Cette page en français
The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Ardennais, France, pages 1,5, October 6, 1954.
Saucers, cigars, barrels, discs, pots, crescents and other objects continue their dance in the sky.
It even seems that for a few hours, this luminous carrousel intensified, unless the French, worried about the extent taken for some time in their newspaper by "the saucers chronicle" began to scrutinize feverishly the sky in order to finally see one of the mysterious machines one talks about so much.
Here is a new list of the latest public events of the "Uranids" and their extraordinary nacelles.
LE HAVRE. -- Mr. André Lefèbre, cab driver, who was stationed Monday evening, around 8 p.m., on the harbor, saw an incandescent disk which, west of Deauville, rose in the sky, leaving behind a phosphorescent trail and a slight smoke. This phenomenon, which was visible for ten minutes, was also witnessed by several sailors returning to their boat.
LYON. -- A Lyon journalist claimed to have observed with a binocular, above the St Foy hill, south of the Fourvière basilica, an orange red light disc.
This was followed by other shiny, smaller discs. The phenomenon lasted about 20 minutes.
NANCY. -- Thirty people claimed to have seen a luminous disc of green color descending on the village of Benestroff between Vergaville and Kerprich (Moselle) on Sunday evening.
(Read more on page 5)
(Continued from page 1)
Several witnesses drove by motorcycle to the alleged landing site of the craft, but when they arrived, the craft had resumed altitude and disappeared.
A few hours later, a disc of the same color was observed over the same region. A circular craft had been seen the day before at the same hour.
Saucers, cigars, discs, balls and other "flying" objects were seen at Chancelade (Haute-Vienne), Willer (Haut-Rhin), Gouesnach, near Quimper, Beutignecourt, Ambazac (Haute-Vienne), Dijon, Marcoing near Cambrais, Pommier (Indre), Rouen, Ajaccio, la Rochelle, Quimper, Cholet and Vannes.
LE PUY. -- Mr. and Mrs. Teyssier, of Saint-Etienne, who camped at Aurec-sur-Loire (Haute-Loire), saw in the sky a luminous object giving the impression of a large headlight which moved at a rapid pace at about 2000 meters of altitude.
The craft emitted an orange-red light beam and followed a north-south trajectory. When it had disappeared, a second craft similar to the first and seeming to follow it appeared, followed the same direction and also disappeared.
At about the same time, several people saw similar apparatuses flying over the Aurec steeple which, after stopping for a moment, crossed the sky at a brisk pace towards the southwest.
ANGOULEME. -- Sunday evening, around 11:15 p.m., on the road to Montmoreau - Villebois - Lavalette (Charente), Mr. Jean Allary, 22, saw very clearly, in the light of his moped headlight, a kind of barrel about 1 m 80 high, studded with golden nails, which swayed on the edge of the road.
When Mr. Allary had passed the mysterious craft, he looked back, at a distance of about 10 meters, but saw nothing.
Witnesses saw Monday afternoon at the exact spot indicated by Mr. Allary, traces of about seven meters in length in the grass that borders the road.
LYON. -- Several people reported seeing a kind of large luminous ball in the Epinac-les-Mines (Saône-et-Loire) region moving in a weird way in the sky.
A similar phenomenon has been observed in the Ain and in the north of the Rhône department, at the Col des Echarmaux, as well as in the Isère, near Morestel.
Should the witnesses who reported all these things be held to be sincere? It is hard to say. But in general, let us welcome their statements with a lot of reservations. Many mystifications have already been discovered, mystifications that will also cause some trouble to their authors. One does not joke with the saucers with impunity.
LILLE. -- A retired miner from Beuvry-les-Bethune, known in his community as a joker, did not miss the opportunity offered to him by flying saucers, for to have fun at the expense of people in nearby communities.
Inspired by the hot-air balloon system, the happy retiree made craft that was three meters in diameter. The envelope was made up of sheets of gray paper that had been carefully glued. At the base of the "saucer" was a small receptacle in which rested a tuft if rags soaked in a flammable liquid. It was enough then to ignite the tow to see the craft rise and disappear with the winds, surrounded by yellowish and orange reflections.
It was the discovery near a straw stack to which one of these machines had almost set fire, that the gendarmes were brought to suspect the retiree. One also found many models of "flying saucers" prototypes that their inventor was preparing to launch in the northern sky.
The hoaxer claimed that he had already built and launched more than a thousand of these machines. The ex-miner will probably be sentenced to a fine for dangerous amusement.
Melun. -- Roadmenders who worked along the Coulommiers-Meaux road, said they had noticed, several days ago, around 5 p.m., in a field not far from the aerodrome of Voisins, Maisoncelles commune, a flying saucer resting on three crutches.
One of them, Mr. Goujon, even said that 150 meters from the machine, he had been paralyzed by an electric beam while the saucer rose slowly in the sky to disappear. The roadmender, who had provided the journalists with all the details, had also shown to various witnesses the traces left by the crutches of the saucer.
The Coulommiers gendarmerie decided to question the witnesses. Many retreated immediately stating that they had bad eyesight, that they were not very sure of what they had seen, or even that they had not seen anything at all. But the principal concerned, Mr. Goujon, remained very firm in his statements.
So the gendarmes took him there, in the presence of several Parisian scientific personalities. The holes left by the saucer were photographed; they had been dug out by the hand of the roadmender, whose fingerprints the earth had kept.
The roadmender admitted to having made up this strange story from scratch. He was brought before the judge of Coulommiers.
