ALSACAT-1954-12-22-STRASBOURG-1
The regional newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for December 23, 1954, reported an incident the day before, December 22, 1954, shortly before sunset.
Several residents of Strasbourg crossing the Saint Thomas bridge, saw two luminous white discs "the size of an orange," and between the two, a "cigar of which only the center was luminous."
These objects were moving very quickly across the sky from south to north and were suddenly lost sight on the horizon.
The newspaper notes that throughout the afternoon, there were fighter planes over the city, but that the witnesses had denied that they could have mistaken them with saucers and "cigar".
| Date: | December 22, 1954 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ~04:30 p.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | December 23, 1954 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Strasbourg |
| Place: | From the Saint Thomas Bridge, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 48.578 |
| Longitude: | 7.748 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 20 m |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | Several. |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | ? |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Adults. |
| Witness(es) types: | Residents. |
| Reporting channel: | Regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From bridge in big city, UFO in the sky. |
| Visibility conditions: | Before nightfall. |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | Not fighter planes. |
| Hynek: | DD |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified. |
[Ref. dna1:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE":
Strasbourg. -- Wednesday evening, shortly before sunset, many city residents observed, as they crossed the St. Thomas bridge, two luminous white discs the size of an orange, and between the two, a cigar of which only the center was luminous.
The objects moved rapidly across the sky from south to north to suddenly disappear on the horizon.
Note that throughout the afternoon, the presence of fighters over the city, the witnesses denied that they could have mistaken them with the saucers and the cigar.
[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
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Here is the list of the observations compiled by the GREI, since 1954:
January: Trois-Epis.
September: Colmar, Mulhouse, Rixheim (à trois reprises), Willer.
October: Haut-Koenigsbourg, Grandvillars [Suisse], Strasbourg, Jettingen (landing), Forbach [Moselle] (landing), Heimersdorf (landing), Triembach-au-Val, Turquenstein [Moselle] (landing), Ohlungen, Niederhaslach, Sélestat, Strasbourg, Musau, Niffer, Andlau, Eguisheim, Lapoutroie, Battenheim, Grumbach, Strasbourg, Obersaasheim, Soultzmatt, Issenheim (landing), Guebwil1er, Feldbach, Wittenheim, Fortschwihr, Didenheim, Wittenheim, Ingenheim, Huningue, Les Métairies [Moselle], Epinal [Vosges], Giromagny [Territoire de Belfort], Colmar (le 29 et le 30).
December: Strasbourg.
May: Haut-Rhin
November: Brumath.
August: Haut-Rhin
February: Ballon de Servance [Haute-Saône]
March: Strasbourg
August: Strasbourg
April: Guebwiller
May: Bischwiller
May: Champ du Feu (twice, including a landing)
November: Haut-Rhin
April: Herbitzheim
July: Mulhouse
August: Mont Ste-Odile, Obernai
September: Neuf-Brisach
January: Schiltigheim
June: Strasbourg
May: Mulhouse
July: Strasbourg
August: Belfort [Territoire de Belfort]
June: Mulhouse Riedisheim (landing
July: Schiltigheim
August: Orbey
October: Wolschwiller, Mulhouse
February: Mulhouse
May: Chalampé, Morschwiller
June: Mulhouse
August: Bourtzwiller
October: Mulhouse
February: Reiningue, Robertsau
August: Haguenau, Strasbourg, Oberhausbergen, Graffenstaden, Strasbourg, Colmar, St-Pierre, Sewen
September: Bavilliers [Territoire de Belfort], Pfetterhouse (deux fois), Mulhouse, Forbach [Moselle]
October: Ruelisheim, Mulhouse
November: Manspach (landing), Masevaux, Brunstatt, Mulhouse, Colmar
January: Guewenheim, Froeningue
March: Mont-Jean [Territoire de Belfort]
May: Romanswiller
July: vallée de Munster
August: Lembach, Gerstheim, Petit Rederching [Moselle], Giromagny [Territoire de Belfort]
September: Rarnbourg [Rambourg]
March: Riedisheim
April: Est de la France
May: Eckwersheim
September: Colmar
November: Merxheim (landing)
April: St-Dié [Vosges], Robertsau, Rouffach
June: Oberhoffen-sur-Moder, Lubine [Vosges]
August: Bouxwiller, Jungholtz
September: Mulhouse
October: Mulhouse
January: Herrlisheim, Mulhouse
February: Alsace (le 6)
April: Colmar (observation qu'il convient de retirer de la liste, L'objet volant étant identifié: il s'agissait d'un météorite)
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for December 23, 1954, in their bilingual issue, published:
Strasbourg - Wednesday evening, shortly before sunset, many city residents observed, as they crossed the St. Thomas bridge, two luminous white discs the size of an orange, and between the two, a cigar of which only the center was luminous.
The objects moved rapidly across the sky from south to north to suddenly disappear on the horizon.
Note that throughout the afternoon, the presence of fighters over the city, the witnesses denied that they could have mistaken them with the saucers and the cigar.
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It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left) , ref. [cvn2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.
I think Alsatian ufologists and, generally, people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.
The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)
The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!
The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com
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About the hour: the newspaper did not give it, but said it was just before sunset. My astronomy software tells me that the sunset was at 04:39 p.m.. I give the time as 04:30 p.m., but of course "just before sunset" is obviously not a very scientific indication.
This case is the last known case of the "1954 saucer flap" for Alsace. Without Christian Valentin, it would have remained unknown, as no other source mentioned it.
The Saint Thomas bridge in Strasbourg is inside the city and totally surrounded by buildings; this implies that the objects could not be low on the horizon. The objects were said to go the south to the north, this implies that they may have passed overhead of the witnesses, unless they were very far from them in the East or West of them.
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Above: view to the south from the Saint Thomas bridge in Strasbourg, by day in 2013.
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Above: view to the North from the Saint Thomas bridge in Strasbourg, by day in 2013.
Unidentified.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editeur: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | May 2, 2014 | Creation, [dna1], [cvn2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 2, 2014 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 6, 2023 | Addition [lae1]. |
