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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 Herrlisheim, on November 27, 1967:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1967-11-27-HERRLISHEIM-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper L'Alsace for November 29, 1967 reported that a butcher Colmar told them that Monday, November 27, at 19:05, on his way home to Chemin des Maquisards to his car, he saw Inthe sky towards Herrlisheim two red balls which are moved towards each other, and then descended obliquely towards the ground.

He stopped his car and turned off the ignition, got out to listen, and found that the two objects, almost joined, were motionless and silent.

He rushed to her parents to show them the phenomenon, but out of the house, the phenomenon was no longer visible.

The newspaper said it had made inquiries at the base of Meyenheim, who informed that no jet no one was above the area between 7:00 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., but two helicopters "Alouette III" of GALDIV 7 Drachenbronn returned and headed Mulhouse, where they arrived to 19 hours.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: November 27, 1967
Time: 05:05 p.m.
Duration: ?
First known report date: November 29, 1967
Reporting delay: 1 to 2 dawys.

Geographical data:

Department: Haut-Rhin
City: Herrlisheim or Colmar
Place: Road somewhere in or near Colmar, UFO in direction of Herrlisheim.
Latitude: 48.057
Longitude: 7.340
Uncertainty radius: 1 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: 1
Number of known witnesses: 1
Number of named witnesses: 0
Witness(es) ages: Adult or young adult.
Witness(es) types: Young butcher, male.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: Statement or letter to the regional Press.
Type of location: On road or path, in car then out of the car.
Visibility conditions: Night
UFO observed: Yes
UFO arrival observed: No
UFO departure observed: No
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: Possible helicopters.

Sources:

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

Two balls of fire were seen Monday in the night...

Celestial phenomena follow one another and the reports continue to come to us. About the appearance of Tuesday November 14, there were all the reasons to think at the end of the investigation, that it was a meteorite.

But, here we have a butcher apprentice from Colmar who gave us the following story: "Monday, November 27, at 07:05 p.m., as I was going home, on board of my car, (I live on the chemin des maquisards), I saw in the sky, in the direction of Herrlisheim, two red balls that came closer one from the other, then came down, in oblique manner, to the ground.

I stopped my car and stopped the engine. I went out to listen: the two objects; almost joined together, were motionless and silent. I rushed at my parents' to show the phenomenon to them. Going out of the house, the thing had disappeared."

We asked for information at the Meyenheim air base, who specified to us that no jet plane was above the area between 7 p.m. and 7:16 p.m.. However, two "Alouette III" helicopters were coming back from Drachenbronn and were heading to Mulhouse (GALDIV 7), Monday evening. They reached the GALDIV airfiled at 7 p.m.

[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 in L'Alsace for Wednesday, November 29, 1967, on page 4, the following article was published:

Two balls of fire were seen Monday in the night...

Celestial phenomena follow one another and the reports continue to come to us. About the appearance of Tuesday November 14, there were all the reasons to think at the end of the investigation, that it was a meteorite.

But, here we have a butcher apprentice from Colmar who gave us the following story: "Monday, November 27, at 07:05 p.m., as I was going home, on board of my car, (I live on the chemin des maquisards), I saw in the sky, in the direction of Herrlisheim, two red balls that came closer one from the other, then came down, in oblique manner, to the ground.

I stopped my car and stopped the engine. I went out to listen: the two objects; almost joined together, were motionless and silent. I rushed at my parents' to show the phenomenon to them. Going out of the house, the thing had disappeared."

We asked for information at the Meyenheim air base, who specified to us that no jet plane was above the area between 7 p.m. and 7:16 p.m.. However, two "Alouette III" helicopters were coming back from Drachenbronn and were heading to Mulhouse (GALDIV 7), Monday evening. They reached the GALDIV airfiled at 7 p.m.

Discussion:

Scan.

About Christian Valentin's book:

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. [cv2]; 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

Map.

Herrlisheim is some 4 kilometers south of the home of the parents of the witness.

Scan.

Alouette III of the GALDIV 7 in Habsheim in 1972, photo P. Bannwarth.

As there is no indication of distance or angular size, it is not really possible to say whether the reported silence allows or excludes helicopters.

Evaluation:

Possible helicopters.

Sources references:

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

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 July 16, 2015 Creation, [lae1], [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross July 16, 2015 First published.

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This page was last updated on July 16, 2015.