The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 3-Oct-54-Remiremont.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper L'Est Républicain for October 5, 1954, reported a sighting in Remiremont on October 3, 1954, at 11 o'clock:
A hundred people were able to see, from the enclosure of the pomological exhibition on the Champ de Mars, "what is believed to be a flying saucer: either a cigar or a disc, which released a trail of smoke in its wake, as it ascended or descended, revolving around the sun. People who were incredulous about the story of the saucers told us that they had observed the phenomenon very well."
The newspaper wrote that the "saucer", 2 or 3 meters long, remained about ten minutes suspended in the atmosphere and disappeared.
In 1979, ufologists Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker, converted to "skepticism" and claiming to have explained all the cases of the 1954 wave in France and therefore all UFOs, assure that "information taken", what "one believed" to be a UFO "was only a balloon released for the occasion."
In 1997, the author Jean Sider replies in his book "Le Dossier 1954 et l'Imposture Rationalist", claiming to have found this explanation nowhere in the Press of the time and ensuring that Barthel and Brucker consused this cas with another one, also unexplained, and that their explanation was therefore "imaginary".
[Ref. ler1:] NEWSPAPER "L'EST REPUBLICAIN":
The "flying saucers" seem to engage in a ceaseless round in the eastern sky and elsewhere. Their passage is reported in a hundred places each day. We lack space here for us to echo all the news reaching us about it. Suffice to mention a few of the last and main stories related to this.
In Remiremont, Sunday at 11 a.m., a hundred people were able to see, from the enclosure of the Pomological fair of the Campus Martius, what is believed to be a flying saucer or a cigar or a disc, which let loose a trail of smoke in its wake, when rising or descending, turning around the sun. People skeptical of saucers stories told us to have observed the phenomenon very well.
The "saucer" remained ten minutes suspended in the atmosphere and disappeared. Two to three meters in length...
Last Friday, around 23h, several residents of Bassing, including Mr. Romain and Mr. Renfort, saw, above the region between Vergaville and Bidestroff, a luminous object of 2 to 3 meters in length, having the shape of an ellipse and which moved at variable speeds. Witnesses heard a slight engine roar. Sometimes the alleged flying saucer slowed its course up to the point to rest, and then went back at breakneck speed.
The same phenomenon was observed on Saturday between 21h and 22h by Mr. Remy Rousselle, of Blanche-Eglise and Mr. Baumann of Bassing.
In turn, the sky of the region of Dieuze saw evolve a flying saucer.
It was Sunday night. It was exactly 8:17 p.m. when Mr. Pierre Laplace, aged 19, electrician at the Etablissements Kuhlmann in Dieuze and living in Vergaville, saw in the sky a large bright green disk, at the height of the wood of Brides, between the village of Vergaville and Kerprich. The large spot was, he said, at about 3,000 meters. Laplace stood, and followed the moves of the machine. When he saw it for the first time, it was motionless. Suddenly, says the electrician, the machine threw glittering lights of the color of ultraviolet rays, it then moved at a rate such that current jet planes appear motionless in comparison. The flying saucer, because this is what it was, said the witness, as well as passers by Mr. Laplace had stopped and who are formal, stopped at the height of the Paquis of Guéblin, it flew the distance between Guéblin and Kerprich three times, always at breakneck speed, but, extraordinary thing, it always stopped at the same place.
Suddenly the craft launched new gleams, seemingly locating the ground, and went down at about 600 meters of the ground, then making a semicircle, very slowly, it got more and more close to the ground and finally, seemed to land on the hill of the Vines, located not far from Bedestroff. Thirty people, cyclists, pedestrians, motorists followed, extremely interested, the changes in the saucer. Laplace and some other spectators having wanted to go on a motorcycle at the landing place, the saucer again took off and disappeared behind a curtain of trees.
It was 9 p.m. then.
The locals who saw the saucer are Mssrs Lucien Victorien and Primon, entrepreneurs in masonry in Vergaville, Kinowsky, shoemaker in Bataville, Claude Ronfort of Bassing and the manager of the Eco in Vergaville and his family.
Curiously, at 23:45, several unknown parked on the road, and Mr. Domant, mechanic in Guéblin and Mr. Gilcher, of the same village, watched attentively but without daring to approach it, a green disc which was in the fields, a short distance from the road.
Finally, let's note that on Saturday between 20 and 21 hours, Mr. Rothfuss, of Dieuze, had also seen circulate in the air between the farm of the Boule and Maizières-les-Vic, a luminous disc whose details are exactly those given by Laplace.
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors indicate that "if one is to believe" the newspaper L'Est Républicain, on October 3, 1954, in Remiremont, a hundred visitors of the fair observed "what one believes being a flying saucer, which released a trail of smoke in its wake..."
They conclude: "information taken", what "one believed" to be a UFO was only a balloon released for the circumstance.
[Ref. lbs1:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "LA LIGNE BLEUE SURVOLEE?":
|
17°) CASE N° F/98/88541003 (01)
REMIREMONT - SUNDAY OCTOBER 3, 1954
11:00 a.m. Local time
Witnesses: 100 people
Sources: LDLN Archives - Mme GUEUDELOT who quotes L'Est Républicain of October 5, 1954
"100 people were able to see within the grounds of the Champ de Mars exhibit what is believed to be a flying saucer that released a trail of smoke in its wake as it ascended or descended in orbiting the sun. It remained hovering for about ten minutes and disappeared".
(Excerpt)
|
1. For case #17 (F/98/88541003 (01) in REMIREMONT, MM BARTHEL and BRUCKER in "LA GRANDE PEUR MARTIENNE", page 178 quote about this case:
"Information taken, what we believed to be a UFO was only a balloon released for the occasion."
No source is cited.
[Ref. lbs2:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "LA LIGNE BLEUE SURVOLEE?":
| Num. | DATE | PLACE | TIME | SHORT DESCRIPTION | 1234 | SOURCES | EXPLANATIONS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/03/1954 | REMIREMONT | 11:00 a.m. | F.S. observed by a hundred people and leaving a trail at times while "revolving" around the sun. Duration: about 10 minutes. | ...X | Est Républicain for 10/05/1954 Mme Gueudelot. |
[Ref. cnu1] CNEGU:
This ufology group indicates in its catalogue that in Remiremont, on Sunday, October 3, 1954 at 11:00 hours, local time, 100 people were witnesses of a sighting, according to the LDLN Archive by Mrs. Gueudelot, who quotes the "Est Républicain" for October 5, 1954 from which is extracted:
"100 people managed to see in the enclosure of the display of the Field of Mars what one believes to be a flying saucer which released a trail of smoke in its wake when it went up or went down while turning around the sun. It remained hovering ten minutes and disappeared."
[Ref. cnu2] CNEGU:
As a comment of the previous publication [cnu1], CNEGU wrote:
1. Pour le cas n ° 17 (F/98/88541 003 (01) à REMIREMONT. MM BARTHEL et BRUCKER dans "LA GRANDE PEUR MARTIENNE", page 178 citent à propos de ce cas: "Renseignements pris, ce qu'on croyait être un OVNI n'était qu'un ballon lâché pour la circonstance".
Aucune source n'est citée.
1. For case nr 17 (F / 98/88541 003 (01) in REMIREMONT. MM BARTHEL and BRUCKER in "LA GRANDE PEUR MARTIENNE", page 178 say about this case: "Information taken, what we believed to be a UFO was just a balloon dropped for the occasion."
No source is cited.
[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:
At the beginning of his book, Jean Sider lists "18. Remiremont, Vosges. Imaginary case put forth by B & B [= "Barthel and Brucker"]."
Further on, Sider wrote:
19 - Case of Remiremont, Vosges
Page 178, their version [that of Barthel and Brucker [bbr1]] of this case is as follows:
"That same day in Remiremont, if we are to believe L’Est Républicain, it was around a hundred people visiting the fair-exhibition who observed... what we believed to be a flying saucer which released a trail of smoke in its wake... Inquiries taken, what was believed to be a UFO was only a balloon released for the occasion."
"That same day" refers to Sunday, October 3, 1954, a memorable day at the time, because a plethora of observations were made at different places in France, particularly in the East, in Moselle more precisely. L'Est Républicain (undated, therefore another borrowing from a casual author or more probably from an incomplete file), is a title that did not exist in 1954. At that time it was was still called Le Lorrain, and did not become L'Est Républicain until several years later, even though some of its inside pages bear this title at the top.
All the October 1954 issues of this daily were scrutinized by me page by page at the B.N. de Versailles [National Library], in vain. That of October 5 includes a substantial article on the events of October 3, but none related to Remiremont. I also checked La Liberté de l'Est, which covers this city, with no more success. In its issue of October 4, we find the one and only observation made in the Remiremont sector on October 3, in the hamlet of Saulceray, commune of St. Michel-sur-Meurthe, but it is unrelated to that put forward by our couple of censors.
Figuet's catalogue, no more than Michel's M.O.C., mention an incident in Remiremont for that day, nor on any other date, moreover, at least for 1954. It is the expression "Fair-Exposition" which will put me on track. In Le Lorrain of October 14, page 5, we can read the following:
"One remains skeptical about the presence of a mysterious craft above the Metz Fair (Sunday October 10 - Author's note). A luminous circle was caught in the beam of a military searchlight for several hours. In high places, an investigation was ordered. The person in charge of the Army stand, a commander, was instructed to transmit a report to the hierarchy."
The content of this report was never released to the press.
On the other hand, in Le Lorrain of October 16, page 7, a short text appeared which ended with this sentence: "There is no reason to take into consideration the information in this particular case". No explanation was given, so the B& B explanation is imaginary!
In other words, B & B have offered their readers authentic fiction! Let's do the count, according to the "information taken" by our two debunkers. We have: an undated inaccurate reference, a wrong city, a wrong date, and a bogus solution!
It is to believe that Monnerie did not read the manuscript, since he writes on page 13: "The concern of my friends (B & B - NdA), is precision".
You bet Joe! I would rather say: it's the IMAGINATION!
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
| 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 | Remiremont | France | 11.00 |
|
The newspaper [ler1] was, as often at the time, was unable to give precise information. It is not enough to say that initially "skeptical" witnesses changed their minds about the "saucers" when they saw one.
There were reportedly a hundred witnesses, but the newspaper does not name any. Either "a cigar or a disc" suggests that individual testimonies, from people perhaps located in various places, should have been collected.
The "smoke trail in its wake" would suggest a meteor, but "when it goes up or down, circling around the sun", and the 10 minutes duration, of course excludes it. On the other hand, it's a weird smoke and a weird maneuver for a "craft" which would have come from another planet, and I think that it would have been necessary to look for some festive "device" launch organized to the pomological exhibition, I am thinking of a device of the "Chinese lantern" type.
Barthel and Brucker are a priori as careless as they often are. "Information taken", but by whom, how, from whom? A terseness and lack of details usual with these authors who, moreover, are the first to scoff when "proponent" ufologists are themselves so frivolous.
However, this would not be the first case where they were on the right track or the right explanation while being unable to document it well, and while being approximate on the cause, which could not be described as "a balloon ". A balloon, as we usually understand it, does not release smoke...
When Jean Sider tries to demolish their explanation, he does it very badly. First of all, there is little chance that Barthel and Brucker confused this case with that of Metz on October 10, the place, the circumstances and the report having nothing in common with our case, and, obviously, they could not have confused the cases "on purpose" since the Metz case had no explanation either.
Jean Sider wanted to convince us that since there was no explanation of this case in the Press that he carefully scrutinized, the case remains unexplained. But nothing allows him to affirm that Barthel and Brucker could not have found the explanation by "information taken" much later, by themselves, nothing imposed that it was the press of the time which would be the sole source of an explanation!
It is true that the newspaper was still titled Le Lorrain, taking the title L'Est Républicain later; but the inside pages do bear L'Est Républicain, as indicated by Jean Sider. This point is very secondary. The ufologists clip the articles, note the title of the newspaper which they find at the top of the same page. Or sometimes, visit the newspaper's archive, and in this case, they visited l'Est Républicain.
Jean Sider did not find the article in this newspaper at the National Library; he therefore implies that the article does not exist. So that Barthel and Brucker would have invented the case... But the article does exist. It was even in the LDLN archives [lbs1]...
Note that Barthel and Brucker had omitted the passage "when it went up or down while revolving around the sun. It remained suspended for about ten minutes and disappeared." As Jean Sider failed to find the article, he could not criticize this. Very often, Barthel and Brucker had impoverished the accounts of the press, already too often poor enough.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Remiremont, Vosges, balloon, smoke, wake, trail, multiple, display, fair, diurnal, sun, manoeuvers
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 10, 2007 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 9, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | November 23, 2016 | Additions [ler1], [ubk1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | September 23, 2021 | Additions [cnu2], [jsr1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | June 9, 2022 | Additions [lbs1], [lbs2]. |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | July 2, 2022 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet. Balloon."]. |
