The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 3-oct-54-Marcoing.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
According to the 1979 HumCat catalog by Ted Bloecher and Walter Webb, Radar magazine for October 17, 1954, and the American magazine Life for November 1, 1954, had reported that in Marcoing, on October 3, 1954, at night, baker's apprentice Serge Pochet had been approached by two small shadows, about three feet tall.
Indeed, Life magazine for November 1954 did publish this photo of a man showing the size of the two small shadows, captioned as "Serge Pochet" of Marcoing who "was approached by two small shadows":
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Life had taken this photo from the Parisian magazine Radar of October 17, 1954, where it was published with the caption: "The young mitron Serge Pochet, has seen '2 mysterious shadows'."
[Ref. vdn1:] NEWSPAPER "LA VOIX DU NORD":
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Sunday between 8:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., Miss Anne-Marie Pérut, 20 years old, daughter of a gendarme of the Marcoing brigade, saw through the window of her bedroom a very bright glow. She approached and noticed that less than a kilometer from the gendarmerie, above the Couillet wood, a very large ball of fire to which was suspended a second ball in the shape of a nacelle, which swayed, remained motionless in the sky.
She immediately alerted her father who refused to believe her. Mr. Pérut finally resolved to come and see the "thing", and to make sure he was not the victim of a hallucination, he warned all his colleagues and their families.
More than twenty people were soon to contemplate the phenomenon. The gendarmerie allowed itself to stop the cyclists coming from Masnières and going to Marcoing. More than thirty spectators attended the show. For more than a quarter of an hour the two fireballs remained almost immobile at around 500 to 600 meters above sea level, moving vertically at times.
Suddenly, they turned into an elongated shape that we readily call a cigar. The latter then moved horizontally almost as far as the eye could see and returned to the same place in the form of a spinning top. When the latter disappeared definitively in the direction of Viller-Plouich, that is to say Southwest, a rather bright gleam persisted for quite a long time in the sky.
The 30 or 40 spectators, including all the gendarmes of the Marcoing brigade, tried in vain to consider themselves hallucinated. They were all the more disturbed because the place where the saucer was seen is considered to be a strategic spot. Their emotion was at its height when a few minutes later a plane circled this area.
Note that the phenomenon was seen by several people of Marcoing, of Noyelles-sur-Escaut and by cyclists traveling between Iwuy and Escaudières.
[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
The newspaper reports on October 6, 1954, with no other information, that there was a sighting in Marcoing. The date is not given but the sighting is mentioned among others that took place on October 2 and 3, 1954.
See the article here.
[Ref. rdr1:] "RADAR" MAGAZINE:
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Young baker assistant Serge Pochet, saw "2 mysterious shadows."
[Ref. lie1:] "LIFE" MAGAZINE:
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MARTIAN MEN'S HEIGHT is shown by two bakers. Pierre Lucas (left) of Loctudy was going to well when, he said, orange ball fell from the sky. Suddenly a small bearded figure with one eye in the middle of his forehead tapped him on the shoulder. Serge Pochet (right) of Marcoing was approached by two small shadows.
[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:
October 3 [, 1954]
[... other cases...]
08:45 p.m.: Marcoing (Nord): lum.cig.disappears direction S.W.
[... other cases...]
[Ref. tbw1:] TED BLOECHER AND DAVID WEBB:
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54-42 Oct. 3, 1954 Night Marcoing, France Type D
Baker's apprentice Serge Pochet was approached by 2 small shadows, about 3 feet tall.
Investigator:
Sources: Life, 11/1/54; Paris Radar, 10/17/54.
[Ref. ars1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
103.
Location. Marcoing France
Date: October 3 1954 Time: night
Bakers apprentice Serge Pochet was approached by 2 small shadowy entities, about 3-feet tall. No other information.
Humcat 1954-67
Source: Humcat quoting Newspaper reports
Type: E?
[Ref. djn2:] DONALD JONHSON:
Donald Johnson says that on October 3, 1954, a humanoid report occurred later than 6:45 p.m., in the night and did not involve a UFO sighting: young baker's apprentice S. Pouchet, was approached by two small shadowy beings, about three feet tall, in Marcoing, Nord, France.
The sources are noted as "Webb, David F. & Bloecher, Ted. HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case A0271, citing Life Magazine, November 1, 1954" and "Life Magazine, November 1, 1954".
[Ref. gni1:] "GNEOVNI" UFOLOGY GROUP:
In "Special notes" of their catalogue, the GNEOVNI group indicates that there exists in several books, such as Aimé Michel's "M.O.C.", Planète publishers in 1966, in which there is a number of observation cases in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais which are not included in their catalogue because there "remains much doubts as to their credibility." One of them is noted "3-10-54 Marcoing nord".
[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:
Location: Marcoing France
Date: October 3 1954
Time: night
Bakers apprentice Serge Pochet was approached by 2 small shadowy entities, about 3-feet tall. No other information.
Source: Humcat quoting Newspaper reports
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
This database recorded this case 9 times:
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | Night | CE III | |||||
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | 20.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | 20.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | 20.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | 20.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | 20.30 | NL | |||||
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | 20.30 | NL | |||||
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | 20.00 | NL | |||||
| 19541003 | 03.10.1954 | Marcoing | France | Night | CE III |
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Insufficient information.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Marcoing, Nord, Serge Pochet, entity, entities, dark, small, two
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | June 20, 2004 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 9, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 28, 2010 | Addition [djn2]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | June 3, 2010 | Addition [lae1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | July 7, 2010 | Addition [gni1]. |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | July 14, 2010 | Addition [lie1]. |
| 1.5 | Patrick Gross | October 3, 2014 | Addition [tai1]. |
| 1.6 | Patrick Gross | February 11, 2017 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.7 | Patrick Gross | April 20, 2020 | Addition [vdn1]. |
| 1.8 | Patrick Gross | August 30, 2021 | Additions [tbw1], Summary. |
| 1.9 | Patrick Gross | April 25, 2022 | Addition [gqy1]. |
| 2.0 | Patrick Gross | May 22, 2022 | Addition [rdr1]. In the Summary, addition of the information from [rdr1]. |
