The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Républicain, Sablé, Sarthe, France, on November 24, 1954.
|
A new element is added to the already extensive record of flying saucers and other more or less interstellar gear. The evidence gathered is all the more value as it has many specific points and it comes from a man accustomed to danger and of perfectly balanced judgment.
André Chaillou is blacksmith in the village of La Tessoualle and lives in Loublande (Deux-Sèvres). He is a Veteran of 1939-1945 and Indochina. Every morning he comes to work at his workshop where he joins his father and his brother. He ceases to work at 7 p.m.. Each day for the return trip, he uses a moped.
Let's add that the events took place on Monday, November 8. It is to avoid the incredulous comments and the inevitable "scoffing" that Mr. Chaillou kept an understandable discretion so far.
The findings he made seemed to him so compelling that he ended up sharing it with some friends. The news spread and it came to us.
André Chaillou gave the following account:
"It might have been 7:30 p.m.. Having a meeting in the evening with friends and finding myself a little late, I was riding at a good pace.
"The sky was clear and the moon almost full.
"At about 1 kilometer from the town of Loublande, near the road to Puy-Saint-Bonnet, I noticed a little blue light ahead of me.
"The headlight of the moped is powerful and for a second I thought it was an animal crossing the road with the eyes glistening in the beam of my light.
"I did not lose time in assumptions, because in less time than it takes to say it, my machine stopped dead and I was thrown forward on the handlebars, having had great difficulty to avoid a dangerous fall.
"My first thought was it was a failure. When I looked up, about fifty meters ahead of me and at a height of 1 m 50 from the ground approximately, the blue dot had taken the diameter of a car's headlight and threw in my direction a blinding light comparable to that of an electric arc.
"I then found it impossible to make a move or utter a word. My hands glued on the handlebars, felt a painful tingling, despite the gloves that protected me.
"Did this last one minute or one second? I cannot tell.
"The light went out and suddenly I found the use of movement and speech. At the same moment."
Mr. Chaillou added "I was sometimes on the frontline in Indochina, in dangerous situations and I did not shake, but this time, I say without shame, I was scared!"
The adventure of the young blacksmith does not end there.
Having started his moped on the road without the slightest difficulty, he continued his journey and quickly took a good pace. As one can imagine, he was anxious to get home.
It is about 200 meters away in a field on the right, 150 meters maybe from the edge of the road, that he saw a big glow.
A firebrand, he thinks, but immediately, he links it to the light that just happened.
Our man is not a coward. The time to stop the moped, to park on the side of the road, and he went through the fields.
An elongated shape and glow stood close to the ground; which may have measures 5-6 meters long.
A hedge stands between him and the apparatus, he still has a hundred meters to go, when at breakneck speed and with a slight wheezing sound, the oblong object rises vertically, then along a horizontal path, to disappear in about fifteen seconds.
Today, Mr. Chaillou has questions that one day perhaps will find answers. The evidence he provides, in complete good faith, only makes the issue more acute. Time elapsed only gives it more value. We can only regret together with our friendly interlocutor that we cannot give these facts a... touchable conclusion.
