The 1954 French flap:

TUESDAY, AT 11:45 P.M., NEAR LAQUEUILLE

Two residents of Clermont saw a fire ball...

which disappeared when their vehicle headlights were on again

We open again, today, the file of the mysterious craft to pour in a really interesting testimony that we collected yesterday. It comes from M. Robert Delavet, driver with the S.A.C.E.R (company of construction and maintenance of the roads) of Clermont.

M. Delavet had left, last Tuesday 19 October, at the steering wheel of a truck of his company, to deliver material in the area of Tauves. Mr. Goyon, mechanic, his comrade of work, was at his side.

On their return to Clermont, at approximately 11:45 p.m., as the night was very dark and they arrived at the level of crossroads of the road of Bort, before going to Laqueuille-Bourg, their attention was drawn by an intense gleam that seemed to come from a wood located in direction of Bourg-Lastic.

But let's hear Mr. Delavat.

- Yes, it was in the direction of Bourg-Lastic, or on the train station of Laqueuille. We saw a strong red gleam which seemed to come from a small wood at 500 meters of us approximately. It is rather difficult to evaluate a distance by night. First of all we believed it was a forest fire. I slowed down the truck to try to locate what we believed to be a fire in order to raise an alarm in Laqueuille. We drove gently a few tens of meters more, and at this point in time in a clearing, down the left side of the road, we saw a disc or a ball, producing an intense light, like the raising sun.

"We stopped. I turned off my headlights. And during ten minutes we managed to observe it. "It" moved very slowly, on the right, on the left, and up and down almost at ground level. I tell you I was very afraid. We could not stare at it a very long time, because our eyes burned like if we had been welding without protection glasses. We then decided to drive on in direction of Laqueuille, from where all the valley is in view, to continue to observe. But as soon as I relit my headlights the craft disappeared.

"It appeared to me to be one meter in diameter approximately. But at what distance were us? It is impossible for me to tell this.

"I do not claim anything. I do not say "I saw a saucer or a cigar". That of which I am certain is that I was very afraid and that it was not a jet plane. Having been on military duty in the aviation, I saw enough of them, but none looked like this. Others colleagues at work also saw similar "things"... "

We deliver this testimony without comment to our readers. We only add some words for saying that Mr. Delavet seemed somebody very sensible to us and with "both feet on the ground".

Red disc, rocket and airship in the Nièvre

M. Léonard Roumy, deputy mayor of Raveau (the Nievre), as well as several people of the locality, saw last night, moving in direction of the south-east, a disc of reddish color. At the time when it flew over the community, the craft projected a sharp gleam.

In Chevenon, close to Imphy, Mr. Guy Chevrier, who was accompanied by three people, lengthily saw in the sky a kind of very luminous rocket which crossed the sky at high speed.

Finally, near Luzy, a railroad pensioner domiciled in Nevers, his wife and his son, who had visited their family, were overflown Sunday evening, around 8 p.m., by a metallic airship flying at a very low altitude, which projectors light lit the ground as in full day. The craft moved at a tremendous speed.

FLYING SAUCERS
ON THE NIEVRE

Nevers (from our C.P.). -- Three mysterious craft were still seen in the skies of the Nivernais. In Chevenon, three people: MM. Chevrier and Mattet and Mme Couraud saw very clearly a disc coming from the east and going towards the west. In its mad rush, the disc left behind a luminous trail.

In Raveau, the deputy mayor of this locality Mr. Léonard Bounyn observed a luminous red globe at very high altitude. It was heading south-east north-west. This incandescent globe was also seen by MM. Fressard and Ghouard.

Also, in Nevers, above the municipal park, the pupils of the Saint-Cyr institute saw a craft circular in shape and very shiny. This craft which came from the east was heading towards the west was also seen by the students' teacher.

The latest flying saucer trend is in the shape of a 4 CV.

The most disturbing thing about the mystery of the flying saucers is that they show themselves to the eyes of people that higher primary education and the gravity of their functions protect from vulgar superstitions and the dreams of old women.

How to doubt the word of Mr. Jean Gambier, sworn police officer in Hesdin (Pas-de-Calais) and Mrs. Michèle Vitkosusky, notary clerk in Normandy! Mr. Jean Gambier going to his service saw, above the forest an elongated apparatus whose upper part was bright red. The center of a bright white and whose lower part left behind a trail of stars. The craft quickly took to the vertical and disappeared at a dizzying pace.

Other observers have seen the saucer of Mrs the notary clerk. It was near Saint-Valery-en-Caux. Several unidentified objects - saucers, dammit! - have maneuvered for two hours. One of them, violently lit, landed in a field. Two others, seen not far from the cliff of Mers-les-Bains, seemed to correspond with the first group. Alas when the gendarmes arrived, to fine them, gosh! The saucers were gone: they must not have been in good legal standing.

The Lormes-Nevers coach driver and his passengers, also saw a saucer. Mr. Lucien Fiesch, from Issenheim in Alsace, also, who seized with fear is still running. And also Mr. Pierre Ackermann, from Guebwiller. And again Miss Fleck, from Soulzmatt (Bas-Rhin). Without forgetting the Pyreneans of Vic-Bigorre, the postman of Saint-Pierre-la-Cour station, Mr. Roumy, Houard and Fressard, at Cheverron [sic]; and the students of the Saint-Cyr Institute, in Clevers.

Flying pumpkin

The most extraordinary case was noted by an Algerian motorist, Mr. Gaston Blanquère who, near the village of Jean-Mermoz saw a saucer in the shape of a 4 CV Renault. It consisted of an upper dome from which a yellow glow came out, let out a bluish luminous spray at its lower part and finally swept the plain of very powerful headlights.

Impossible to confuse this saucer with the humble pumpkin emptied and lit by a candle that the villagers of Momy (Basses-Pyrénées) chased yesterday armed with pitchforks, picks and rifles.

A yellow ball going at 10,000 km.-hour in the sky of Seine-et-Marne

VERY numerous witnesses, residents of the communes of the regions of Bray-sur-Seine, Lagny, Moret, Thomery declared to have seen, at nightfall, a strange phenomenon: an oval shaped object, of orange yellow color, measuring more than twenty meters, at 300 or 400 meters of altitude.

One of the witnesses, Mr. André L ..., weather specialist, who lives in Thomery, estimates that its speed was of bout 10,000 kilometers per hour.

"I am absolutely certain, because I know this question well, that it is neither an airplane nor a weather balloon," he said.

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

Also, a luminous ball resembling a car headlight would have appeared, six times, to two industrialists from Melun who were traveling on the Melun-Rubelles national road. The appearance of this luminous source would have caused each time a very large flash illuminating the region.

Other "flying saucers" were seen yesterday. One near Luzy, the second on the RN 393, near Turquestein; the last ones finally near Ham, in Lorient and in Chevenon.

Near Altkirch, a motorist thought he had seen one too, but it was only the moon.

Another stack of saucers...

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...

Stop!
Priority to mysterious
craft

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.

The craft
lit the ground

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.

Horses
intrigue
the "Martians"

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."

4222: 1954/10/20 09:00 2 3:13:40 E 46:55:40 N 3331 WEU FRN NVR 6:9

CHEVENON+RAVEAU,FR:SVRL OBS:RED SCR >>SE:SHINES WHT BEAM^:LVS TRAIL:LDLN#321

Ref# 30 FIGEUT[sic]&RUCHON: OVNI: Le 1er Dossier Page No. 193 : TOWN &CITY