The 1954 French flap:

Flying saucers in the Picardy sky

NEW AND NUMEROUS TESTIMONIES
including that of an Amiens motorist
who made a "fantastic trip" on Sunday evening

It will one day be necessary for scientists, these worthy gentlemen who know so much and who are ultimately only fifty or one hundred years ahead of the average citizen, to explain the celestial mysteries that intrigue us today.

It is not sufficient to say "The flying saucers do not exist and to leave in ignorance people in good faith who, every day, see incomprehensible phenomena.

Of course! There are the incorrigible pranksters, around 50%, including the manufacturer of hot air balloons whose odyssey will be read elsewhere. These are probably the ones who give the most details: Martians without arms, with a special radar antenna and webbed feet. There, we laugh, and that's normal.

But "apparitions" like those on Sunday evening were checked by many people, all trustworthy and whom we were able to interview separately before they had practically time to get in touch.

So there is "something". It is the opinion of many people. Weather balloons? unmanned vehicles? interstellar ship? No one knows.

The orange disc

Yesterday we talked about the passage on Boves and Demuin of an orange disc which probably moved at low altitude. A third testimony had been collected by our informant from Moreuil before the publication of "Courrier Picard" bearing the date of October 5. Too scrupulous, our correspondent was afraid of transmitting a hoax and it was only yesterday that he noticed, on reading his newspaper, the disturbing coincidence with ours, of the statements collected by him.

These were, in this case, observations made in the evening, by a Moreuil resident, Mr. Julien Bédier, baker, rue Thibeauville.

He was returning, with his wife and children, Mr. and Mrs. Quenehen, butchers in Péronne, by car, on the Amiens-Saint-Quentin road when, between Foucaucourt and Estrées, he saw, towards 9:15 p.m., a luminous object moving at ground level, in the direction of Montdidier, at a distance it was, it will be understood, impossible to assess.

The shape, the size (apparent) of a "four pound bread" (sic) curved on the top, the "thing", the color of minium, was motionless, and the occupants of the car, after stopping, could observe it at leisure, while making the most diverse assumptions. A dark vertical bar, occupying about 1/5th of its width, appeared in the middle of the luminous spot, and stayed there for the duration of the observation, about 10 minutes.

Having resumed their travel, our travelers lost sight of the craft, after having, at Warfusée, taken the Marcelcave road.

M. and Mme Bédier are careful not to draw conclusions. They saw a luminous, strange object, at ground level, and that's it. It was not the moon. On this point, Mr. Bédier is formal: "Well, at the age of 65, we know what a quarter of the moon is, anyway."

Other people also confirmed the passage of the orange disc in the Picardy sky, and in particular M. and Mrs. Bielecka and Miss Janine Boitel who, returning from Paris by car, noticed the "object" all along the road from Saint-Just to Boves, passing through Montdidier and Moreuil.

A coach driver, Mr. Caron, who drove the Roye-Amiens line on Sunday evening, had his attention attracted by a child sitting not far from him and who suddenly exclaimed "Oh, the funny moon!". But a good driver watches his route, and Mr. Caron could only take a quick glance, sufficient nevertheless to assess the diameter of the mysterious craft: about three meters. But how far was it?

Did the saucer
come from the seaside?

It will be understood that it is impossible for us to search for witnesses and to interrogate them in all the villages of the Somme overflown by the alleged saucer. It would first be necessary to be able to reconstruct the "flight line".

From Boves to Santerrre, it is pretty much done. Before, we find a passage on a suburb of Amiens: Montières (witness also trustworthy) and on Dreuil, passage controlled by a peacekeeper.

Did the saucer come from the seaside? It is quite possible since, shortly before it was seen in Picardy (about 20 minutes) a Boulognes engineer, Mr. Marcel Thiebaut noticed, while driving in the car on the Tingry plateau, halfway between Boulogne and Montreuil, two moving red discs. Many motorists also stopped to scrutinize the firmament carefully.

Between Tingry and Dreuil, there was obviously a "hole", but yesterday at the end of the evening, we collected an interesting statement which allows us to complete at least the itinerary of one of the mysterious craft. We will therefore read with interest the following wird statement.

An Amiens motorist
followed by a saucer
between Hérissart and Rainneville

A shopkeeper from Amiens, Mrs. Nelly Mansart, grocer, 6 rue de la Morlière, lived, indeed, on Sunday evening, pathetic minutes whose simple evocation once again moved this young woman, yesterday afternoon, when she told us about the event she witnessed.

Mrs. Mansart had gone to spend the afternoon at her parents' home in Hérissart and around 9:00 p.m., she was returning by car to Amiens, in the company of neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Delarouzée who live at 5, rue de la Morlière.

While driving and leaving the village of Hérissart, Mrs. Mansart saw on the right a bright ball in the sky. This ball actually was roughly the shape of a mushroom collar and was bright orange in color. Its diameter was around 6 to 8 meters.

Jokingly, Mrs. Mansart said to her friends: "Look, it looks like a flying saucer!..." Then, observing the glow with more attention, Mrs. Mansart noticed, as well as her passengers, that this "mushroom" let out flames turning from purple to greenish at the top, while some kind of cables hung below.

But, let Mrs. Mansart speak: "This strange orange-colored mushroom verging on a fire color impressed me and my friends very much. I admit that I was afraid. It makes you feel funny and I was in a hurry to come gome.

"The "saucer" followed us for ten kilometers, it was flying low, about 150 meters from us and its gleam was reflected in the windows of my car, so much so that Mr. Delarouzée opened the door to better observe it. When we crossed a village, the craft bypassed it and reappeared at the exit. After Rubempré, the scarlet ball went on the hamlet of Septenville then joined us at the top of the hill of Pierregot. At that moment we had the impression that the "saucer" was diving towards us and I was very scared.

I kept on driving in an indescribable state of excitement and I had all the trouble in the world to control myself. The craft did not emit any noise and no doubt it was watching us. At the exit of Pierregot I stopped at the last houses. The "Saucer", which had bypassed the village, was waiting for us and stood still then it moved away as I restarted. It began to spiral for three or four hundred meters and the "mushroom" changed shape to take that of an elongated crescent and overturned with a ball in fusion at the upper horn. We were followed to Rainneville and being at the height of terror, I slowed down at the exit of this country. I was followed, at that time, by a 2 CV that I prevented from bypassing us because I was so afraid. At this moment, the "Saucer" accentuated its gyration then moved away towards the west of Amiens, to get lost in the infinity, in the space of a few seconds, at an incomparable speed."

As soon as she came home, Mrs. Mansart gave her impressions to her husband who remained skeptical but Mrs. and Mr. Delarouzée corroborated her statements. And the next morning the little girl of Mrs. Mansart, three years old, who was part of the fantastic trip and had also seen the phenomenon, said to her mother as she awoke; "Mom, did you see the big moon" and saying that the little girl took a towel to which she gave the shape of the craft seen the day before...

Other events
of unknown craft

Two workers, working in Amiens, but domiciled in Pont-Remy, also claim to have seen a saucer distinctly in the latter locality, Monday evening, around 10:30 p.m.

These are MM. Serge Hetru, radio repairman, at Mr. Van Béghin's, and André Cahon, laborer.

The craft, which was in the countryside, at ground level, apparently, had the shape of a disc swollen in the center and surrounded by a strange blue violet glow. The two men estimated that it was a hundred meters from them and that it had - seen from this distance - about three meters in diameter. It rose noiselessly, diagonally, but along a line closer to the vertical than the horizontal.

We smiled while listening to Mr. Serge Hetru's words and he seemed very upset by that. Besides, his boss did tell us later that he was an excellent worker, serious and incapable of making a joke of this magnitude.

Finally, the last testimony for today, that of a young Amien resident who wrote to us, signing, to tell us that he saw on Monday, around 1 p.m., while he was on the road from Doullens to Amiens, two kilometers from the latter city, a metallic craft spinning at around 1,000 meters of altitude.

Blue-gray color; Oval shape; no noise.

"I think I can tell you that it was a flying saucer", writes our correspondent whose name we do not mention because it was in vain that we tried to reach him yesterday, to make him confirm by voice the terms of his letter.

We would have liked, in conscience, to be as assertive as he is...

In the district of Abbeville

The district of Abbeville, even though thousands of inhabitants do not notice it, is currently the center of mysterious apparitions of flying saucers and cigars - since everyone calls them that - which hit the headlines by generating the most diverse comments.

A cigar on the go
from Berck to Rue

Mr. Georges Galland, butcher on rue Gaston-Caudron in Rue, returned by car from Berck on Sunday evening with his wife and son. All three were followed well before Rue by a mysterious craft which had the shape of a cigar.

Legitimately worried, the driver slowed down the speed of his vehicle and stopped twice. The closer and closer object was still there.

It was a big ball, we were told yesterday evening on the phone, but elongated and orange in color.

From Pont-à-Cailloux to Herre-les-Quend, Mr. Galland, his wife and son, who were starting to worry about the aftermath of the adventure, clearly saw the cigar-saucer which did not move any more, they declared, than 50 km an hour, their car not rolling, to allow them to see the mysterious machine better, more than with 20 or 30 per hour.

The occupants of the car finally saw the craft disappear in the direction of Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont, towards the sea.

Another detail to note: Mr. Georges Savary, from Rue, working for Mr. Savreux, transporter, saw the same day around 9:15 p.m., a machine resembling a brightly colored spinning top which landed about 400 meters from his home. He wanted to approach it but the mysterious craft took off gently in the direction of Le Crotoy. He climbed vertically at breakneck speed.

Mrs. Savary also noticed the phenomenon, as did Mr. Maurice Véron, truck driver.

A saucer
in Millencourt-en-Ponthieu

Two other appearances of flying saucers, a story we hold from reliable people, were noted Monday evening, around 7 p.m., in the triangle formed north of Abbeville by the municipalities of Millencourt-en-Ponthieu, Agenvillers and Saint-Riquier.

An owner of Caours-l'Heure, who only wanted to entrust his adventure to his children domiciled in Abbeville, saw, at the top of the Millencourt hill, a huge illuminated mass. First he thought it was a heavy truck driven by people he mistook for cattle thieves...

He stood guard for a few minutes, saw nothing but was dazzled. Suddenly feeling tired, he turned around and tried to find his bicycle. The bike had been put down in a usual place, but he did not find it until after ten minutes of search, somewhat upset by the light which came from from the machine, which he had seen shortly after above the wood of Saint-Riquier.

These luminous demonstrations in the sky of the district of Abbeville leave perplexed all those who, over the days, do not claim to be victims of hallucinations.

New testimonies
about the flying saucers

Sunday, around 9 p.m., Mr. Georges Galand, butcher in Rue (Somme), was returning from Berck by car, accompanied by his wife. He was in the territory of Quend, at a place called "Le Pont à Cailloux", when he saw in the sky, a mysterious craft in the shape of a cigar. Mr. Galant slowed down the speed of his car and continued to observe the cigar-saucer following National Road 40, moving at low altitude and at a reduced speed.

For 8 kms, the motorists continued to follow the craft, which then veered towards Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmont.

In the meantime, Mr. Galand had gotten out of the car twice to observe better, and he heard no noise.

Another testimony corroborates Mr. Galand's statements: it is that of Mr. Georges Savary, living in Rue who, a few moments later, around 9:15 p.m. would have seen the craft land in a grassland four hundred meters from his home, and immediately set off again in the direction of Crotoy.

As almost always, no trace was found at the landing spot; for Mr. Savary, the craft had the shape of a red disc.

In the century of flying saucers

After the basin
here is the... flying hive

Two young people saw this
mysterious apparatus on a road near Vron

It's the talk of the day.

"Did you see a flying saucer?"

No... and you... However, I seemed to me that I saw something strange, said a sales representative to a customer in our town these past few days.

And you gendarmes, who are often on tour day and night, did you see anything?

- Absolutely nothing...

And yet, there are some of these mysterious craft in the Picardy sky... of different shapes... and little men who, dressed in spacesuits, wander around this craft which transmitted electric rays making the approach difficult.

It is Friday, around 6:45 p.m., that two young men from Vron, Bernard Duvoisin and René Condette, 18 years old, who were returning from their work site following the road from Ligescourt to Vron, had their attention attracted to a craft... which had landed on the path they were following by bicycle.

This craft was orange, and how was this mysterious craft?

bell-shaped, they said.

And when we were about 70 meters from it, this bee hive ... without bees, but supposedly containing two little men, flew away and disappeared into the horizon.

So, everywhere cigars, saucers, basins, discs, light trails and odd people are seen...

The future will tell us what these craft are... but we remain skeptical while awaiting events.

***

AND STILL A SAUCER
IN THE REGION OF RUE
AND QUEND

Sunday, around 9:10 p.m., Mr. Georges Galand, butcher in Rue, who drove a car and had his wife by his side, was at a place called "Pont-à-Cailloux", Quend territory, when he saw a strange craft having the shaped like a cigar.

Having slowed down the speed of his car to better observe it, he noticed that this machine was flying at a reduced speed and at low altitude. This is how the Galland couple were able to follow it for eight kilometers.

It then turned towards Saint-Quentin-en-Tourmon.

Also, Mr. Georges Savary, of Rue, also had his attention attracted by the presence of a machine, having the shape of a red disc, which, according to his declarations, would have landed in a grassland about 400 meters from his home.

This craft would have left a few minutes later, in the direction of Le Crotoy. No traces were found at the landing site.

***

A BALL OF FIRE IN
THE SKY OF NOYELLES

Around 9:10 p.m., Mr. Carton, employed at the Saint-Frères factory, in Abbeville and living in Grand-Lavier, saw in the sky, about 8 to 10 kilometers away, in the direction of Noyelles-sur-Mer, a ball of fire, spinning and giving the clear impression of changing color.

This ball had the shape of two thirds of the moon and did not seem to fly at a crazy pace, since during a few minutes he followed it with the eyes as well as the Lecomte couple and two other people.

Then this mysterious ball... disappeared in the direction of Boulogne.

RUE

(Continued from the First Page)

And here are
FLYING SAUCER
and CIGARS of the same name
manifesting themselves
in our region

When the newspapers devote a long article to the appearance of Flying Saucers, many people shrug their shoulders thinking and sometimes even saying: "This is a joke!"

Admittedly on our behalf we are not very convinced of the existence of these craft. Yet disturbing facts have just occurred in our region.

Last Friday at 6:45 p.m., two young residents of Vron, aged 18, masons at the company Delpierre of Vron, were returning by bicycle from Ligescourt, where he had worked all day.

These two young men who named René Condette and Bernard Devoisin, were in the vicinity of La Caplette, a few kilometers from Ligescourt, when Devoisin, who was driving ahead, suddenly saw in the middle of the road, 150 meters of him, a mass with something on the left which was moving and which seemed to him to be an animal.

The young man thought of the flying saucers and alerted his comrade, who also saw while they were about 70 meters from it, the saucer flying away!

***

Our colleague Enderlin of "Le Courrier Picard" interviewed the two young masons. Devoisin told him that he saw a man he had first taken for a child and then for an animal. It looked like a diver, he said. I did not see him for long because he bypassed his craft which left immediately.

As for this craft, about 2 meters high, it was shaped like a beehive or a haystack and it was orange in color.

From the information we have gathered, it appears that Devoisin and Condette are two serious young people unable to forge a story of this kind. We can take the facts they told and who had disturbed them for that matter to be absolutely exact.

***

But here on their return, residents of our good city of Rue saw, with their eyes saw, not a saucer but a flying cigar. It is Mr. and Mrs. Galland, the well-known butchers on Caudron Avenue.

Last Sunday, in the evening, they were returning from Berck, by car, with their son Patrick.

Around 9:15 p.m., while they were on the old Pont à Cailloux, they saw in the sky a flying object, of orange color, having the shape of a cigar.

This craft descended about 200 meters from the ground and followed the road from Quend to Rue to Herre. It was flying silently and seemed to want to escort us, says Mr. Galland.

But when it got to Herre, it branched off to disappear from sight. We had the impression that it had landed on the ground.

Mr. Galland adds: I would have liked to search for it and find it to look at it more closely; but my wife and son were not very reassured. And we went back to Rue.

Let's add that the same evening and at the same time two truck drivers belonging to the Oscar Savreux company in Rue, MM. Georges Savary and Maurice Véron, as well as Madame Savary, saw in the foraine bleue, about 400 meters from Rue, a brilliant colored craft, in the shape of a top, which landed on the ground.

Mr. Savary wanted to approach it, but the top flew away vertically at an extraordinary speed.

So in two days two mysterious flying craft crisscrossed the sky of our region. Will we stop there and will we soon know what it is, where it comes from and what is the aim of these enigmatic craft?

The antennas offer little information, on the other hand the lower rods are much more interesting because they are one of the particularities of a very precise type of "Flying Saucer". We will have the opportunity to come back to it, but let us point out right away that their presence is the cause of a very colorful term: the "Jellyfish Saucer". There is no shortage of observations of this type of device, we were spoiled for choice with(Hérissart, Liévin, Rue, Marcoing, Armentières, Milly, Champigny, Corbigny, [...] ... and this is only for France), [...]

Ligescourt (Somme) 6:45 p.m.

[Actually not on the 3rd, but on the 1st october 1954.] Two young people discovered a craft in the shape of a haystack 3m wide and 2m high posed in the middle of the road. The craft was luminous orange in color. Beside it was a being the size of a child who was dressed likee a diver. The being climbed into the craft which took off as the witnesses approached...

Chéreng (Nord) 7:20 p.m.

An oblong luminous object came at full speed and pretended to land, but it regained altitude and disappeared.

Marcoing (Nord) 8 p.m.

An orange-red luminous object stood motionless above a wood; below, and as if suspended at the end of a thread, a small luminous spot swayed gently. At about 08:30 p.m. the smal spot disappeared and the main object took the form of a disc seen from profile, it carried out some moves and disappeared in direction of the south-west.

Hérissart (Somme) 21h south-west of Chéreng

A kind of orange luminous mushroom cap with short cables hanging under it followed a car for 6 km. The chase lasted about 6 minutes and the craft did not approach within 150m of the car. When the car stopped, the craft did the same. Better, for each village crossing, it avoided the village and after having circumvented it, resumed the pursuit. Around 9:05 p.m., it finally disappeared westward at a dizzying pace.

Waben (Somme) 9:05 p.m. west of Hérissart

The same craft engaged in the same game and followed another car under the same conditions as the previous case. Then the craft disappeared west towards the sea.

Armentières (Nord) 9:15 p.m.

A half-moon-shaped craft, yellow-orange or golden in color with a sort of elongated green spot, stood motionless in the sky and then disappeared at lightning speed in a south-southwest direction.

Liévin (Pas de Calais) 9:30 p.m. south southwest of Armentières

An elongated but rounded at the top luminous object was hovering in the sky. It suddenly releases a small luminous thing which quickly descends to the ground, remains there for a few seconds and then goes back up to fix itself at its starting point. The object then left in a southerly direction.

Ablain-Saint Nazaire (Pas de Calais) 9:30 p.m. south of Liévin.

Within a minute of interval, the same phenomenon happened again...

If we stick to these eight testimonies, it is obvious that we are dealing with a "Jellyfish Saucer" of the purest style. This was the conclusion reached by A. Michel, who wondered what this set of maneuvers in three departments corresponded to. But things were not that simple and A. Michel lacked a key piece.

10/03/1954 Annoeulin (Nord)

That evening, around 21:00, Mr. Gaston Lecoeuvre saw a sort of spinning star falling gently into a nearby garden. The witness then discovered that it was a metal dome 3m in diameter which did not rest on the ground but remained motionless at about fifteen centimeters. A small cupola occupied the upper part of the apparatus. Then the craft took off and was joined by two other discs which began to spin around it in opposite directions. The show lasted from 9 p.m. to 9:10 p.m.... (J. Guieu)

However, at 9 p.m., the "Jellyfish Saucer" was pursuing a car near Hérissart... It was therefore not one but at least four "Flying Saucers" which were "prospecting" the northern region that evening...

CHRONOLOGY OF A FANTASTIC SUNDAY

The weekend of October 2-3 appears on all charts as the maximum-maximum of the 1954 wave. Various newspapers and magazines that I have been able to check for this period give us an almost complete overview, in any case very broadly representative of the regional observations that were reported in the press for Sunday October 3rd. I have included the observations of the Somme which seemed to me inseparable from those of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and which appear moreover 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 number of observations reported below, once again shows the interest of thoroughly digging into the archives of newspapers.

OCTOBER 3, 1954:

[...other cases...]

35) 9:15 p.m., RUE _80_ Mr and Mrs G. Savary and Mr. Véron saw a kind of shiny red spinning top which seemed to land on the ground in a grassland called "La Foraine Bleue" 400 m from the witnesses. Mr Savary wanted to approach it but the object took off and moved away in the direction of Le Crotoy. (VdN _80_ 10/6; p.6 - Abbeville Libre, 10/3 p.1 - Courrier Picard 10/6, p. 3 - Le Journal de Rue, 10/9, p.2)

[...other cases...]

[...]

We know that that evening, at 9:30 p.m., the crescent Moon was setting in the southwest and that according to case 9 it was distorted by low clouds...

Disaster! This bundle of suspicions throws a total discredit on this magnificent series of observations, one of the most beautiful that we have ever found yet. We will have to verify certain data, the direction of certain sightings, the weather conditions, but already the doubt is too great for us to be able to classify these sightings as UFOs.

[...]

There is no S.V. reported in Quend (confusion with Rue,(35))

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...]

35) 21 h 15, RUE (80)

- Mr. and Mrs. G. Savary and Mr. M. Véron saw a kind of top shining of red color that seemed to land to the groun in a pasture named "La Foraine Bleue" at 400 meters of the witnesses. Mr. Savary wanted to get close to it, but the object took off and went away in the direction of Crotoy.

(La Voix du Nord-ed. Somme 6/10 page 6, Abbeville libre 8/10 page 1, Le Courrier Picard 6/10, page 3, Le Journal de Rue 9/10 page 2)

[... 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.