The article below was published in the daily newspaper Le Courrier de Saône-et-Loire, France, page 5, on October 11, 1954.
|
PARIS - The flying saucers continue.
They are being reported everywhere. And now, they're even starting to stop engines.
A milk collector from Le Mans, Mr. Alexandre Tremblais, was driving his truck on a small road near Saint-Jean-d'Assé (Sarthe) when he suddenly noticed that his vehicle's engine had stopped and the headlights had gone out.
Mr. Tremblais got out of his truck and saw a red and blue luminous cigar, about a meter long, speed over him and disappear on the horizon. A few minutes later, the engine started up normally again and the headlights worked once more.
In Nancy, a hardened skeptic, Mr. Georges Bou, 30 years old, a driver from Saarbrücken, was driving on national road 3 between Morsbach and Forbach when he saw a wide, thick shadow blocking the road. He stopped, got out of his cab, thinking it was an accident. But he realized that he had actually been stopped by a saucer. It was about nine meters in diameter and four meters high. It was lit by several beams of light pointed at the ground.
The driver approached the strange device. Suddenly, it took off vertically, hovered at about ten meters, then moved away very quickly.
Gendarmerie captain Bohler visited the scene today with Mr. Bou, but no traces were found.
In Chaleix (Dordogne), a farmer, Mr. Garreau, swore on his honor that he saw a flying saucer land on his property. Mr. Garreau said that two perfectly normal men, dressed in khaki suits, got out, shook his hand, and spoke to him in an unknown language.
On the island of Ré, Mr. Simonnetti said he saw a luminous sphere about 12 meters in diameter, oscillating about fifty meters above the ground.
The sphere, he said, turned red, shifted to blue, and rose very quickly vertically.
Two other residents and two vacationing Parisians confirmed the sighting.
In Duclair (Seine-Inférieure), Mr. Landrin, a water department employee, walking with his wife, was blinded by a beam of light. When he reopened his eyes, he said, he saw a sphere that disappeared a few minutes later.
- Near Reims, a mechanic from the Panhard factories, Mr. Joseph Roy, 30 years old, saw near L'Isle-sur-Suippe a cigar-shaped object on the ground, which according to his description resembled the one at Marignane. Local witnesses confirmed the sighting.
- At Montagne-de-Béruges (Vienne), a farmer, Mr. Edouard Thébault, observed a large luminous object in his field. A few minutes later, the object went dark and a large beam swept the road. When the witness returned with his father, whom he had gone to fetch, everything had vanished.
- Several fishermen and an entire fish merchant's family saw in the sky, in Plozévet (Finistère), a bright glow surrounded by dense smoke. The light, initially stationary, moved toward them at an altitude of about ten meters. It looked like an orange sphere.
- A whistling craft, gray in color, hovered briefly about 100 meters above Chasseneuil (Indre). The craft sped away, leaving behind a fog-like trail.
In the same town, a young man saw a luminous object in red-orange color moving north to south.
- A hemispherical dome, aluminum-colored and lit from within, was seen about three meters from the road and one meter off the ground in Jettingen (Haut-Rhin), by Mr. René Ott, an SNCF employee. Frightened, Mr. Ott ran off. He claimed he had time to see a door open on the device. It then moved above him for about 800 meters before disappearing. The gendarmes found no traces.
- A silent craft, spinning like a top, was seen in Calais, above the municipal theater, by a police officer, a hairdresser, a taxi driver, and a butcher. It moved off toward the sea.
A flying saucer rising silently in a vertical path was seen in Vigneux (Seine-et-Oise) by Mr. Marais, yesterday at 9 p.m. It was luminous and had portholes.
ABBEVILLE - Another false saucer! The mysterious object that exploded in the Picardy sky, scattering debris in a pasture at Boismont, near Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, was just a weather balloon.
The locals, fearing the infamous "paralyzing green ray," didn't dare approach the debris. Only Mr. Raymond Boucher, a sugar factory worker, had the courage to come and inspect the saucer. It turned out to be simply a balloon used by the Royal Air Force's meteorological services, which had loudly burst when it touched the ground.
VIENNA - Thousands of people saw a formation of flying saucers yesterday over Ried, flying from east to west.
Asked about the cars that stop, he said:
- Saucer or no saucer, the current reports must be taken seriously. As for the sudden stalling of engines when objects pass by, one must accept the presence and effect of unknown rays. This doesn't necessarily mean the rays are of extraterrestrial origin. Do you remember the famous "Z rays" people talked about before the last war? During the hostilities, the belligerents further developed the process. I personally saw, some fifteen years ago, laboratory experiments where electrical rays ignited paper and other flammable materials from several meters away.
