The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 3-Oct-54-Boves.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In the regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard for October 5, 1954, it was reported that on October 4, 1954, they interviewedwitnesses, among others, of an observation of October 3, 1954 in Boves.
At exactly 8:50 p.m. (or 08:30) p.m., Mr. and Mrs. Dheilly, having spent time with friends, returned home rue Bénigne-Bernard. While her husband searched the darkness for the keyhole, Mrs. Dheilly surveyed the surroundings without much thinking.
She had suddenly exclaimed: "That't quite a Moon!", because she saw a half disk of a very strong orange hue at the end of the street, the other part of the "apparition" being probably hidden by the gable end of the house of Mr. Quin, a carpenter, a house located a few hundred meters away.
Her husband having pointed out to her that "there was no moon" these days, Mrs. Delhi stepped forward a few meters on the sidewalk. She had the impression for a moment that it could be a blind or a curtain inflated by the wind and which filtered by reflecting it, the electric light.
But the disc was moving, spinning towards the wooded ridge on the other side of the marshes.
Mrs. Dheilly called out to her husband, "Do you want to bet it's a saucer?" and they both walked over to Mr. Quin's house to point out the phenomenon to him.
Mr. and Mrs. Quin could thus also observe the orange disc which, seen through the trees, appeared to thin and lengthen before disappearing.
The newspaper speculated that it was a "craft", finding it normal that the witnesses did not see the dome or other detail of this kind since it was dark, noting that for the witnesses, nothing should be added, it was an orange disc and nothing more.
In the local weekly newspaper Journal du Santerre, of Montdidier, in the Somme department, it was reported on October 8, 1954, that several people from Boves had just seen "flying saucers", or "at least a strange slow moving glow. In their opinion, the object seemed to fly off the edge of the Boves soccer field. The "saucer" was therefore seen by Mr. and Mrs. Dhelly and Mr. and Ms. Quin, as well as by Mr. Laurent Laporte, debiting at Pont de Fouencamps."
In the sensation magazine Radar for October 17, 1954, it was reported that in Boves, a suburb of Amiens, many of the 1918 residents saw "the mysterious craft". Returning home, Mrs. and Mr. Dheilly, a retired postman, had seen an orange glow, and they had alerted Mr. Quin. "The disc" has "turned" for 4 minutes then "disappeared" "in the form of a crescent..."
In 1978 already, ufologist Dominique Caudron published a detailed article about the October 3, 1954 sightings n the evening in that area and showed that this one, like most other ones, was caused by the Moon.
In 1997, the ufologist and author Jean Sider reported in his book on the 1954 French wave that the newspaper La Tribune d'Albert for October 9, 1954, page 3, told that at an unspecified hour, several people in Boves "saw flying saucers, or at least a strange glow that was moving slowly."
These people said that "the craft seemed to fly" around the Boves football field.
Sider said some of the witnesses were Mr. and Mrs. Dhelly, Mr. and Mrs. Quin, and Mr. Roland Laporte, beverage seller at Fouecamps's bridge.
The observation then appeared as summaries of what Jean Sider said, then in 2017, the "skeptical" ufologist Dominique Caudron, based in the Nord and who had worked a lot on the misinterpretations caused by the Moon throughout the region that evening, brought these details:
First, at Boves on October 3, 1954, at 08:50 p.m., Mr. and Mrs. Dheilly had observed an orange half-disc, moving towards a nearby wooded ridge, roughly in the axis of the street and the other side of the marshes (thus in the south-west) and Mrs. Dheilly had initially compared it to the Moon. They went to alert Mr. and Mrs. Quin, who saw the object through the trees. It seemed to lengthen and thin, before disappearing.
Dominique Caudron quoted his press sources: Le Courrier Picard of October 5, 1954, on page 3, La Voix du Nord, edition of the Somme of October 6, 1954 on page 6, Nord-Matin of October 6, 1954, on page 10 and of October 7, 1954, on page 8, Libre Artois of October 8, 1954, on page 4, Le Journal du Santerre of October 8, 1954, on page 3, the Journal de Doullens of October 9, 1954, on page 1, Les Tablettes de Péronne of October 9, 1954, on page 3, and La Tribune d'Albert of October 9, 1954, on page 3.
Then, this same October 3, 1954, at 08:50 p.m., in Boves, from the bridge of Foucencamps, Mr. Laurent Laporte reportedly witnessed the same phenomenon, this according to Le Courrier Picard of October 5, 1954, on page 3, La Voix du Nord, edition of the Somme of October 6, 1954, on page 6, Le Journal de Santerre of October 8, 1954, on page 3, Les Tablettes de Peronne of October 9, 1954, on page 3, and La Tribune d'Albert of October 9, 1954, on page 3.
He then explains that the data analysis shows that it was the Moon.
[Ref. cpd1:] NEWSPAPER "LE COURRIER PICARD":
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Once again, the flying saucers are making the talhs. The time is right [?] since this autumn, each day brings us new testimonies on the presence of mysterious apparatuses in the Picardy sky.
[Photo caption:] Mrs. DHEILLY, on her doorstep, where she noticed the orange disc. Sitting on her left, Mr. QUIN.
This is how yesterday we were able to interview several people from the Bénigne-Bernard street, in Boves, who, Sunday evening, have, in the south-east of the locality, seen - at a short distance - a strange orange glow moving at a relatively slow speed. The craft - and a craft it was - which emitted this light, probably flew at very low altitude; perhaps it had even just taken off, after a short stop, from the surroundings of the soccer field.
But let's make it clear that this is a free guess and let's keep a cool head to examine the statements made to us.
It was exactly 8:50 p.m. [or 05:30 p.m.]. Mr. and Mrs. Dheilly, having spent some time with friends, were returning to their home on rue Bénigne-Bernard. While her husband searched the darkness for the keyhole, Mrs. Dheilly surveyed the surroundings without thinking of anything.
Suddenly she exclaimed: "that's quite a Moon!" She had just noticed an orange half disc (of a very strong hue) at the end of the street, the other quarter of the "apparition" being probably hidden by the gable of the house of Mr. Quin, carpenter, house located a few hundred meters away.
Her husband having pointed out to her that "there was no moon" these days, Mrs. Delhi stepped forward a few meters on the sidewalk. She had the impression for a moment that it could be a blind or a curtain inflated by the wind and which filtered by reflecting it, the electric light.
But no! this luminescence was strange, and then lo and behold the disc was moving spinning towards the wooded ridge located on the other side of the marshes.
"Do you want to bet it's a saucer?" Mrs. Dheilly called out to her husband, and the two of them walked over to the carpenter's house to point out the phenomenon.
Mr. and Mrs. Quin could thus also admire the orange disc which, seen through the trees, seemed to thin out and lengthen before disappearing.
This change in shape is nothing extraordinary, the appearance of an aircraft can vary infinitely depending on the angle at which it is presented. What we must remember is the color of the "apparition" and nothing else, because in the night, it was obviously impossible to distinguish the slightest dome or other detail of this kind. And moreover the witnesses all agree: it was not necessary to "add" to what they saw! An orange disc and nothing else.
As for Mr. Laurent Laporte, drink reseller at Fouencamps bridge, he too was surprised by the strangeness of the phenomenon:
"I immediately thought of a 'saucer', and not out of professional misrepresentation, he tells us. The strange glow reflected for a moment in the waters of the Avre and the ponds. No wonder that afterwards the fish deserted it!".
This word is excellent: it will be the end word... For the day, because it is quite obvious that this is only a short paragraph in the history of the flying saucers, those saucers that make the ones laugh and start to worry the others.
In any case, these new testimonies which - we must clarify - seems not to be doubted, do not yet provide any very specific elements.
We had just written the lines above, when we received the following information, which vividly confirms the statements of the Dheilly and Quin households.
The two residents of Demuin cited in this confirmation have undoubtedly had no contact with those of Boves. We are only told a slight difference in the shape of the craft. There we must [?] fairplay inasmuch [?] a glow which moves in the night, can give place to various optical interpretations.
So it is neither a "saucer" nor a "cigar" that Mr. and Mrs. Deslandes, farm workers in Demuin saw Sunday evening with a touch of fear, while they were returning from a walk. It was around 9:15 p.m., when the young couple noticed in the sky above the village, in the direction of Montdidier, a kind of "phosphorescent lampshade" which moved silently and seemed to want to land.
Frightened, Madame Deslandes hurried to her house, while the husband ran to alert a neighboring farmer. The two men, a few minutes later, had to face the facts. The mysterious craft had disappeared.
The good faith of the [?] of the adventure cannot be questioned. What was this silent "lampshade"?
We could not, in any case, not highlight this curious coincidence which testified to the trustworthiness of all.
[Ref. vdn1:] NEWSPAPER "LA VOIX DU NORD":
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This time several people from Boves have just seen "flying saucers", or at least a strange glow that moved slowly. In the opinion of these people, the craft seemed to fly away from the surroundings of the football field of Boves. The saucer was therefore seen by Mr. and Mrs. Dheilly and Mr. and Mrs. Quin, as well as by Mr. Laurent Laporte, seller at the Fouencamps bridge.
Soon after, we learned that other people in the village of Demuin had also noticed the craft. According to Mr. and Mme Deslandes it would be a "phosphorescent lampshade" which moved noiselessly and sought to land. When these people alerted neighbors, the craft had disappeared.
[Ref. nmn1:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-MATIN":
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One continues to report everywhere the appearance of mysterious craft that sometimes have the shape of saucers, luminous balls, incandescent discs. But all these testimonies add nothing new to the question. On the other hand, a scientist has just spoken to publicize the result of a personal observation.
Mr. G. Duncan Fletcher, vice-president of the Kenya Astronomical Association, himself recently observed an object flying over Nairobi. He was in his observatory (which is very well equipped), with four friends. It was 7:40 p.m., very low in the East, appeared a great gleam which had nothing to do with astronomy, nor with the planes which had just landed on the airport. The object was at a height of about 700 meters and was stationary. When Mr. Fletcher and his four friends saw it, he emitted a bright orange glow. This glow intensified until light yellow and the object rose, descended and rose again to finally disappear in the clouds.
Mr. Fletcher reports that saucers have been reported by highly experienced observers from all over the world and says "visitors from another world are observing the earth and probably mapping it."
Citing in support of his thesis the opinion of Dr. P. Foyle, professor of astrophysics at Cambridge and that of Sir James Jean, Dr. Fletcher declares that innumerable reasons militate in favor of existence many planets capable of harboring life, but life forms on other planets could be very different from anything we can imagine."
He adds that it may be just a coincidence, but he points out that these beings from other worlds have been interested in terrestrial activities since the first atomic explosion about seven years ago.
"There seems to be no doubt," Mr. Fletcher continues, "that these beings are extremely ahead of us. I think they approach us as we would if we were in their place."
In the meantime, other mysterious craft have been reported over our region.
Sunday evening, at 9 p.m., Mr. Ferdinand Millecamps, 21, mason, living in Haubourdin, 22 rue Victor Loridan, on the bridge of Sequedin, saw, about 500 meters, between Sequedin and Hallennes, and on the railway, a ball of light, about the size of a tram. It was 4 or 5 meters above the ground and, after having remained motionless for a while, it set off vertically. Frightened by this fantastic appearance, Mr. Millecamps left the place precipitately, and later, still very moved, told his adventure while arriving at Haubourdin.
Saturday, Mr. Marcel Sénéchal, 20, living in St-Amand, at the place called "La Pannerie", had as usual spent the evening at Hauteville-Nivelle with his fiancée. He was returning by bicycle to St-Amand along the Scarpe canal, around 1 in the morning.
Arriving at the height of the Vandeville pasture in Nivelle, he suddenly heard a conversation held in an unknown language and seeming to come from his right. He turned his head to this side and to his great agitation then saw a luminous mass in the shape of a haystack as well as two human forms of 1.20 m. approximately in height, covered with a shiny garment. A ray of light came out of the craft.
The mysterious characters were probably unable to see the approach of the young cyclist who was riding in the dark, a breakdown having immobilized his lighting.
The frightened young man, went off with all pedals and returned to his home moved to the extreme and reported these facts to his family and neighbors.
Informed by public rumor, the Commissioner of St-Amand, Mr. Gravet and two inspectors in charge of the Air Police attached to Lesquin aerodrome went to the scene and carried out searches; but they couldn't find any traces.
Residents of Boves in the Somme witnessed a strange phenomenon on Sunday evening.
It was 8:50 p.m., Mr. and Mrs. Dheilly who had visited friends, were going home. As Mr. Dheilly sought in the dark to open his door, Mrs. Dheilly suddenly noticed an orange half-disc, low in the sky, towards the end of the street. She alerted her husband and both could see the disc slowly moving towards a wooded ridge.
Two of their neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Quin, in turn warned, could also see the mysterious half-disc which, still slowly, moved away and disappeared behind the trees of the nearby marsh.
Confirmation, in indirect manner, of this "appearance" was given by residents of Demuin, Mr. and Mrs. Deslarides, workers farmers, who claim to have seen around 9:15 p.m., a kind of phosphorescent "flying lampshade" that moved silently and seemed to want to land.
A resident of St-Souplet, in the Cambrai area, received an odd visit during the night from Sunday to Monday.
Awakened by a dry clickink sound, the witness said: "I first thought of a fire in the opposite building, but it was in fact a luminous ball, which rose to the sky. A door window was blown and the glass reduced to hundreds of small pieces was scattered in the adjoining room. At the place where the craft had just left, the vegetables from the garden were all lying in the same direction, a few being uprooted, just where the ball had landed. Apart from the broken glass which can be explained by the movement of air from the craft, no other damage was done to the property."
[Ref. nmn2:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-MATIN":
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Around 4 a.m. yesterday morning, M. Pierre Lucas, a baker in Loctudy (Finistère) who was busy fetching water from the bakery courtyard, suddenly saw a machine in the shape of a 2 m saucer overnight. 50 to 3 meters in diameter. He saw an individual about 1 m tall come out of it. 20 who approached him and tapped him on the shoulder, articulating unintelligible words. The worker-baker managed to keep his cool by going back to the bakery where the individual followed him.
In the light Mr. Lucas was able to stare at the visitor: he had an oval face, all covered with hair and eyes the size of a crow's egg. The young man called his boss but, before he had time to come down, the stranger had disappeared as well as the saucer of which no trace was found.
A Concarneau beer merchant stated that he saw in the sky two luminous discs in the shape of round tables extended of a kind of tail. One of the disks was stationary while the other was moving nearby. The two discs disappeared after ten minutes after launching a rocket.
Two saucers were seen on Tuesday around 6:45 p.m. near Clermont-Ferrand, the first, 10 kilometers from Beaumont. The witnesses declared that the object approached them and became less and less brilliant. When it was only 150 meters away, they felt a "curious feeling" and were frozen on the spot. At that time there was a smell of nitro-benzine. As soon as the craft moved away, the discomfort ceased and the "saucer" disappeared.
The other saucer was seen above the Chanturgue hill, near Clermont. It moved vertically and was bright white.
A saucer was also seen in Billom by a group of 30 people.
- Several residents of Saint-Brieuc saw on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, a flying saucer which took the shape of a cigar before disappearing. They were able to observe it for over an hour.
The same phenomenon was observed in Trégueux where a cyclist returned home frightened by what he had seen.
- Several people from Thouare-sur-Vie (Vendée) also saw in the sky a dozen luminous objects having an elongated shape and passing at a very high speed and at high altitude.
Last Monday, around 8:10 p.m. while he was maneuvering the American S8, doctor Leven, in the airlock of the Watier lock in Dunkirk, captain Emmanuel Dubois, 20-year-old, 34 rue Carnot in Mers-les-Bains saw a white glow that ran along the coast, heading from East to West.
Observing this phenomenon for several seconds, he suddenly thought of the flying saucers and called his crew to make them check out what he saw. But when the first sailor arrived, the glow had suddenly disappeared.
Yesterday around 10:15 a.m., while waiting for the bus, 3 residents of Cassel, MM. Guy Ver[?]ghe, 27, Grand-Place, Romain Scheerf, rue de Lille and Guy M[?] rue Constant Moncelay, saw a reddish disc in the shape of a saucer which moved a few hundred meters above their heads.
After observing the phenomenon for a good minute, they saw it suddenly disappear on the horizon.
In the evening of Sunday an orange "disc" moving at near ground level was seen and observed at length by several residents of Boves and Demuin near Amiens. The statements of these individuals, collected separately, are absolutely consistent. The "orange disc" followed almost at ground level, a west-east direction.
Another testimony confirms the presence of this saucer in the Picardy sky. It is a baker from Moreuil, this time, who reports it. Mr. and Mrs. Dedier, indeed returned from Moreuil, with their children Mr. and Mrs. Quenneben, when, around 9:15 p.m., between Foucaucourt and Estrées, they saw the luminous object.
Same description as that given by previous witnesses, same observations on the direction of travel.
But the most astonishing tale is that of a shopkeeper from Amiens, Mrs. Nelly Mansart, grocer, 8 rue de la Mari[]e who, Sunday returned from Hérissart. Mrs. Mansart was accompanied by neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Delaf[?]rée.
Motorists had just left Hérissart when they saw a bright ball in the sky which, when better observed, then appeared to them like a rim of a bright orange mushroom. The diameter was about 6 to 8 meters. The "mushroom" let escape from its upper part, flames turning from purple to greenish, while some kind of cables hung below.
Mrs. Mansart, who was driving the car, was frightened, all the more so since the "saucer" seemed to follow the progress of the car, standing at a distance of about 130 meters and flying at low speed.
When we crossed a village, Mrs. Mansart said, the craft bypassed it and reappeared at the exit, It followed us like this for ten kilometers approximately.
When I left Pierregot, I stopped. The saucer stopped and waited, turning in a spiral for three or four hundred meters. As I restarted, it followed us again.
It was only in Raineville, near Amiens, that the craft left us definitively, heading west to get lost in infinity at a prodigious speed."
You will agree that this is an impressive story. We must also add that of a butcher of Rue (Somme), Mr. Galland who with his wife and son, was returning from Berck by car. They too were followed, for a time, by a mysterious craft of elongated shape and orange in color.
The object was flying at low altitude at a speed not exceeding 30 per hour. It finally disappeared in the direction of St-Quentin-en-Tourmont, towards the sea.
Other people also observed the phenomenon, always at the same time, around 9 p.m., Sunday evening.
The discovery of generous distributions of (fake) saucers by a Beuvry retiree caused a stir and the police, like the gendarmerie, endeavored to seek yesterday the disturbances which could have been caused by the persistent joke of Mr. D'Oliveira.
How many people have mistaking the paper balloons, cleverly adjusted by the Portuguese, for mysterious spacecraft from Mars? We will probably never know.
It was possible that the numerous Sunday appearances throughout northern France were caused by the Beuvry resident. But no, we have to find another explanation for these. Because, that Sunday, Mr. D'Oliveira had not devoted to his favorite pastime. This point could be quickly verified. What could have troubled the brave Santennese?
Certainly, if one of these craft had struck against a haystack, it caused the risk of causing a fire. Mr. D'Oliveira protested moreover forcefully: he uses, as he says, asbestos, thus taking all precautions. And yet the hot air balloon landed at Sailly-Labourse was indeed starting to burn, three meters from a haystack by the way.
And that's why Mr. D'Oliveira will "benefit" from a fine. Could this be the end of his invention? An old law of May 31, 1924, rules the use of aircraft, establishing that they can only be launched into the sky with the authorization of the prefect, on the advice of the mayor.
And the legal requirements define that any object capable of rising in the air must be considered as an aircraft.
These are therefore 5,000 aircraft that Mr. D'Oliveira has delivered to the clouds!
Rest assured that he will not be a fined for all of them, he began his exploits before 1918, at a time when that law did not exist. And there is prescription for crimes prior to 1931.
This being stated very seriously, of course.
[Ref. vdn2:] NEWSPAPER "LA VOIX DU NORD":
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Definitely, the abundance of materials will push us to create a new chronicle: that of flying saucers. It seems that they are no longer just flying. They land, level off, change shape, leave oil traces on the ground, give off a smell of nitro-benzine, let out purple, greenish flames. They are one meter in diameter, 2,3, 10. They move horizontally, vertically, immobilize, vanish.
They have furry passengers like monkeys who enter a baker's bakery, tap a cultivator on the shoulder; beings the size of children. This time, we have more details. Let us rejoice deeply: they have not yet caused harm to anyone. Our visitors, for sure, are almost ready to break the ice.
Let's wait with serenity.
But before this historic hour strikes strong souls no longer dare to look up at the sky without emotion: "It it my turn to see a saucer?"
Planes of Koksijde, which run along the coast, balloons - meteorological probes, fanciful meteors of which Sénèque - already - had described the whims, shooting stars, full or half-full moon when you find yourself gathered in the big celestial concert you must laugh at the people of the earth!
Because today the testimonies are such that nobody is thinking about you anymore.
Go pretend that the orange disc identified by Mr. Julien Bédié, Mr. and Mrs. Quennehen was not a saucer; go pretend to Mrs. Nelly Mansart that she was not literally chased on the road from Hérissart, to Amiens by a dazzling ball which followed her car, bypassing the villages, resuming hunting at their exit, stopping when the car stopped, leaving at the same time as it, that its terrors were in vain... Might as well promise the moon.
In the Somme where sky users become invasive, from Saint-Just to Boves, from Montières to Dreuil, from Rainneville to Amiens, in Brittany, to Saint-Brieuc and Trégueux, in the Vendée, at Thouare-sur-Vie, in the Finistère in Quimper, the daily quota of new visions fuels the myth. Once again let us do so, let us welcome with a wide smirk the accumulation of this new form of testimonies from the beyond.
If it were to be true that beings from other planets would be busy raising, as a scientist from Kenya put it - that's all that far! - the map of the earth, let's not bother them in their work.
Better, shave our mountains, divert the course of our rivers to the best of our industrial aspirations, fertilize the deserts, in short, let us work hard for the good of humanity to change the appearance of this earth. No doubt this will not go unnoticed by the Martians. And that they will take all the time they want to play this card.
Lady, you have to be sure of yourself to change the planet.
And above all, let's take a serious look at our astrology.
Jean HAUTEFEUILLE
[Ref. jsa1:] "JOURNAL DU SANTERRE" NEWSPAPER:
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Appearances in the region
Martians spend their weekends on earth. They are reported everywhere, from North to South, from the shores of the Ocean to the banks of the Rhine.
Besides, they are not Martians, because according to our most learned astronomers, neither Mars nor Venus can be inhabited. Mars is too cold and lacks oxygen. As for Venus, it is currently in the middle of the carboniferous period, much like Earth, 300 million years ago.
The unknown beings, piloting the diabolical crockery, are Uranians, the German professor Hermann Oberth, rockets specialist, revealed recently.
The whole world is lost in guesswork. There are supporters of the thesis of craft coming from another planet. There are those who believe them to be terrestrial, something like improved V2s. Finally, there are those who see it as the object of hallucinations.
We are looking for explanations: fireballs, false suns, false moons, refraction phenomena, comets, meteors, rockets. Nothing satisfactory. Nothing final.
There are many testimonies. Many are fragile. Some apparently solid do not always resist observation or lack precision which can guarantee authenticity.
The enigma is complete, the file of the saucers remains open but the windows of the museum of unknown objects remain empty.
***
After the Abbeville region, it's several people from Boves who have just seen "flying saucers", or at least one strange glow that moved slowly. According to these people, the craft seemed to fly off from the edge of the Boves soccer field. The "saucer" was therefore seen by Mr. and Mrs. Dhelly and Mr. and Mrs. Quin, as well as by Mr. Laurent Laporte, seller at Pont de Fouencamps.
We learned shortly after that other people from the village of Demuin had also noticed the craft. According to Mr. and Mrs. Deslandes, it was a kind of "phosphorescent lampshade" which moved without noise and sought to land. When these people alerted neighbors, the object was gone.
Sunday evening, a resident of Moreuil, Mr. Julien Béder, baker, rue Thibeauville, came back, with his wife and children, Mr. and Mrs. Quenehen, butchers in Péronne, by car, on the Amiens-Saint-Quentin road when between Foucaucourt and Estrées, he saw, around 9:15 p.m., a luminous object moving at ground level, towards Montdidier, at a distance which was, it will be understood, impossible to assess.
The shape and (apparent) size of a "four pound loaf" (sic) curved on the top, the "thing", the color of minium, was motionless, and the occupants of the car, after stopping, were able to observe it at leisure, while making the most diverse assumptions. A dark vertical bar, occupying about 1/5th of its width, appeared in the middle of the luminous dot, and remained there all the time that the observation lasted, about 10 minutes.
Also, we learn that a retired miner from Beuvry-les-Béthune confessed to have made flying saucers himself made of paper that functioned like hot air balloons.
The hoaxer claimed that he had already built and launched more than a thousand of these devices.
***
Finally, a young man from Montdidier returning to Etelfay, on September 30, was reportedly dumbfounded when he saw a strange craft, around 11 p.m. o'clock, above Faverolles.
[Ref. jds1:] NEWSPAPER "LE JOURNAL DE DOULLENS":
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Saucers, cigars... and flying beehives keep crisscrossing the skies of Europe to Africa, if we are to believe the people, every day more numerous, who state they witnessed these curious phenomena.
- A shopkeeper from Amiens, Mrs. Nelly Mansart, grocer, 6, rue de la Morlière, who was driving, lived on Sunday evening, pathetic minutes. Indeed, she was followed by a saucer between Hérissart and Raineville.
- In Vron (Somme), two young men who were riding their bikes, noted an orange-colored object in the middle of the road. Beside it was a living being comparable to a child dressed in a spacesuit. This character climbed into the craft which, without noise, suddenly disappeared.
- Above Auxi-le-Château, the same craft was seen by a Vimeu industrialist, who was returning from hunting.
- Last Sunday, a flying saucer was seen in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire (P.-de-.C.). A resident of Liévin also distinguished a similar craft around the lighthouse of Lorette.
- In Boves, several residents saw Sunday evening at 8:30 p.m., a strange glow that looked like an orange disc.
Finally, in Doullens, at exactly the same hours, two young residents of Doullens, A.C., 18, and J.N., 17, who were going at the "Tivoli-Cinéma" also saw as a powerful hue of orange color. They thus contemplated this strange gleam for 10 minutes. Nothing came to their idea that they were in the presence of a saucer and it was only on reading the narrated account of the residents of Boves, in "Le Courrier Picard", that they decided to tell what they had seen.
It was while passing over the Pont des Tilleuls that they saw a bright orange glow between the great horseman of the Citadel and the Bois de Bretel, appearing behind the trees of the road at the horizon.
This glow, of a very bright brightness, had the shape of a triangle pointed in the air and included in an oval slightly less enlightened. Motionless, that steady glow looked like no electric light.
This vision had somewhat intrigued one of the two young people since the next day he went to the place where he had seen this apparition.
On the other hand, it came to us that several people living on the road to Abbeville had also seen this phenomenon.
[Ref. tdp1:] NEWSPAPER "LES TABLETTES DE PERONNE":
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Appearances in the region
Martians spend their weekends on earth. They are reported everywhere, from the Nord to the Midi, from the shores of the Ocean to the banks of the Rhine.
Besides, they are not Martians, because according to our most learned astronomers, neither Mars nor Venus can be inhabited. Mars is too cold and lacks oxygen. As for Venus, it is currently in the middle of the carboniferous period, much like Earth was, 300 million years ago.
The unknown beings, piloting the diabolical crockery, are Uranians, revealed recently the German professor Hermann Oberth, rocket specialist.
The whole world is lost in guesswork. There are supporters of the thesis of craft coming from another planet. There are those who believe them to be terrestrial, something like improved V2s. Finally, there are those who see it as the object of hallucinations.
We are looking for explanations: fireballs, false suns, false moons, refraction phenomena, comets, meteors, rockets. Nothing satisfactory. Nothing final.
There are many testimonies. Many are fragile. Some apparently solid do not always resist observation or lack the precision which can guarantee authenticity.
The enigma is complete, the saucers file remains open but the windows of the museum of unknown objects remain empty.
***
After the Abbeville region, it's several people from Boves who have just seen "flying saucers", or at least one strange glow that moved slowly. According to these people, the craft seemed to fly off the edge of the Boves football field. The "saucer" was therefore seen by Mr. and Mrs. Dhelly and Mr. and Mrs. Quin, as well as by Mr. Laurent Laporte, coffee shop manager at Pont de Fouencamps.
We learned shortly after that other people from the village of Demuin had also noticed the craft. According to Mr. and Mrs. Deslandes, it was a kind of "phosphorescent lampshade" which moved without noise and tried to land. When these people alerted neighbors, the object was gone.
[Ref. mju1:] MICHEL JEANTHEAU - "LA TRIBUNE D'ALBERT":
Ufologist Michel Jeantheau gave his transcription:
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Weekly "LA TRIBUNE D'ALBERT" (ALBERT, 80) for Sat 10/09/1954,p.3:
Martians spend their weekends on earth. They are reported everywhere, from North to South, from the shores of the Ocean to the banks of the Rhine.
Besides, they are not Martians, because according to our most learned astronomers, neither Mars nor Venus can be inhabited. Mars is too cold and lacks oxygen. As for Venus, it is currently in the middle of the carboniferous period, much like Earth, 300 million years ago.
The unknown beings, piloting the diabolical crockery, are Uranians, the German professor Hermann Oberth, rockets specialist, revealed recently.
The whole world is lost in guesswork. There are supporters of the thesis of craft coming from another planet. There are those who believe them to be terrestrial, something like improved V2s. Finally, there are those who see it as the object of hallucinations.
We are looking for explanations: fireballs, false suns, false moons, refraction phenomena, comets, meteors, rockets. Nothing satisfactory. Nothing final.
There are many testimonies. Many are fragile. Some apparently solid do not always resist observation or lack precision which can guarantee authenticity.
The enigma is complete, the file of the saucers remains open but the windows of the museum of unknown objects remain empty.
***
After the Abbeville region, it's several people from Boves who have just seen "flying saucers", or at least one strange glow that moved slowly. According to these people, the craft seemed to fly off from the edge of the Boves soccer field. The "saucer" was therefore seen by Mr. and Mrs. Dhelly and Mr. and Mrs. Quin, as well as by Mr. Laurent Laporte, seller at Pont de Fouencamps.
We learned shortly after that other people from the village of Demuin had also noticed the craft. According to Mr. and Mrs. Deslandes, it was a kind of "phosphorescent lampshade" which moved without noise and sought to land. When these people alerted neighbors, the object was gone.
[Ref. las1:] NEWSPAPER "LIBRE ARTOIS":
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Around 4 a.m. yesterday morning Mr. Pierre Lucas, a baker in Loctudy (Finistère), who was busy fetching water from the bakery courtyard suddenly saw a machine in the shape of a saucer 2.5 to 3 meters in diameter in the night.
He saw an individual about 1.20 m tall come out of it, who approached him and tapped him on the shoulder, articulating unintelligible words. The worker baker managed to keep his cool and returned to the bakery where the stranger followed him.
In the light, Mr. Lucas could stare at the visitor: his face was oval, all covered with hair and eyes the size of a crow's egg. The young man called his boss but, before he had time to go down, the stranger had disappeared as well as his saucer, of which no trace was found.
A Concarneau beer merchant said that he saw two luminous discs in the sky of the shape of an extended round table with a kind of tail. One of the disks was stationary, while the other was moving nearby. The two discs disappeared after ten minutes after launching a rocket.
Saucers were seen on Tuesday around 3:15 p.m., near Clermont-Ferrand, the first, 10 kilometers from Beaumont.
The witnesses said that the craft approached them and became less and less brilliant. When it was only 150 meters away, they felt a "weird sensation" and were like nailed in place. At this time a smeel of nitro-benzine was released. Soon the craft went away, the discomfort ceased and the saucer disappeared.
The other saucer was seen above the hill of Chanturgue, near Clermont. It moved vertically and was bright white.
A saucer was also spotted in Billom by a group of 30 people.
- Several residents of Saint-Brieuc saw in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, a flying saucer which took the form of a cigar before disappearing. They were able to observe it for over an hour.
The same phenomenon was observed in Trégueux where a cyclist returned home frightened by what he had seen.
Several people from Thouars-sur-Vie (Vendée) also saw in the sky a dozen luminous objects having an elongated shape and passing at very high speed and high altitude.
Last Monday, around 8:20 p.m., while he was maneuvering the American S.S. "Doctor Lyren" in the lock of the Wattier lock in Dunkirk, captain Emmanuel Dubois, aged 30, 34, rue Carnot, in Malo-les-Bains, saw a white glow running along the coast, heading east to west.
Observing this phenomenon for several seconds, he suddenly thought of the flying saucers and called his crew to make them check what he was seeing. But when the first sailor arrived, the glow had suddenly disappeared.
Yesterday around 10:15 a.m., while waiting for the bus, three residents of Cassel, MM. Guy Verbruggue, 17, Grand'Place; Romain Schoerf, rue de Lille, and Guy Hennion, rue Constant-Moncelay, saw a reddish disc in the shape of a saucer which moved a few hundred meters above their heads.
After observing the phenomenon for a good minute, they suddenly saw it disappear on the horizon.
In the evening of Sunday, an orange "disc" moving at near ground level was seen and observed for a long time by several residents of Boves and of Démuin, near Amiens. The statements of these individuals, collected separately, are absolutely consistent. The orange disc followed almost at ground level, an west - east direction.
Another testimony confirms the presence of this saucer in the Picardy sky, the evening of last Sunday. It is a baker from Moreuil, this time, who brings it. Mr. and Mrs. Dédié, indeed returned from Moreuil, with their children, Mr. and Mrs. Quenehem, when, around 9:15 p.m., between Foucaucourt and Estrées, they saw the luminous object.
Same description as that given by previous witnesses, same observations on the direction of travel.
But the most astonishing tale is that of a shopkeeper from Amiens, Mrs. Nelly Mansart, grocer, 5, rue de la Marlière, who returned from Hérissart on Sunday. Mrs. Mansart was accompanied by neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Delarouzée.
The motorists had just left Hérissart, when they saw, in the sky, a dazzling ball which, better observed, appeared to them enormous like a rim of bright orange mushroom. The diameter was around 6 to 8 meters. The mushroom let escape from its upper part, flames turning from purple to greenish, while some kind of cables hung below.
Mrs. Mansart, who was driving the car, was frightened, all the more since the "saucer" seemed to follow the moves of the car, standing at a distance of about 150 meters and flying at near ground level.
"When we passed through a village, declared Mrs. Mansart, the object bypassed it and reappeared at the exit. It followed us like this for approximately 10 kilometers.
"On leaving Pierregot, I stopped. The saucer stopped and waited, turning in a spiral, for three or four hundred meters. As I started again, it followed us again.
"It was only in Rainneville, near Amiens, that the craft left us definitively in the direction of the West to get lost in infinity at a prodigious speed."
You will agree that this is an impressive story. We must also add that of a Rue (Somme) butcher, M. Galland, who with his wife and son returned from Berck by car. They too were followed, for a time, by a mysterious craft of elongated shape and orange in color.
The object was flying at low altitude at a speed not exceeding 50 per hour. It finally disappeared in the direction of Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont, towards the sea.
Other people also observed the phenomenon, always at the same hour, around 9:00 p.m., Sunday evening.
[Ref. rdr1:] "RADAR" MAGAZINE:
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Testimonys flow from everywhere. No more doubts about the materiality of the facts. In Boves, a suburb of Amiens, a large number of the 1.918 inhabitants saw the mysterious machines. Returning on their premises, Mrs. and Mr. Dheilly, retired postman, see an orange gleam. They warn Mr. Quin. The disc turns 4 minutes then it disappears in the shape of a crescent...".
[Photo caption:] Mr and Mrs Dheilly: "See, it takes off..."
[Ref. dcn6:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:
The weekend of October 2-3 appears on all graphs as the maximum-maximorum of the 1954 wave. Although the work of counting the press of the time is not yet finished, the 118 various issues of newspapers and magazines I have been able to analyze for this period gives us an almost complete overview, in any case very broadly representative of the regional observations which were reported in the press for Sunday, October 3. I included the observations of the Somme which seemed to me inseparable from those of Nord - Pas-de-Calais and which also appear in the chapter entitled "Zigzag on the mining country" of the book by A. Michel: "Mystérieux Objets Célestes."
I count, as one case, each observation made by an independent group of witnesses. The astonishing quantity of observations reported below, shows once again the interest of thoroughly searching the newspaper archives.
OCTOBER 3, 1954:
[... other cases...]
24) 08:50 p.m., BOVES _80_ Mr et Mres Dheilly observed an orange half-disc moving to a nearby and wooden crest, on the other side of the marshes and which Mrs. Dheilly first compared to the Moon; they went to alert Mr. and Mrs. Quin who saw the object through trees. It seems to lengthen and get thinner before disappearing. (6/10: VdN-Somme, p.6 - NM, p.10 - Libre Artois, p.4)
[... other cases...]
Note: the rest of the article is an argumented demonstration that the observations in that area that night were mostly caused by a red moon low on the horizon.
[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:
French ufologist and author Jean Sider learned in an article from the newspaper La TRibune d'Albert, of Albert, for October 9, 1954, on page 3, that at an unspecified time, several people of Boves saw flying saucers, or at least a strange gleam which moved at a slow pace.
These people said that the machine seemed to fly away from the football field of Boves.
The saucer was seen by Mr. and Mrs. Dhelly, Mr. and Mrs. Quin, and Mr. Roland Laporte, a tobacconist of Fouecamps.
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
3877: 1954/10/00 00:00 2 2:22:20 E 49:51:00 N 3311 WEU FRN SMM 6:9
BOVES+DEMUIN,FR:SVRL OBS:'LAMPSHADE-SCR' GLOWS:MNVRS as if LANDING:/r217p89
Ref#194 LUMIERES dans la NUIT.(LDLN France) Issue No. 319 : TOWN &CITY
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Somme in Boves in October 1954 at an unknown hour, "In the first days of the month, five witnesses observed a strange gleam moving slowly. The object seemed to have flown away from the accesses of the soccer field."
The source is noted: "Lumières dans la Nuit".
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that in October 1954 in Boves, France, "Lampshade shaped disc glows, maneuvers as if about to land."
And: "An unusual object was sighted, that had unconventional appearance and performance. One luminous disc was observed by several witnesses in a town for two minutes."
The sources are indicated as Lumieres dans la Nuit, Lumieres dans la Nuit; Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002.
[Ref. dcn3:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:
Dominique Caudron drew up an inventory of observations in the Nord on October 3, 1954, containing 51 reports, including this one:
[...]
Chronology of the observations of October 3.
We give here only a summary of what was published in the press of the time, for the nord region, regardless of what the ufologists could later say. We have numbered all these observations, the first of which have nothing to do with the setting of the moon, in order to be able to study them globally in a table. Some are already the subject of a special file.
[... other cases...]
24) 20 h 50, BOVES (80)
- Mr. and Mrs Dheilly observed an orange half-disc, moving towards a nearby and wooded crest, roughly in the axis of the street and on the other side of the marshes (thus southwest) and that Mrs. Dheilly initially compared to the Moon. They went to alert Mr. and Mrs Quin who saw the object through the trees. It seemed to grow longer and thinner before disappearing.
(Le Courrier Picard 5/10 page 3, La Voix du Nord-ed. Somme 6/10 page 6, Nord Matin 6/10 page 10 et 7/10 page 8, Libre Artois 8/10 page 4, Le Journal du Santerre 8/10 page 3, le Journal de Doullens 9/10 page 1, Les tablettes de Péronne 9/10 page 3, La Tribune d'Albert 9/10 page 3)
(The dsata analysis shows that it was quite simply the Moon)
25) 20 h 50, BOVES (80)
- From the bridge of Foucencamps, Mr. Laurent Laporte reportedly witnessed the same phenomenon.
(Le Courrier Picard 5/10 page 3, La Voix du Nord-ed. Somme 6/10 page 6, Le Journal du Santerre 8/10 page 3, Les tablettes de Péronne 9/10 page 3, La Tribune d'Albert 9/10 page 3)
[... other cases...]
All this is only a compilation of the information given by all newspapers of the time, including local editions, and of which ufologists only used a part.
We will see that the analysis of this information makes it possible to eliminate the hypothesis of a flying saucer, in favor of those of multiple observations of the moon, whose image was reddened and deformed by clouds, which also gave it a illusory apparent movement.
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A direction, approximate, can be determined with this map:
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The Dheilly couple was on rue Bénigne-Bernard, which I indicated by the green line, the football field, from where, it is suggested, the "craft" must have taken off, is in my green circle.
The Dheilly witnesses were apparently in the "vertical" part of the street since the "craft" was both towards the soccer field and towards the Deslandes house.
The "craft" or "strange glow" is therefore apparently south of the witnesses.
This was on October 3, 1954, at 8:50 p.m. (indicated by Dominique Caudron), and 8:30 p.m. or 8:50 p.m., the minutes are hardly legible to me, in [cpd1].
At 8:50 p.m., the Moon was in the direction 222° 41' and the low elevation of 3° 26'. (at 8:30 p.m. it was 218° 47' and 5° 24' in elevation). The Moon was in its last crescent with 36.6% of its surface illuminated.
222° is the South-West and not the South.
But it would be quite in line with the other part of the street, the one going North-East to South-West. So we have to consider that the Dheilly and Quins were in that part of the street and that the "takeoff" from the football field was just a speculation by a witness or by the newspaper Le Courrier Picard.
And besides, we are told: "maybe": "maybe it had even just taken off, after a short stop, from the surroundings of the soccer field" [cpd1].
I would add that Mrs. Dheilly had initially indeed thought of a Moon, though an unusual one, that it was her husband who dissuaded her by mistakenly believing that the Moon was not in the sky at this time and that Mrs. Dheilly believed it was a disc because she thought a house hid half of it, etc.
So I think it was most likely the Moon.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Boves, Somme, Dhelly, Dheilly, Quin, Roland Laporte, gleam, moving, slow, multiple, disc, craft, Moon, object
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | June 19, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | March 5, 2010 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1], [uda1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | December 4, 2019 | Additions [lhh1], [dcn3], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet." |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | March 12, 2020 | Additions [jsa1], [mju1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraph "In the local weekly newspaper Journal du Santerre..." |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | March 24, 2020 | Addition [tdp1]. |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | April 14, 2020 | Addition [nmn2]. |
| 1.5 | Patrick Gross | April 29, 2020 | Additions [nmn1]. |
| 1.6 | Patrick Gross | May 4, 2020 | Addition [jsd1]. |
| 1.7 | Patrick Gross | May 15, 2020 | Addition [las1]. |
| 1.8 | Patrick Gross | June 25, 2020 | Addition [vdn2]. |
| 1.9 | Patrick Gross | November 5, 2020 | Additions [dcn6], [cpd1]. Explanations changed, were "The Moon." In the Summary, addition of the information from [cpd1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraph "in 1978 already, ufologist Dominique Caudron..." |
| 2.0 | Patrick Gross | October 18, 2021 | Addition [vdn1]. |
