The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 3-Oct-54-Leval.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
Around 2017, "skeptical" ufologist Dominique Caudron, based in the Nord, cataloged sightings in the Nord region for October 3, 1954, neglected by ufologists, including many that were previously unpublished, and mostly explainable by a red moon whose appearance was altered by clouds.
One of these observations was reported in the regional newspaper Nord Matin, in the edition of Avesnes for October 8, 1954:
At 08:45, p.m. on the National Road 359 near Leval which is in the Nord department, Mr. Fabien Bermeja was driving in his taxi going to Taisnière-en-Thiérache.
He saw above the forges of Leval-Aulnoye a luminous crescent, the center of which projected a white glow. "It" (or "he"?) was heading towards Maroilles.
The witness then lost sight of it, but saw it again at the exit of Leval.
In the regional newspaper La Frontière for October 8, 1954, the case was mentioned, adding that the taxi driver had told Police inspector Dusuel about his observation.
Dominique Caudron explained this sighting as a misinterpretation of the moon, as the object was in the same direction than the moon, and behaved like the Moon.
In 2020, Dominique Caudron released the orginal press article in Nord-Matin.
It said that "Sunday 3", thus October 3, 1954, at 08:45 p.m., Mr. Fabien Bermeja, taxi driver, "very balanced man", went to Origny-en-Thiérache with several people on board. At the entrance to the town of Leval, his attention was drawn to an immobile, crescent-shaped luminous dot, the center of which projected a white glow, above the Forges of Leval-Aulnoye.
Shortly after, continuing on their way, the motorist and the passengers noticed that the craft, changing appearance, moved to take the direction of Maroilles and they lost sight of it. But, after they crossed Leval, the craft reappeared in their view, to disappear again behind an isolated house on the road which leads to Taisnières-en-Thiérache.
Mr. Bermeja, who was going to this locality, arrived at a place called "Fontinette", took the turn and again he and his passengers saw a white glow behind the isolated house.
[Ref. nmn1:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-MATIN":
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The flying saucers are still relevant.
Aulnoye was also waiting for a visit of one of these hitherto mysterious craft, it's done now.
Sunday 3, at 8:45 p.m., Mr. Fabien Bermeja, taxi driver, very balanced man, went to Origny-en-Thiérache with several people on board. At the entrance to the town of Leval, his attention was drawn to an immobile, crescent-shaped luminous dot, the center of which projected a white glow, above the Forges of Leval-Aulnoye.
Shortly after, continuing on their way, the motorist and the passengers noticed that the craft changing appearance, moved, to take the direction of Maroilles and lost sight of it. But, after crossing Leval, the craft reappeared in their view, to see it disappear again behind a lonely house on the road which leads to Taisnières-en-Thiérache.
The car's driver who was going to this locality, arrived at a place called "Fontinette" took the turn and again the same people saw a white glow behind the isolated house.
Also, a foreman of the L.M.A. factories, residing on rue des Fleurs, in Aulnoye, who wished to remain anonymous, saw from his home and at the same time as Mr. Bermeja, the craft above the Forges of Leval.
Furthermore, it is reported that Mr. Colleur, cattle dealer at La Porquerie, hamlet of Pont-sur-Sambre, also saw between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., a mysterious craft moving noiselessly over the Hambre farm.
These people whose honesty cannot be doubted, are formal in their declaration, they deny having been the object of hallucination.
Mr. Desuel, commissioner of police recorded their observations in a formal report.
[Ref. lfe1:] NEWSPAPER "LA FRONTIERE":
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There was a very recent time when two people could not meet without talking about the endless rain that spoiled the whole season. The topical subject is otherwise interesting, since it is... you can probably imagine... saucers, cigars, mushrooms, wings and other abnormal craft which take their frolics in our skies of France. Very little elsewhere it seems.
But here, this is a bouquet! A small fireworks display, an uninterrupted carousel, and as soon as you have a newspaper in hand, it's to be interested in who has seen a flying cigar or a "Martian"...
***
Opinions are very divided on this. Some - such as my sympathetic neighborhood police inspector - admit this, to say the least, abnormal thing as scientifically impossible: he would like to see in order to believe. Many others are shaken by this avalanche of apparitions across the country.
I resolutely side with them. It is impossible that we do not witness tests of new machinery. Let's wait some more time to find out where they might come from, because we will one day know, what the hell! The Minister of Air will give us an explanation following the interpellation he is going to be the subject of these days, in the House.
***
Superstrong all the same those who designed these curious craft whose speed, I was told, would reach 13.000 kilometers per hour! This explains the concordance of the visionaries when they tell, like a well-learned cliché, that the craft suddenly moved in the air at very high speed... And we would like to know the rest of the information of a great illustrated weekly relating that one of these famous "saucers" would have been captured in Chicago, with inside, the small beings or robots who operate these weird machines, which, according to our colleague, do not have anything which recalls an engine. All this would work, it seems, thanks to the magnetic rays alone...
Strange really as much as strange, despite the "experiences" of a facetious Beuvry resident which our colleagues from Bethune attended, and wo appears below the practical truth. Thus, this brave baker from Loctudy (Finistère) said he saw a saucer three meters in diameter land at his side while he was drawing water from the well. A gnome got out of it, who came familiarly to meet him, tapped him on the shoulder, uttering incomprehensible sounds to our unhappy Breton. The baker returned to his bakery, where in the light, he noticed that his "visitor" had a hairy face and eyes the size of a crow's egg...
It was all told over the radio on Wednesday morning. Finally, the last visions of cigars, tops, discs, tails or flying wings are located in Tulle, in Paris (ah! Ah! ... the Parisians who took the people of the Nord for jokers when the guy from Quarouble announced his first encounter with the "Martians"...) in the Poitou, in Berck-Plage, in Marseille (but go believe these merry jokers...) in Concarneau, in Clermont-Ferrand (this saucer smelled of nitro-benzol), finally in Limoges, near Belfort, in the Somme, in Saint-Jean d'Engely [sic], in the Côtes-du-Nord, the Aude, Bergerac, in Nevers... Don't throw any more! But we must admit that never as much as recently, did we scrutinize the sky with so much interest. Were it not for the bad season, we would gladly spend the night on the balconies...
***
After what Robert Romain had seen three weeks ago in Maubeuge, other people from our region "saw"... For example, ask this taxi driver from Aulnoye who Sunday, around 8:30 p.m., with five people on board, saw on the road to Taisnières, a brilliant saucer, moving at high speed... His adventure was told to Police inspector Dusuel.
And what about our maubeugois merchant from the Rue de l'Hermitage, in Sous-le-Bois who, driving at high speed on the road to Valenciennes, on the Boiscrète side, was enveloped in a beam of light, the origin of which he cannot explain...
In Jeumont lastly, something abnormal happened in the sky, two night wanderers claimed.
***
All this does not fail to be very odd... As seemed fabulous, at the time, the shells fired on Paris - 120 kilometers away - by the Big Bertha... How it seemed incredible, thirty years ago, the development of radio... Even more chimerical that of Television. And yet!
***
Good advice, and your fortune will be made. If you ever see a "Martian", give him a go and lock him up in a fairground hut, but never let him take you away! That's the last word that my friend Leon gave me tonight.
Jean MABUSE
[Ref. dcn1:] 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...]
20) 8:45 p.m., RN 359, near LEVAL _59_ Mr Fabien Bermeja, driving in his cab, towards Taisnière-en-Thiérache, saw above the forges of Leval-Aulnage a luminous crescent whose center projected a white glow. It was heading towards Maroilles. The witness lost sight of it but saw it again at the exit of Leval. (NM[Nord Matin]_Avesnes, p.3)
[... other cases...]
Dominique Caudron explains that for this case as for others in the region at the time, it was a misintrepretation caused by a setting crescent moon barred by a cloud.
[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...]
20) 20 h 45, RN 359 près de LEVAL (59)
- Mr Fabien Bermeja, driving in his taxi, goes to Taisnière-en-Thiérache. saw above the forges of Leval-Aulnoye a luminous crescent whose center projected a white glow. He was heading towards Maroilles. The witness lost sight of it but saw it again at the exit of Leval.
(Nord Matin-ed. Avesnes 8/10 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.
[Ref. dcn4:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:
[... other cases...]
20) 08:45 p.m., RN 359 near de LEVAL (59)
Same aspect than the moon that night, same apparent behaviour as the moon.
[... other cases...]
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The Moon from Leval (50° 10' 49'' North 3° 49' 51'' East) at the time of observation is at the azimuth 222° 51' (Southwest), and the elevation of 3° 6' conducive to misinterpretations, and in its last crescent (the witness does speak of a bright crescent) with 36.5% of its surface lit by the sun. It will set behind the horizon at 9:15 p.m.
As a result of the 1972 reform, the National Road RN 359 was downgraded to Departmental Road D 959 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_nationale_359). It is on the map the "Rue d'Aulnoye" and after Leval the "Grand Rue".
Going from Leval to Tasinières-en-Tiérache, the witness was north of Leval (since he sees the phenomenon again when he came out of Leval), descending to the Southwest.
When he sees the phenomenon above the forges of Aulnoyes-Leval, he must be on the D959 before Leval, and the phenomenon, the Moon, is in front of him.
He always has the moon almost straight before him before and after the crossing of Leval. The moon being very low, it is normal that he cannot see it when he crosses the streets and houses of Leval.
Maroilles is a little lower than the map, southwest of the witness; it is therefore equally natural that he should have the impression that the phenomenon was moving towards Maroilles; it is the classic illusion of movement of the Moon when it is actually the car that moves.
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(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Leval, Nord, Fabien Bermeja, Aulnoye, crescent, taxi, road, direction, luminous, gleam
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 25, 2019 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | April 28, 2020 | Addition [nmn1]. In the Summary, addition of "In 2020..." and what follows. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | February 1, 2021 | Addition [lfe1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraph "In the regional newspaper La Frontière..." |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | May 5, 2022 | Addition [dcn1]. |
