The 1954 French flap:

FLYING SAUCERS
CONTINUE THEIR ROUND
IN THE OISE AND ELSEWHERE

IT IS, in our region, in Noyon, in Morenval, and in Mesnil-en-Thelle, in the rest of the country, in the regions of Bray-sur-Seine, Lagny, Moret, Thoméry, Melun and the Rochelle, that "saucers", "cigars", "disks" and other flying craft - with and without "Martians" have been reported in the past 24 hours.

In Noyon they are young people and several other reliable people who claimed to have seen Tuesday evening, around 9 pm, "a mysterious luminous craft, having the shape of a cigar tapering at both ends and representing rather well the profile of a saucer."

The craft; which according to the statements of the witnesses was "of variable color, brilliant and indefinable", carried out, they say, vertical oscillations above the village of Vauchelles.

The phenomenon concludes the witnesses could be observed for half an hour, then the saucer seemed to dive towards the ground and disappeared behind the hills of Porquericourt.

Other witnesses

Tuesday evening, Mssrs. Baquet, a schoolteacher in the hamlet of Morenval, and Letombe, his neighbor, took advantage of the moonlight to hunt for wild boars.

Both leaving, rifles on their shoulders, they reached around 9:30 p.m. a cornfield located at the place "la pointe de Blérancourt" along the Tracy-le-Mont-Blérancourt road.

Suddenly, Mr. Letembe, looking up, saw a luminous craft in the shape of an "elongated spheroid"; which moved horizontally in the sky, at a dizzying pace. Mr. Letombe, calling for the attention of Mr. Baquet, the two hunters were able to follow for about ten seconds, the course of the craft which, without the slightest noise, continued its course from east to west, until it disappears on the horizon.

The same phenomena woas reportedly also seen more or less at the same time, by residents of Attichy and Carlepont.

For their part, Mssrs. René Didelet, technical agent at the S.N.C.F., and Omer Van de Sompaele, farmer, living in Mesnil-en-Thelle, declared that they saw "towards the south, a red sphere the size of a fist, which moved horizontally at breakneck speed, leaving behind an incandescent trail."

Numerous witnesses living in the municipalities of the regions of Bray-sur-Seine, Lagny, Moret, Thomery, also declared having seen, at nightfall, a strange phenomenon: an oval-shaped machine, yellow-orange in color, measuring more than 20 meters, at an altitude of 300 or 400 meters.

The craft stood still for some time and disappeared at breakneck speed.

One of the witnesses, Mr. André L ..., a weather specialist, who live in Thomery, estimates that the speed of the craft was of the order of 10,000 kilometers per hour.

Mr. L ... specified:

"I am absolutely certain, because I am familiar with this matter, that it is neither an airplane nor a weather balloon."

In Melun itself, several young girls coming out of an evening class, claim to have seen a similar machine in the sky, which, after stopping for ten minutes, would have risen very quickly in the sky.

A luminous ball

However, a luminous ball resembling a car headlight reportedly appeared, on six occasions, at two industrialists from Melun who were circulating on the national road Melun-Rubelles. The appearance of this luminous focus would have caused each time a very large flash of lightning illuminating the region.

For their part, several riders from a horse riding center in La Rochelle, claim to have seen a character flee from their park.

"He was strange, they say, he could only be a Martian."

Strange discomfort

Finally, a motorist from Cherbonnières was driving on the road to Souzou, near La Rochelle, with his 3-year-old son, when he felt a tingling sensation all over his body similar to electric shocks which increased as his car moved forward. The child, who felt the same discomfort, began to cry. Soon the engine of the car stopped, and the headlights went out. At the same time, a bright glow was seen, going from bright red to orange. Blinded, the motorist was however able to distinguish a machine motionless in space for a few moments then it soon disappeared. Immediately afterwards, the driver was able to restart the engine of his car.

Many disks, saucers and flying cigars were also reported yesterday in the skies over Italy. Several people said they saw these craft flying over Milan, while residents of Perugia, Bologna, and other localities in the north of the peninsula also claimed to have seen incursions of discs or flying cigars.