The 1954 French flap:

AULNOYE-AYMERIES

"SAUCERS" SEEN
IN OUR REGION

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.

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...]

3) 3 p.m. or 4 p.m.. PONT sur SAMBRE - 59. Mr. Colleur reportedly saw a mysterious object moving noiselessly above the farm of the "Hambre". (Nord Matin. Avesne- p. 3, 8/10)

[... other cases...]

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...]

03) 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., PONT sur SAMBRE (59)

- Mr. Colleur allegedly saw a mysterious object moving noiselessly above the "ferme [farm] du Hambre"

(Nord Matin-Avesnes issue 10/8 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.

Analysis of the observations of October 3, 1954

[... other cases...]

03) 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., PONT sur SAMBRE (59)

Insufficient information

[... other cases...]