The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 17-Oct-54-Reims.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
An man wrote an anonymous letter to a newspaper claiming that a few days earlier on October 17, 1954, in the evening, he skirted the canal at the level of the Saint-Charles ground, in Reims, the Marne, France, when he saw a sharp gleam not far from him.
Approaching, he distinguished a cigar-shaped machine of 8 meters length by 2 meters height posed in the grass. One of its ends emitted phosphorescent gleams; which were reflected on the metallic wall of the machine.
A door opened and three beings of approximately 1 meter 20 emerged, with a crab-like walk, and uttered incomprehensible sounds. A fourth being gten appeared then, who was 1 meter tall and whose bottom of the legs seemed transparent.
The witness tried to come closer, but the creatures then rushed in their craft at with a surprising speed, whereas during this time the witness felt paralyzed by a red, then yellow radiation, coming from a sort of porthole.
The object then took off and moved away quickly towards Tinqueux.
[Ref. tbw1:] TED BLOECHER AND DAVID WEBB:
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October 17. 1954 Evening Reims (Marne), France Type B
An unidentified man, returning from fishing along the canal at Reims, saw a bright light resting on the grass near the canal. As he approached he saw it came from a cigar-shaped object about 26 feet long and 7 feet high. From one end came "phosphorescent" lights which reflected on the metallic hull of the object. A door appeared from which emerged three hairy beings, about 3 ft 9" tall, walking "crab-wise," or sideways. Then an even smaller being a little more than a yard high appeared, whose lower legs appeared transparent. The witness tried to approach closer, but the entities rushed back inside the object at surprising speed, just as the witness was paralyzed by a red beam of light, which turned yellow, coming from a porthole. The object then took off and flew rapidly towards Tinquex. The witness then recovered his freedom of movement.
Investigator:
Source: Mesnard and Bigorne, "Les Humanoides en France" (unpublished ms.) p. 24, quoting 1'Union (Reims?), 10/23 & 24/54.
[Ref. mft1:] MICHEL FIGUET:
| CASE Nr | CLASSIFICATION | DATE | HOUR | PLACE | ZIP CODE | CREDIBILITY SOURCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 229 | CE3 | 17 10 1954 | hnp [= hour not specified] | Reims | 51 100 A3 | RS [?sparse information] (FG) [Gamard file] L'Union of 23 and 24/10/1954 |
[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:
Jean Sider indicates that he located this case in ufologist Alain Gamard's file, who himself quotes the regional newspaper "L'Union ", of Reims, for 23-24 October, 1954. Jean Sider notes about this source that the newspaper had to be a local version since there is no mention of the account in the version of this newspaper as archived at the National Library. The account is said to be a reader's letter to this newspaper.
The account for this case is that on October 17, 1954 at the evening, the witness skirted the canal at the level of the Saint-Charles ground, in Reims in the Marne, when he saw, not far from him, a sharp gleam.
He approached and then distinguished a cigar-shaped machine of 8 meters length by 2 meters height posed in the grass.
One of its ends emitted phosphorescent gleams; which were reflected on the metallic wall of the machine.
A door opened and three beings of approximately 1 meter 20 emerged, with a walk like crabs and uttering incomprehensible sounds. A fourth character appeared then, who was 1 meter tall and whose bottom of the legs seemed transparent.
The witness tried to come closer, but the creatures then rushed in their craft at with a surprising speed, whereas during this time the witness felt paralyzed by a red, then yellow radiation, coming from a sort of porthole.
The object then took off and moved away quickly towards Tinqueux.
[Ref. ars1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
175.
Location. Reims Marne France
Date: October 17 1954
Time: evening
An unidentified man, returning from fishing along the canal at Reims, saw a bright light resting on the grass near the canal. As he approached he saw it came from a cigar shaped object about 26 feet long and 7 feet high. From one end came "phosphorescent" lights, which reflected on the metallic hull of the object. A door appeared from which emerged three hairy beings, about 3 ft 9" tall, walking "crab-wise," or sideways. Then an even smaller being a little more than a yard high appeared, whose lower legs appeared transparent. The witness tried to approach closer, but the entities rushed back inside the object at surprising speed, just as the witness was paralyzed by a red beam of light, which turned yellow, coming from a porthole. The object then took off and flew rapidly towards Tinquex. The witness then recovered his freedom of movement.
Humcat 1954-31
Source: Joel Mesnard and Jean Marie Bigorne
Type: B
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
4177: 1954/10/17 18:00 1 4:03:00 E 49:15:00 N 3332 WEU FRN MRN 8:6
REIMS,FR:8M x 2M CGR by CANAL:3 OIDS EXIT/DOOR:RED RAY FREEZES OBS:/r138#9p59
Ref#217 Jean SIDER: Le DOSSIER 1954 (2 vol.) Page No. 206 : TOWN &CITY
[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:
Location: Reims Marne France
Date: October 17 1954
Time: evening
An unidentified man, returning from fishing along the canal at Reims, saw a bright light resting on the grass near the canal. As he approached he saw it came from a cigar shaped object about 26 feet long and 7 feet high. From one end came “phosphorescent” lights, which reflected on the metallic hull of the object. A door appeared from which emerged three hairy beings, about 3 ft 9” tall, walking “crab-wise,” or sideways. The an even smaller being a little more than a yard high appeared, whose lower legs appeared transparent. The witness tried to approach closer, but the entities rushed back inside the object at surprising speed, just as the witness was paralyzed by a red beam of light, which turned yellow, coming from a porthole. The object then took off and flew rapidly towards Tinquex. The witness then recovered his freedom of movement.
Source: Joel Mesnard & Jean Marie Bigorne
[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":
*Oct. 17, 1954 - A man was returning from fishing along the canal at Reims, Marne, France in the earlty evening when he saw a brightly lit cigar-shaped object resting on the grass near the canal. As he approached he saw it was about 26 feet long and 7 feet high. From one end came “phosphorescent” lights, which reflected on the metallic hull of the object. A door appeared from which emerged three hairy dwarves, about 3 feet 9 inches tall, walking “crab-wise,” or sideways. Then an even smaller being, a little more than a meter tall appeared, whose lower legs appeared transparent. The witness tried to get closer, but the beings rushed back inside the object at surprising speed. Just then the witness was paralyzed by a red beam of light coming from a porthole in the craft, which turned yellow. The object took off and flew rapidly towards Tinquex. The witness was then able to recover his freedom of movement. (Sources: David F. Webb & Ted Bloecher, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case # 1954-31 (A0340); Jean Sider, Dossier 1954 et l'Imposture Rationaliste, p. 206).
[Ref. jgz1:] JULIEN GONZALEZ:
The author indicates that there was a close encounter of the third kind in Reims, in the Marne, on October 17, 1954, in the evening.
An anonymous witness returned from fishing and skirted the channel at the level of the ground of Saint Charles, when he saw precisely there, not far from him, a sharp gleam.
While approaching he distinguished in the grass an apparatus in the shape of a cigar of approximately eight meters in length and two meters in height. One of the ends emitted phosphorescent gleams reflecting on its metal wall.
A door opened and three beings, 1,20 meters tall approximately, emerged, walking "like crabs" [sideways] while uttering incomprehensible sounds.
A fourth character appeared then, being approximately a meter high, and with a bottom of the legs that seemed transparent. The witness tried to approach more but the creatures engulfed in the cigar surprisingly fast, while the witness felt paralysed under the apparent effect of a red, then yellow beam, emitted from a kind of port-hole.
Then the object took off and moved away quickly towards Tinqueux.
The sources are indicated as the Alain Gamard file quoting L'Union, of Reims, for October 23 and 24, 1954, in which this is a reader's anonymous letter; and Jean Sider, Le dossier 1954 et l'imposture rationaliste, page 206.
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19541017 | 17.10.1954 | Reims | France | Evening | CE III |
[Ref. prn2:] PETER ROGERSON - "INTCAT":
October 17 1954. Evening.
REIMS (MARNE : FRANCE)
A man was near the canal at the Saint-Charles ground when he saw a light nearby. Approaching he saw a cigar shaped object 8m long, 2m high resting on the grass. A phosphorescent light on one end illuminated its metallic surface. An opening appeared and three beings 1.2m tall emerged, walking with a crab like walk and uttered incomprehensible words. A fourth being then appeared, 1m tall with transparent legs. As the witness tried to approach he was struck by a red-yellow beam from one of the portholes, and the beings rushed back into the object. The object then rose rapidly and then moved off towards Tinquex.
Evaluation - Another anonymous letter, probably a hoax or satire.
Note: The source reference "Gross URECAT" is my file as it appears in my CE3 catalogue URECAT; the file content is the same as this page of my France 1954 catalogue.
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Probable hoax.
The report is extremely poor as of the beings description; only their height is indicated. The report is nothing more than an anonymous letter to a newspaper, with no investigation or any corroboration; thus a hoax is a very likely explanation.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Reims, Marne, evening, canal, sharp, gleam, close, cigar, machine, grass, landing, phosphorescent, metallic, door, occupants, small, crabs, language, tall, legs, transparent, effect, paralyzed, ray, red, yellow, radiation, porthole, walk
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 25, 2007 | First publishing. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | October 9, 2014 | Addition [tai1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | October 16, 2014 | Addition [nip1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | October 29, 2016 | Additions [jgz1], [ubk1], Summary. |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | December 12, 2019 | Additions [mft1], [lhh1], [prn2]. |
| 1.5 | Patrick Gross | September 8, 2021 | Addition [tbw1]. |
