ufo - UFOS at close sight: the 1954 French flap, October 1, La Guerche-sur-l'Aubois, Cher

Reference for this case: 1-oct-54-LaGuerche.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

The ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit #319 of July 1993 indicated that the newspaper Le Berry Républicain for October 5, 1954, reported that "Friday, around 07:00 p.m., Mr. (or Mrs.?) Rousset, living on the farm of "Moulin de l'Oie" was busy closing the shutters of his house, when he saw in the sky a large luminous ball of a reddish color, which at times took the form of a cigar. In the middle of the ball, "she" saw like little threads. This was also witnessed by Mrs. Villepreux, lock keeper at the lock of "l'Oie."

Then, in his 1997 book on the French wave of 1954, author Jean Sider noted that Mr. Desbois, investigator of the group "Lumières Dans La Nuit", who carried out investigations to check UFO reports of 1954 in France, had investigated a case of October 1, 1954, at 07:30 p.m. in La Guerche-sur-Aubois in the Cher, and that this case remained without trivial explanations.

In the press source, the name is misspelled, but appears to be "Mrs. Rousselet" rather than "Rousset."

Reports:

Chronicle of the Saucers...

In the Guerchois sky

On Friday, around 7:30 p.m., Mrs. Rousselet, residing at the "Moulin de l'Oie" farm in La Guerche, was closing the shutters of her house when she saw a large luminous ball in the sky, reddish in color, which at times took the shape of a cigar. In the middle of the ball, she noticed what appeared to be small filaments. This event was also witnessed by Mrs. Villepreux, the lock keeper at the "L'Oie" lock.

On Sunday, around 2 a.m., young Marcel Debrade, returning from Bourges by train and heading to his parents' home at the "Geal" estate, also observed a flying saucer on the "Claurie" hill. This time, however, the object resembled a coffee cup and was greenish in color.

The young man specified that the road and fields were illuminated, and as soon as the object appeared, everything suddenly plunged into darkness.

In Sancoins, champion Verdenal saw one...

On Sunday evening, popular cycling champion Robert Verdenal was returning around 9 p.m. from La Chapelle-Hugon and heading to Grossouvre when, suddenly, a circular shape brightly lit with fiery red glows appeared in the sky ahead of him. The object seemed to hover for a few seconds before suddenly disappearing toward the East. It should be noted that Robert Verdenal was not alone and asserts that he was not experiencing a hallucination.

In Vierzon

Two young students from the class of Mr. Chataignier, director of the Vierzon-Bourgneuf school, claim to have seen flying saucers and provided a detailed description to their director. First, young Alain Baumgarten, living in La Petite Loeuf, along with some friends, was stunned when he spotted an object moving through the sky on Thursday morning around 10:30 a.m.

Then, on Friday evening around 7 p.m., young Jean Rousseau saw a luminous object in his parents' garden, which spun around itself before rapidly ascending into the sky.

Should we place much importance on what imaginative children say at their age? They saw something, and to them, that’s all that matters!

In Rians

On Saturday around 8 p.m., Mrs. Estève Michel, Mr. Jean Bureau, Mr. Gustave Gadoin, and several other residents of Rians observed for about 15 minutes a luminous ball in the direction of Sainte-Solange, which slowly descended vertically. Then, near the horizon, it moved to the right before disappearing. The observers cannot confirm that it was a flying saucer, but given how frequently these luminous objects are reported, it would be easy to label it as such. Will we soon get the explanation everyone is waiting for?

In the Indre

Last Sunday, Mr. Jules Prunget, secretary of the town hall in Pommiers (Indre), was in his garden when his attention was drawn to a very bright yellow-orange object moving from north to south at high speed about 600 meters above the ground. Mrs. Nicaud, who was standing at her door, also saw this strange sight. She described the object as cigar-shaped, about three meters long, with the front larger than the back. No noise or smoke came from it. It was visible for only a few seconds.

In the Nièvre

The sky over Château-Chinon, according to testimony from five people whose sincerity is beyond doubt, was crossed by one of these mysterious luminous objects now widely known as flying saucers.

The strange sighting occurred around 9 p.m.. This time, the object appeared as an oval-shaped luminous patch seemingly moving at a very high altitude in the sky. At one point, the patch seemed to split into two parts, and each part began spinning rapidly, changing colors several times. Then, it faded, and after a few minutes, the luminous patch reappeared, split again, and started spinning. This phenomenon repeated itself five times before the eyes of the five witnesses.

On October 1st, 1954, in La Guerche in the département of Indre-et-Loire, at about 07:30 p.m., a large reddish ball has been seen in the sky.

The magazine quotes as source the newspaper "Le Berry Républicain" for October 5, 1954, which indicates that on "Friday, towards 07:00 p.m., Mr. [Mrs.?] Rousset, living the farm of the "Moulin de l'Oie" [Goose Mill farm] in La Guerche was busy closing the shutters of her home when she saw a large luminous ball of a reddish color the sky, and at times it took the shape of a cigar. In the center of the ball, she saw like small threads. This fact was also noted by Mrs. Villepreux, lockkeeper at the "L'Oie" lock."

In his 1997 book on the 1954 French flap, UFO researcher and author Jean Sider notes that Mr. Desbois, investigator member of the private ufology group "Lumières Dans la Nuit", who has done counter-investigations on a number of french UFO reports of the year 1954, has investigated a case of October 1st, 1954, at 07:30 p.m. in La Guerche-sur-Aubois, in the Cher, and that he could not find any trivial explanation of that case.

The author indicates that on Friday, October 1, 1954, towards 07:00 p.m., Mrs. Rousset, living the farm "Moulin de l'Oie" in La Guerche was busy closing the shutters of her dwelling when she saw in the sky a large luminous ball of a reddish color, which at times took the shape of a cigar. In the center of the ball, she saw small threads. This fact was also noted by Mrs. Villepreux, lockkeeper at the lock of "L'Oie."

The website's author indicates that in La Guerche, on October 1, 1954, at 19:00, there was "A large luminous ball of a reddish color, which per moment took the shape of a cigar."

The source is indicated as"Le Berry Républicain" for Tuesday, October 5, 1954 and "LDLN #319 P9".

(Cet auteur défend la thèse que les OVNIS sont causés par "des militaires" utilisant des ondes et autres appareils pour faire croire aux extraterrestres en trompant des témoins.)

Luc Chastan indicates that in the Indre et Loire in La Guerche on October 1, 1954, at 19:30 hours "around 19:30, a large reddish luminous ball was seen in the sky."

La Guerche, October 1, 1954, 07:00 p.m.

A large luminous ball of a reddish color, which per moment took the form of a cigar. Sources: "Berry Républicain" for Tuesday October 5, 1954 LDLN No 319 P9

Case Nr.	New case Nr.	Investigator	Date of observation	Zip	Place of observation	Country of observation	Hour of observation	Classification	Comments	Identification
19541001			01.10.1954		La Guerche	France	19.30	NL

37/15 - 1954 on October 01 - La Guerche-sur-Aubois

On October 1, 1954, at La Guerche in the Indre-et-Loire, around 7:30 p.m., a big reddish luminous ball was seen in the sky.

"On Friday, at about 7:00 p.m., Madame Rousset, who lived at the "Moulin de l'Oie" farm at La Guerche, was busy closing the shutters of her house when she saw in the sky a big luminous ball of a reddish color, and which, at times, took the form of a cigar. In the middle of the ball, she saw like little threads. This fact was also noted by Madame Villepreux, lock keeper at the lock of "L'Oie"."

(Source: Le Berry Républicain for October 5, 1954)

Explanations:

The "Moulin de l'Oie" farm (46° 56' 44.99'' North, 2° 56' 20.08'' East) is indeed in the vicinity of La Guerche-sur-l'Aubois, in the department of the Cher (and not La Guerche in the Indre-et-Loire department).

There is also a small lock and a mill on a small canal crossed by a bridge and leading by the "Chemin de l'Oie" to the "Moulin de l'Oie" farm after 200 meters.

As for the observation, poorly documented, it may suggest that it could have been a meteor. Just a sighting duration would have helped about that...

Another possibility is the Moon, which was then at the 222° azimuth and the low height of 7° 36', conducive to a "Red Moon" and a misinterpretaion.

This is not a certainty, the moon was then a crescent with 19% of its surface illuminated. But clouds could have distorted its shape.

Keywords:

La Guerche-sur-l'Aubois, Cher, large, red, ball, cigar, luminous, multiple, threads

Version:	Created/Changed by:	Date:	Change Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	April 16, 2005	First published.
1.0	Patrick Gross	February 12, 2009	Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [tie1], [lcn1].
1.1	Patrick Gross	March 8, 2010	Addition [tie2].
1.2	Patrick Gross	October 19, 2011	Addition [tie3].
1.3	Patrick Gross	December 26, 2016	Addition [ub3].
1.4	Patrick Gross	July 21, 2019	Additions [jqy1], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet."
1.5	Patrick Gross	February 19, 2021	Addition [edr1].
1.6	Patrick Gross	March 25, 2025	Addition [brn1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraph "In the press source..."

The 1954 French flap:

October 1, 1954, La Guerche-sur-l'Aubois, Cher: