], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet. Maybe the meteor of October 16, 1954, at 09:30 p.m." |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | January 30, 2020 | Additions [cpd1], [pat1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | February 26, 2020 | Addition [nnm1]. |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | March 13, 2020 | Addition [jdh1]. |
| 1.5 | Patrick Gross | April 22, 2020 | Addition [vdn1]. |
| 1.6 | Patrick Gross | October 20, 2021 | Addition [vdn2]. |
