The 1954 French flap:

In CHERENG, under the sign of the saucer

The appearance of a saucer on Sunday evening which we echoed in our issue yesterday, upset the calm of the commune. The number of witnesses and their respectability brings new light to what many people take for a joke.

"I saw: I believe in saucers"

It is in these terms that Mr. Fiolet, school principal, answers our questions. Of all the witnesses, there could be no question of choosing a better one than this excellent teacher.

According to Mr. Fiolet, the craft does not land on the gangway, an optical illusion suggesting that this place is the place of landing.

Rushing with his son and one of his students, Mr. Fiolet, saw the craft move beyond Anstaing, in his opinion in the direction towards Sainghin-en-Mélantois.

The object had the shape of a crescent of red color, then while rising it took the shape of a drop, point down and it maneuvered from down to up several times, in this form.

The children who saw the object before the school principal were asked on Monday to draw the shape of what they had seen. The conformity of the drawings leaves no doubt, it is not an optical phenomenon. In addition, testimonies from neighboring villages correspond as to the time and the color of the object discerned.

"I saw one on the ground
Thursday!!"

It is with this explosive sentence that Jean-Claude Delmotte, 11, admitted his discovery. Questioned, the child replied that being alone he had seen behind the castle a brilliant sphere placed on the ground which flew away, taking the form of an orange drop, then the form of a brown saucer with a central prominence on the above and below. At first motionless with fright, he finally approached the field from which the craft had flown, and noticed traces of webbed feet there - traces seen by his comrades at the end of his story.

Sunday, in the morning, the same child saw a craft moving high in the sky and warned his grandmother, who arrived too late.

The official investigation

Sent by Captain Gandoin, of the gendarmerie of Roubaix, on Monday morning, the gendarmes of Forest-sur-Marque collected the statements of the witnesses and went to the places designated by the child.

Unfortunately, the ground trampled by agricultural carts was no longer marked by "webbed feet."

For his part, the school principal, who invokes the testimony of his wife, is formal about the lucidity of his students.

And until further notice this new episode of the saucer problem ends here.

Descended from his "saucer" in Loctudy (Finistère)

A MARTIAN, SMALL, HAIRY AND UGLY, TAPPED ON THE SHOULDER
OF A COURAGEOUS BAKERY APPRENTICE

... While in Paris, a cardboard salesman sees a "flying disc" above the Porte Dorée

AGAIN a Martian. Each department will soon have its own. It was in the Finistère that the last specimen of the species appeared. This time, he showed himself without a helmet, with his face uncovered. He was not pretty.

A baker from Loctudy, Mr. Pierre Lucas, saw him disembark yesterday at 4 a.m. in a saucer flying three meters in diameter, in the courtyard of the bakery.

- He was no more than 1 m. 20 tall, he says. He approached me and tapped me on the shoulder with unintelligible words.

"I managed to keep my cool," continues the courageous bakery apprentice. The visitor followed me into the bakery. In the light, I could stare at him. His face was covered with hair and eyes the size of a crow's egg. I called my boss, but the Martian, when he arrived, was already gone. And the saucer was gone."

That same night, a Concarneau beer merchant saw two luminous round tables in the sky, extended by a sort of tail.

In the Nord, one did not see a Martian, but the gendarmes of Beuvry-les-Béthune wrote up a report against a manufacturer of flying saucers. He is a pensioner, named d'Oliveira. He is not Martian, but Portuguese. A whole stock of saucers was found in his attic. In fact, they were paper balloons 1 m. 50 to 5 meters in diameter, and of all colors.

I launched thousands of them, he said. It was so beautiful. In the evening, it looked like fireballs...

The saucer factory is now closed. The industrialist will be prosecuted for "having set off flaming devices within 100 meters of the homes".

Bad day yesterday for the saucers in the Nord: an investigation, carried out at Bray-Dunes, near Dunkirk, allowed to establish that the craft seen in this region were jet planes from the Belgian base of Coxide.

"Flying tram"

A resident of Haubourdin however observed a "flying tram", and a child saw a saucer land at Cheny, near Lille; which left traces "like that, he said, of a frog man". The gendarmes examined these traces; they looked very similar to those of horse hooves.

Paris, which the saucers have neglected until now, was favored by an appearance yesterday afternoon. A flying disc, followed by a plume of smoke, flew at 4:30 p.m. over the Porte Dorée under the eyes of Mr. Allouis, cardboard salesman. Several other people confirmed his testimony. But a spoilsport suggests that the flying disc, which he also observed, was, it seemed, a flying wing.

One saw yesterday a good twenty saucers, cigars, fireballs, light globes, at Limoges, at Brive, at Azat-le-Ris and at Magnac-Laval (Haute-Vienne), at Forgès and Le Mazin (Corrèze), at Payzac (Dordogne), at Chàteau-Chinon, at Nassier, in the Poitou marshes, at Vix (Vendée), at La Rochelle, at Albi.

Near Clermont-Ferrand, two saucers which, in passing, gave off a smell of nitro-benzine; near La Rochelle, another one that left oil stains when it landed in a meadow.

Finally, a technician from the weather station at Mans-Arnage observed yesterday morning at 6:08 a.m. two strong dark red lights.

- They were, he said, neither planes, nor sounding balloons, nor meteors. But I will not go so far as to claim that these are flying saucers...

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...]

2) Morning. CHERENG). Young J.C. Delmotte, 9, reportedly saw an object moving in the sky. He alerted hs granmother who came too late. (Nord-Matin.Lille, p.3, 10/6 and Voix du Nord.Lille, p.6, 10/6)

[... other cases...]

3870: 1954/09/30 15:30 2 3:13:00 E 50:37:00 N 3333 WEU FRN NRD 8:7

CHERENG,FR:3M SPHERE LANDS/FIELD nr WOODS:16cm WEBBED FOOTPRINTS FOUND

Ref# 30 FIGEUT[sic]&RUCHON: OVNI: Le 1er Dossier Page No. 95 : FOREST

There exists in several books, including that of Aimé Michel, "M.O.C." Planète publishers 1966, a certain number of cases of observations from the nord and pas de calais which are not included in this catalog since there are still many doubts about their credibility. These are the following cases:

[...other cases...]

10/3/54 Chéreng nord

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UFO: "These mysterious traces that I have observed Chéreng in 1954 marked my life"

Published on 10/19/2013 - Updated 10/19/2013 at 10:06 p.m.

Marie Vandekerkhove

Jean-Luc Bésengez was only a child when he witnessed a strange phenomenon: with his school principal and two other comrades, he noted webbed feet footprints in a field. His classmate claimed to have seen a flying saucer ... as fifty Chérengeois of the time! The only certainty is the size and layout of these footprints did not correspond to anything known. They remain unexplained, almost 60 years later. Only survivor, he returned to an ultra adventure publicized at the time, who influenced his life.

[Caption:] In a field opposite the castle Chéreng, Jean-Luc Bésengez shows where he spotted the traces of webbed feet there almost 60 years.

Affable, elegant, Jean-Luc Bésengez is not a visionary. This sprightly septuagenarian, now retired, led a successful career in the printing industry. trade repro, he also participated in animated films for television. This native of Chéreng has now left the town. But it is still in the field, in front of the castle, it places the source of his professional destiny. He is sure: "What I saw that day has increased tenfold my sense of observation."

We are on Monday, 4 October 1954. Jean-Luc Bésengez 11 years, he is enrolled in public school Chéreng. The day before, fifty people think I saw a flying saucer during the Ducasse of around (see below). "We talked about it in class because our teacher had also witnessed this phenomenon. This is where Jean-Claude Delmotte spoke of" his "appearance" recalls the septuagenarian. Jean-Claude, 10, enjoys biking in the field adjacent to the castle, the small stone path that makes squealing wheels. This is a class header, not one to tell nonsense. And especially not to the schoolmaster. Jean-Claude recounts seeing a sphere of 3 m in diameter, brown, and orange and bright, floor-standing, Thursday 30 September. He said he then spotted footprints forming a circle.

"At lunch hour, Marcel Lison, Jean-Claude Delmotte and I went to see the traces, still visible. And went to seek the principal," recalls Jean-Luc Bésengez. "Mr. Fiolet" realizes, with his students, the incongruity of these traces. They are arranged in circles. Each is 16 cm. "We first thought to animals, but the direction has made us doubt," Jean-Luc Bésengez tip. "I regret that the teacher did not think to make casts or preserve traces", plague the former student, who draws in detail the footprint on the blackboard on the way in the classroom.

All the excitement of their discovery, Chérengeois also forget to count the traces. In the evening, the press rushed into the field: the "flying saucers" (the term UFO has not been invented yet) agitate the columns of all the newspapers that year. But when the journalists arrived, the rain and plowing have erased the footprints. More webbed feet. In their place, horse hooves dug their groove.

The next day the gendarmes of the Forest-sur-Marque brigade arrive to investigate. They ask the children, the school principal. Other investigators are there: the precursors of GNEOVNI, a group of enthusiasts of unexplained phenomena an engineer, Eugene Sorez "I was a little sucks," recalls the scholar. The press relays the location of a possible landing of "beings". "I think even remember what I did the One of France Soir", thinks Jean-Luc Bésengez which still keeps the impression that gave little credit to his childhood speech.

The observation, restlessness around this mystery, have shaped his life. His sister married a journalist who came to interview him. Jean-Luc Bésengez never ordered his sketches and made the Fine Arts. Later, his first color animated film, spent on regional television, around 1975, evoked a journalist abducted by aliens. Its title: Extrapoll. The "witness" runs the UFO literature for 60 years. He saw Hollywood draw webbed feet to little green men, "perhaps through my drawing." But never found reason to what he saw in this field in 1954. "The logic does not explain it but it was real." Fiolet, Lison and Delmotte died. He remains alone with his questions.

When the village sees saucers

Residents who attended the celebration of the Hamlet of Around, Sunday, October 3, hear a buzzing, around 19 h 20. They see on the horizon a reddish machine semblance rest on the ground that one stroke s' student and moves horizontally. Other testimonies suggest rather "two flying cigars".

Mr. Fiolet, director of the boys' school, is present. It describes very precisely the "appearance" in one of our colleagues, "I found them in the sky, towards South-West, an oblong-shaped device which emanated a powerful reddish glow We could. said a crescent moon rounded down. the central part of the machine, slightly swollen, seemed more enlightened. All of a sudden, the bulging part died. then I had the impression of see two cigars. The craft which evolved slowly turned and disappeared."

The next day, Mr. Fiolet talking in class. And raises the testimony of Jean-Claude Delmotte, resumed Leave the a by the press (see below against an extract of Nord Eclair of 5 October 1954, with Jean-Luc Bésengez photo on the lower, first to the second row on the left, cut brush). Due respect to fans of unexplained: this vision would actually be astronomical origin. The villagers were frightened by the reddish moon, according to the "experts" regional ufology (discipline that is interested in UFOs). But traces of webbed feet remain, they officially unexplained. Mr. VDK.

[Caption:] Reconstitution of the sketch by Jean-Luc Bésangez.

[Caption:] Three newspapers of the time (La Voix du Nord, Nord Matin et Nord Eclair) echoed surprizing visits in a field opposite the castle.

Location: Chereng, Nord, France

Date: September 30 1954

Time: afternoon

10-year-old Jean Claude Delmotte is walking along a path at the edge of the Chereng forest when he suddenly sees a dark spherical object about 300 meters away, which soon becomes yellow-orange in color. The yellow light becomes more intense and bright. The sphere then takes off on a vertical flight path emitting a weak noise and emitting sparks. Later the witness and two friends find strange prints on the ground at the site of the observation, described as resembling those of “webbed feet” about 16cm in length. The ground was soon trampled by horse carts.

Source: Figuet/Ruchon Dossier Ovni 1979

September 30 1954. 1530hrs.

CHERENG (NORD : FRANCE)

Jean-Claude Delmotte (10) was walking along the church path near the town hall and Chereng wood when he saw in a field 300m away, a sphere 3m diameter. At first it was brown in colour but it turned to an intense yellow-orange light, which took off making a low noise and emitting sparks. He found at the site a circle of webbed footprints 16cm long, the circle being 1.5m in diameter. It was trampled away before gendarmes could investigate

• Figuet and Ruchon 1979 p95 citing La Voix du Nord 6 October 1954. p6 + Sorez in GNEOVNI 3)

The Fabulous day of October 3, 1954

[...]

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...]

02) Morning, CHÉRENG (59)

- The young Jean-Claude Delmotte, 9-year-old, reportedly saw an object moving high in the sky. He warned his grandmother who arrived too late.

(Nord Matin-ed. Lille banlieue 6/10 page 3, La Voix du Nord-ed. Lille+ 6/10 page 6)

[... 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.

Analysis of the observations of October 3, 1954

[... other cases...]

02) Morning, CHÉRENG (59)

Insufficient information

[... other cases...]