The 1954 French flap:

Abundant flying saucers

Six months after Easter a bell is still flying in the air

Louviers, October 12. -- A craftsman and his apprentice claimed to have seen, on the Evreux-Louviers railway track, while riding a motorcycle, around 3 in the morning, a bell-shaped machine, 2.50 m. to 3 meters high, which was one meter above the ground. The bottom of the craft was shaped like a ring. The object emitted sparks with greenish and reddish reflections. It first jumped 10 to 12 meters, while an orange glow sprang from its base.

A farm worker joined the two men to observe the phenomenon. All three state that the "bell" remained visible for almost an hour. Then the orange glow became brighter, and the craft rose vertically very quickly, heading east.

A math teacher took measurements

Lisieux, 13. -- Mr. Bon, professor of mathematics at Lisieux, saw at the beginning of the afternoon at Saint-Germain de Livet, 200 or 300 meters from the road, above a wood, a silver disc of a diameter of 7 to 8 meters, which rose suddenly in the sky, without noise.

The disc was in rotation movement. After having dived towards the ground from an altitude of about 800 meters, it suddenly left horizontally at a dizzying pace.

On the sides of the mushroom fair...

La Roche-sur-Yon, 13. - Mrs. Drouillard, residing in La Roche-sur-Yon, said he saw in the sky, on Monday evening, around 11:30 p.m., a luminous machine resembling a mushroom, which moved quickly without noise.

Nevers, 13. -- Two residents of Clamecy (Nièvre), MM. Henri Gallois and Louis Vigneron, fairground merchants, said that they had seen a cylindrical craft in a meadow near Corbigny.

They state that while they were about 50 meters from the craft, they felt an electric shock while the engine of their truck stopped and the headlights went out. When the craft was gone, the headlights came on again, but they had to restart the engine.

Lyon, 13. -- Doctor Durand, general councilor of Belleville-sur-Saône, and Mr. Bourgeois, bartender in Saint- Georges de Reneins, saw a flying saucer above La Chapelle de Brouilly.

Also, Monday evening, around 7:30 p.m., two athletes, MM. Dubuis, rugby player, and Coulon, swimming champion, saw, flying at low altitude, towards Montgelas, a ball of fire which changed color several times.

Giant rocket in the sky of Toulouse

It left traces on the ground

Toulouse, 13. - Two residents of the Toulouse suburbs, MM. Pierre Vidal and his nephew Angel Hurle, were able to see Tuesday morning, at dawn, barely a hundred meters from their home, a giant rocket which, starting from a field, quickly disappeared in the sky causing a clarity of rare intensity.

The two men then went to the place where they located the starting point of the mysterious object. There they found that the grass had been flattened on a circular surface of 5 meters in diameter. In the center of this area, they discovered in the ground, four footprints appearing to have been left by the feet of a heavy craft.

The grass was covered with droplets from the condensation of fatty vapor and which smelled of petroleum.

The police went to the scene.

The saucers chronicle

LOUVIERS. -- A craftsman and his apprentice claimed to have seen on the railway from Evreux to Louviers, as they drove a motorcycle, at about 3 a.m., a craft shaped like a bell, 2 m. 60 to 3 meters high, which was at one meter above the ground. The craft emitted sparks shimmering in greenish and reddish. First it rose a good 10 to 12 meters, while gushing from its base an orange glow.

The lower part of the apparatus had the shape of a ring.

A farm worker joined the two men to observe the phenomenon. All three state that the "bell" remained visible for about an hour. Then the orange glow became brighter, and the object rose very fast vertically, taking the direction of the east.

Lisieux. -- Mr. Bon, professor of mathematics at Lisieux, saw early in the afternoon in Saint-Germain-de-Livet, 2 or 300 meters from the road, over a wooden area, a silver disc with a diameter of 7 to 8 meters, which rose suddenly in the sky, without noise.

The disc was animated of a rapid movement of rotation. After diving to the ground from an altitude of about 800 meters it suddenly left horizontally at a tremendous speed.

LA ROCHE-SUR-YON. -- Mrs. Drouilard, residing in La Roche-sur-Yon, said she saw in the sky Monday night around 11:30 p.m., a luminous machine resembling a mushroom, moving silently and rapidly.

Nevers. -- Two residents of Clamecy (Nièvre), MM. Henry Gallois and Louis Vigneron, stallholders, stated to have seen in a meadow near Corbigny, a cylindrical craft.

They say that while they were about fifty meters from the object, they felt an electrical shock, while the engine of their truck stopped and the headlights went out. When the craft was gone the headlights came on again but they had to restart the engine.

LYON. -- Dr. Durand, general counsellor of the Township of Belleville-sur-Saône and Mr. Bourgeois, cafe owner in Saint-Georges de Reneins saw over the chapel of Brouilly, a flying saucer.

On the other hand, around 7:30 p.m. Monday night, MM. Dubois, rugby player and Coulon, swimming champion, saw, flying at low altitude, in the direction of Montgelas, a ball of fire that changed color several times.

TOULOUSE. -- Two residents in the Toulouse suburb, Mr. Pierre Vidal and his nephew Angel Hurle, saw yesterday morning at dawn, a hundred meters from their house, a giant rocket, fly away from a field and disappearing into the sky while producing a clarity of rare intensity.

The two men then went to the place where they thought the starting point of the mysterious craft was located. There, they found that the grass had been trampled on a circular area with a diameter of 6 meters. In the center of the area they found in the ground, four prints appearing to have been left by the feet of a heavy machine.

The grass was covered with droplets of fat steam condensation and smelled of oil.

The police went to the scene.

CHATEAUBRIANT. -- A 13-year-old boy, young Gilbert Lelay, said he saw on Tuesday night around 10:30 p.m., a mysterious craft in a field some 600 meters from his parents' home in the village of Sainte-Marie en Erbray near Chateaubriant.

The child claims to have spent ten minutes looking at ten meters this craft that was shaped like a phosphorescent cigar.

A passenger, a man wearing a suit and a gray hat, wearing boots, reportedly told him in French, "Look but do not touch." He put the hand on his shoulder, while with the other he held a ball launching purple lights. He climbed into the craft through a door that slammed. On what could have been a dashboard, there were several colored buttons.

Still according to the child, the machine rose slowly vertically, throwing light in all directions, flew two rounds in the air and suddenly disappeared.

Abroad

VIENNA. -- Harald Kreutzberg, the Austrian Serge Lifar, living in Seefeld in Tirol, observed while he was in his garden, a flying saucer that flew over the small town for a few seconds before heading north and disappearing behind mountains.

Several residents of Seefeld also observed the phenomenon and tried unsuccessfully to photograph the mysterious craft.

SAUCERS (continued)

The military governor of Metz studies the report of Commander Cottel, who saw a luminous craft caught in a spotlight beam

(From our special correspondent Henry Pignolet)

METZ, October 13 (by telephone).

The military governor of Metz, General Navereau, commander of the 6th region, is this morning awaiting the report from Commander Cottel, a specialist in ground-based anti-aircraft forces, regarding the presence last Sunday in the city's sky of a mysterious craft that remained for three hours in the beam of a powerful army spotlight.

It's easy to imagine the caution with which the commander of the A.A.G.F. (Anti-Aircraft Ground Forces) drafted this report. Commander Cottel was in charge of the radar station installed at the army booth at the Metz trade fair, which had just closed. The station had a powerful spotlight that, throughout the duration of the fair, scanned the city's sky. About ten men were around the device when, on Sunday evening, the beam suddenly froze on a motionless globe in the sky, "sparkling," the commander told me, "like a Christmas tree ornament."

The beam was vertical. The "thing" appeared to be at 10,000 meters. At least, that's what the experts said. No one panicked, to be fair.

- "It's a weather balloon," suggested one of the spotlight operators.

- "Impossible, 'that' must be fifty meters in diameter."

Everyone agreed.

But then?

The radar detected nothing

So, not wanting to believe in flying saucers, they decided to clean the lenses and even replace the carbon rods in the spotlight. When they turned it back on, the balloon was still there.

The onlookers, who had gathered around the spotlight, also saw the "Christmas tree ornament." They watched it until around 11 p.m., when the spotlight was finally turned off. They weren't the only ones; residents of the suburbs of Sablon and Queuleu also reported witnessing the phenomenon the next day.

The radar, however, whose beam had continuously swept the skies, detected nothing.

- "The 'thing'," explained a technician, "was not metallic. It is not detectable by radar."

The day before yesterday, the Metz fair, which had drawn over 600,000 visitors, closed. No more spotlight, no more radar, no more mysterious sphere. All that remained were the testimonies of about fifteen people - spotlight operators, an officer from the army's geographic service, and Commander Cottel - whose report, eagerly and curiously awaited at the military governor's palace, will determine this chapter in the history of flying saucers.

Three "little beings" in an electric saucer

NEVERS, October 13. ("France-Soir" dispatch). -- Two shopkeepers from Clamecy, Mr. Louis Vigneron and Henri Gallois, who were driving their van to the Corbigny fair early yesterday morning around 6 a.m., saw in a field about fifty meters from the road a cylindrical-shaped craft of considerable diameter.

At that moment, the van's engine stopped and the headlights went out.

- "I was breathless," said Mr. Gallois. "My body felt a sort of electric shock. I could clearly see the craft, which looked like a saucer."

"I saw, moving around the machine, three small beings that seemed oddly shaped. We were immobilized inside the vehicle and unable to move. Only after the craft flew off at incredible speed were we able to resume our journey."

Mr. Vigneron confirmed his companion's account, as did a third witness, Mr. Henri Chameau, a cartwright in La Carie, a village near Clamecy.

A boy meets a "Martian" who speaks French

CHATEAUBRIANT, October 13 (A.F.P.). - A 13-year-old boy, young Gilbert Lelay, claims to have seen last night around 10:30 p.m. a mysterious craft in a meadow about 600 meters from his parents' home in the village of Sainte-Marie-en-Erbray, near Châteaubriant.

The child said he observed the object from about ten meters away for ten minutes. It was shaped like a glowing cigar. A passenger, a man dressed in a suit and gray hat and wearing boots, reportedly said to him in French:

"Look, but don't touch." He put a hand on the boy's shoulder while holding a ball emitting violet lights in the other hand. He climbed into the craft through a door that slammed shut. On what appeared to be a control panel, there were several multicolored buttons.

According to the child, the craft then rose vertically, slowly, emitting lights in all directions, circled in the air twice, and suddenly vanished.

The Austrian Serge Lifar saw one too...

VIENNA, October 13 (A.F.P.) - Mr. Harald Kreutzberg, known as the Austrian Serge Lifar, living in Seefeld, Tyrol, observed a flying saucer while in his garden. It flew over the small town for a few seconds before heading north and disappearing behind the mountains.

A GIANT ROCKET, taking off from a field, was seen by Mr. Pierre Vidal, a cook living in Croix Daurade near Toulouse, and his nephew, Angel Hurle. It disappeared in an orange and pale green luminous trail. At the presumed location of the rocket, the grass was covered with an oily vapor smelling of petroleum.

A MATHEMATICS TEACHER from Lisieux, Mr. Bon, saw in Saint-Germain-de-Livet, above a forest, silver discs about seven to eight meters wide, which rose silently into the sky while spinning. After diving from an altitude of about 800 meters, it flew off horizontally at dizzying speed.

A COUNTY COUNCILLOR, a café owner, a rugby player, and a swimming champion saw a flying saucer resembling a ball of fire above the chapel of Brouilly heading toward Montgelas (Rhône).

MR. GEORGES LEROUX, 33 avenue de la Motte-Picquet, Paris, who, according to some reports, was said to have seen a flying chamber pot in the Rambouillet area, informs us that he has never seen any mysterious craft. Case closed.

Flying saucers continue their raids

PARIS. -- The "flying saucers" continue their mysterious rounds. Reports of strange craft continue to come in from all directions.

A MYSTERY IN METZ

It has been learned that the military governor of Metz has requested a detailed report on a curious incident that occurred at the Metz Fair.

Commander Cotel, an expert in ground-based anti-aircraft forces, reported witnessing a mysterious object in the sky over the city on Sunday. The object remained in the beam of a powerful army searchlight for three hours.

Commander Cotel was in charge of the radar station set up at the army's booth at the Metz commercial fair, which has just ended. The station operated a powerful spotlight that scanned the skies during the fair. About ten men were present when, on Sunday evening, the light beam suddenly stopped on a stationary globe in the sky, "twinkling," according to the commander, "like a Christmas tree ornament."

The beam was vertical. The "object" appeared to be at an altitude of 10,000 meters, or so the experts claimed. No panic ensued, it's worth noting.

Not wanting to believe it was a flying saucer, the team decided to clean the lenses and even replace the projector's carbons. When the light was turned back on, the object was still there.

Onlookers who had gathered around the projector also saw "the Christmas ornament globe." They observed it until about 11 p.m., when the light was finally switched off. And they were not the only ones; residents of the Sablon and Queuleu suburbs also reported seeing the phenomenon the next day.

The radar, however, had picked up nothing.

- Mr. Bon, a mathematics professor in Lisieux, spotted, in the early afternoon at Saint-Germain-de-Livet, 200 to 300 meters from the road above a wooded area, a silver disk with a diameter of 7 to 8 meters. The object suddenly rose silently into the sky, spinning rapidly.

After diving from an altitude of about 800 meters, it suddenly shot off horizontally at an incredible speed.

AN OBJECT IN A FIELD IN THE NIEVRE

NEVERS. -- Two residents of Clamecy (Nièvre), Henri Gallois and Louis Vigneron, fairground vendors, reported seeing a cylindrical-shaped craft in a field near Corbigny.

They stated that when they approached within about fifty meters of the object, they felt an electric shock, their truck engine stalled, and the headlights went out. Once the object disappeared, the headlights came back on, but they had to restart the engine manually.

A COUNTY COUNCILOR SAW A FLYING SAUCER

LYON. -- Dr. Durand, general councilor for the canton of Belleville-sur-Saône, and Mr. Bourjeois, a café owner in Saint-Georges-de-Renain, saw a flying saucer over La Chapelle-de-Brouilly.

Additionally, around 7:30 p.m., two athletes, Mr. Dubuis (a rugby second row with F.O.C.U.) and Mr. Coulon (a swimming champion), observed a fireball flying at low altitude toward Montgelas, which changed color several times.

THE MARTIAN SIGHTINGS ARE HOAXES...
which should no longer fool anyone

But it is not absurd to think that atomic explosions may be causing atmospheric phenomena previously unknown

Among the overabundant harvest of flying household object sightings that, for several days now, Agence France-Presse (unofficial) has been tossing our way all day long - and which the so-called sensationalist press eagerly amplifies (as if a mystery were better than the truth) - we came across the following dispatch yesterday:

Châteaubriant, October 13 (A.F.P.)

A 13-year-old boy, young Gilbert Lelay, claims to have seen a mysterious craft last night around 10:30 p.m. in a field about 600 meters from his parents' home in the village of Sainte-Marie-en-Erbray, near Châteaubriant. The child says he observed the craft for ten minutes from about ten meters away. It had the shape of a glowing cigar. A passenger - an individual dressed in a suit and gray hat, wearing boots - reportedly told him in French: "Look, but don't touch." He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder while holding in the other hand a ball emitting purple lights. He then entered the craft through a door that he slammed shut. On what seemed to be a dashboard were several multicolored buttons. Still according to the child, the craft slowly rose vertically, shooting lights in all directions, circled twice in the air, and suddenly disappeared.

This story is no nastier or more original than the others. But is A.F.P. now going to publish every story children tell, on any subject whatsoever? Surely not - there soon won't be room left to print actual "information," which is supposed to be the role of a news agency.

Irony no longer applies

So why this rush to broadcast all these dispatches from correspondents, indiscriminately, without

Jacques DEROGY

Continued on page 5 - Col. 7

FLYING SAUCERS

Continued from P.1-Col. 7

...verification, without control, without investigation into the authenticity of the "testimonies" or the good faith of the "witnesses"? Is it really informing the public to scatter in all directions, indiscriminately, village gossip, pranks by well-meaning jokers, and the anxieties of crowds facing one phenomenon or another? Isn't it more likely contributing to the spread of a collective psychosis?

We believe it's time to break free from this cascade of descriptions, from this epidemic that is reaching implausible proportions and may lead us to a general case of stiff neck - or worse, to the brink of collective madness.

We've made enough jokes about the "Martians" and other little, hairy, good-natured "Uranids" who visit a few lucky country folk, mistake orchards for landing strips, come to warm themselves at the local bakery, lose their bearings near Limoges, and pose in ultra-flexible suspenders for the amateur photographers of a certain weekly. It could become tiresome for our readers to keep listing the more or less wacky testimonies we receive daily - sometimes hourly. Yesterday, it was two fairground workers in Clamecy who, seeing a cylindrical object 50 meters away, said they felt an electric shock, while the engine of their truck stalled; a local councilor, a café owner, a rugby player, and a swimming champion reported a fireball above the chapel of Brouilly in Belleville-sur-Saône; a milk transporter from Saint-Etienne saw his headlights go out under the effect of a mysterious green ray streaking across the sky; a math teacher from Lisieux said he tracked the jerky movements of a silver disc, between 200 and 300 meters in altitude... There's no reason to believe this flying dish carousel will stop spinning our contemporaries' heads. But at least, we could stop the avalanche of false testimonies, fabrications, hoaxes, and descriptions made in bad faith, which undoubtedly represent the vast majority of recent reports - simply by questioning the witnesses, as we did last week with the gendarmes from Coulommiers, to unmask the hoax of a local road worker.

The need for an investigation

What would remain is to conduct a rigorous investigation into the credible sightings - such as the one launched by the military authorities into the phenomenon reported by numerous visitors to the Metz trade fair and by army spotlight operators who, on Sunday evening, were sweeping the Metz sky with their searchlight beam. For several hours, both groups saw a luminous circle motionless at high altitude, caught in the spotlight's beam. The radar service, also set up at the army stand, tried in vain to "contact" the strange circle. Based on preliminary information, the phenomenon might be explained by the presence of a stabilized cumulus cloud illuminated by the full moon, which at that time was hidden behind a curtain of clouds.

There is no doubt that there are things in the sky we do not understand. But this we does not uniformly include all individuals. For a shepherd in the Massif Central who has never seen a helicopter, such a craft might appear to be a "flying saucer" - especially when that's all people talk about. For city dwellers unfamiliar with certain natural phenomena - perhaps better known to shepherds - such as halos, sundogs and mock moons (parhelia), the rising of Venus, or the Brocken spectre (a person's shadow projected onto mist and surrounded by an iridescent halo, usually observed in the mountains), such things are enough to fuel "unidentified flying object" reports. Who can confidently say they've seen ball lightning or recognized the dazzling brightness - brighter than the moon - of a weather balloon lit by the rays of the setting sun beyond the lower cloud layer? Who can guess the speed of the iridescent blotch created by car headlights hitting a cloud ceiling on an incline? Who has truly followed a meteor's fall?

There would thus not be one type of flying saucer, but 10 or 20 types. For if flying saucers exist, why would they come in so many colors and shapes? The truth is, we do not yet understand all the anomalies of the sky.

Yesterday, we met with scientists and highly qualified technicians. Some display a form of indifference - perhaps scientifically justified, but contemptuous toward public opinion. Others, though equally skeptical, admit - without concern - that while they are familiar with weather balloons, jet planes, new experimental devices, fireballs, parhelia, and high-altitude mirages, they may never have seen some rarer phenomena, which are becoming more frequent today.

"Who's to say that the radioactive clouds drifting through the sky in recent years aren't producing new electrostatic phenomena, for example? We are far from understanding all meteorological and atmospheric phenomena."

In any case, one thing is certain: publishing, indiscriminately, every dispatch from every town in France will not help us detect a genuinely new phenomenon - if such a phenomenon exists. Nor will we get anywhere by asking an array of technicians - if not outright scientists - to analyze vague and incomplete "testimonies."

Some have called for the creation of an investigative committee to review reported sightings. The role of such a committee should be, first and foremost, to dismiss and expose hoaxers, those who encourage them, and those who exploit them - and to retain only those statements that are truly usable and objectively meaningful.

And we do not hesitate to call for sanctions against charlatans and bad-faith witnesses.

Only then - only then - will science maintain its dignity by addressing a problem that is finally being framed in clear terms.

J. DEROGY.