The 1954 French flap:

We talk too much about flying saucers so that there cannot be "no eel under rock"... and it becomes difficult to believe, in my opinion, that all those claiming to have seen something abnormal in the sky... or even on the earth have had visions! Such as this man from Quarouble who told this week the story of an unknown craft, landed near his gatekeeper house, his encounter with these little men in glass helmets and the light that blinded him when the door of the sidereal opened; which departed silently, vertically in a glowing halo...

Such again as this farmer from the Corrèze who claimed to have met in a hollow path, on his return from work, a pilot of a "flying cigar"... who would have spoken to him in an unknown language. Such again as these young Finnish or Danish (I do not remember) exactly who said they saw a flying saucer landed in a field.

Whether these strange craft come from another planet, nothing is less certain. What is curious is the frequency of their appearances in recent months!

But people are so made that they believe, like Saint-Thomas, only what they see. And there is at least one resident of Maubeuges who saw something abnormal in our northern sky.

Indeed that evening was the previous Wednesday, the renowned violinist-soloist of the Symphonic Circle, returned from having conducted his weekly rehearsal at the Harmonie de Louvroil. He was returning by the rue du Gauche Pied to his home in the Faubourg St-Lazare, when his attention was drawn to two lighted and oscillating discs, moving at high speed in the dark sky... And yet Robert Romain did not dream.

The famous German astronomer Hans Haffner may claim that the "flying saucers" are only balls of fire produced by lightning, at high altitude... The fact remains that lightning have always existed and that we had not yet reported these phenomena so much!

***

While waiting for more plausible explanations to come to light our lantern, the Bribeux will undoubtedly one day ring the key to these mysteries. Indeed, since all these awesome news have been circulating, the friend Albert, always has in his bag what to lasso the first saucer or the first Martian - if there are Martians - that would pass within his reach...

This promises a great story one of these days!

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

A saucer in the sky
of Sous-le-Bois

After Mr. Romain, the sympathetic violinist from Maubeuge, saw a few weeks ago already, two brilliant discs moving at high speed, it happens that Mr. Marcel Hanske, trumpet player and professor at the Ecole Municipale de Louvroil, saw with his wife and her young son, Saturday around 9:20 p.m., as he went to bed, a "ball of fire" crossing the sky at breakneck speed.

Mr. Marcel Hanske, who is well known throughout the region, lives on rue des Alliés, and Sunday with real sincerity, did not fail to report the matter to his friends at the Harmonie de Louvroil. Here he explains what he had seen, to Mr. Alfed Rigaut, the deputy chief of the Louvroil harmony.

(Nord-Matin pic.)

A "BALL OF FIRE"
IN THE SKY
OF SOUS-LE-BOIS

After Robert Romain, the sympathetic violinist of Maubeuge saw, a few weeks ago already, two brilliant discs moving at high speed in the rue du Grand-Pied, it happens that Mr. Marcel Hanske, trumpeter and professor at the municipal school of Louvroil, saw, with his wife and young son, on Saturday around 9:20 a.m., while he was going to bed, a "ball of fire crossing the sky at breakneck speed.

NEAR ARRAS

Gendarmes
see
a luminous "craft"
in the sky

Sunday, around 9:25 p.m., while the chief marshal of the gendarmerie Decréquy and the gendarme Candelle, of the Foucquevillers brigade, on a night tour, checked the identity of the fair mearchants parked on the square of Pommiers, the fairground merchant wife's called the attention of the gendarmes on a luminous craft that passed in the sky.

The gendarmes and Mr. Louis Dumetz, municipal councilor in Pommiers, saw a bright orange craft moving very quickly from East to West at a height of 400 to 500 meters.

This saucer ! was visible for quite a long time.