ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

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Case of Hésingue, on January 9, 1954:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1954-01-09-HESINGUE-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper L'Alsace for January 15, 1954, reported that two pupils of the school of Hésingue told their teacher that they had just seen in the sky at great altitude a luminous object having the shape of a spindle, of a length of approximately 20 cm and moving without noise towards the south.

The newspaper said that very obviously, it was the same phenomenon reported the same day about the same hour in Bergheim and Lunéville.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	January 9, 1954
Time:	?
Duration:	?
First known report date:	January 15, 1954
Reporting delay:	Minutes, 6 days.

Geographical data:

Department:	Haut-Rhin
City:	Hésingue
Place:	Village, UFO in the sky.
Latitude:	47.575
Longitude:	7.521
Uncertainty radius:	1 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	2
Number of known witnesses:	?
Number of named witnesses:	0
Witness(es) ages:	Children.
Witness(es) types:	School children.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	Told to their schoolteacher, then the regional Press.
Type of location:	Village, UFO in the sky.
Visibility conditions:	End of the night.
UFO observed:	Yes
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	?
Entities:	No
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Hynek:	NL
ALSACAT:	The January 9, 1954, 07:48 a.m. meteor.

Sources:

[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":

Two pupils of the school of Hésingue announced to their teacher that they had just seen in the sky at great altitude a luminous object having the shape of a spindle, of a length of approximately 20 cm and moving without noise towards the south. This is, very obviously, the same phenomenon announced the same day about the same hour in Bergheim and Lunéville.

[Ref. aldl:] MRS. GUEUDELOT, "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT" ARCHIVE:

JANUARY 9, 1954.-

HESINGUE. - (68)

Hour: 8 o'clock

Two pupils from the HESINGUE school reported to their teacher that they had just seen in the sky at high altitude a luminous object in the shape of a spindle, about 20 cm long and heading without noise to the SOUTH. It is obviously the same phenomenon reported on the same day at approximately the same time in BERGHEIM and in LUNEVILLE.

"L'ALSACE" for JANUARY 15, 1954. p;3

(sent by Mr. Mourier)

[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:

The authors give two sketches, the one on the left is the trip of the flying saucer according to Charles Garreau, the one on the right is the trajectory of the meteor according to them:

The authors fustigate [rightly] the ufologists who like Charles Garreau took the hours of observations given in the newspapers literally [as if people were then provided with stop watches! These hours are generally only approximations made a posteriori] and then believed in a complicated flying saucer travel where a meteor had actually passed.

Barthel and Brucker specify that the North-West to South-East trajectory of the meteor of 7:50 is confirmed by testimonies coming from other countries.

Discussion:

Though they say that the thing was "just" seen, L'Alsace for January 15, 1954, must have been telling of the sighting on January 9, 1954, 6 days ago, as they also say in was at the same time than in Bergheim and Lunéville.

Evaluation:

The January 9, 1954, 07:48 a.m. meteor.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

[lae1] * Article in the regional newspaper L'Alsace, Mulhouse, Colmar, Strasbourg, France, page 3, January 15, 1954.
[ald1] * Record of the archive by Mrs. Gueudelot, of the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, not dated, published circa 2020 by the ufology association SCEAU, France, at https://sceau-archives-ovni.org/fonds/fond_gueudelot/base_guy_jpr_fiches_gueudelot.html
[bbr1] * "La Grande Peur Martienne", book by Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker, Les Nouvelles Editions Rationalistes publisher, France, pp 149, 150-151, 1979.

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editeur:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	October 1, 2005	First published in the France 1954 catalogue, [lae1], [bbr1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	January 9, 2010	Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version.
3.0	Patrick Gross	October 30, 2014	First published in ALSACAT. Addition of the Summary and Discussion.
3.1	Patrick Gross	August 5, 2023	Addition [adl1].

This page was last updated on August 5, 2023.