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November 11, 1954, La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée:

Reference for this case: 11-Nov-54-La-Roche-sur-Yon.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

In 1979, the two French ufologists Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker, who became "skeptical" about the flying saucers, published a book about the 1954 French saucer flap to explain that there was nothing to it. They cited the newspaper La Vendée Libre for November 14, 1954, about a case in La Roche-sur-Yon, on November 11, 1954, at 7 a.m.:

Mrs. Albert, employee at La Ménagère by Mr. Morillon, had seen what is commonly referred to as a flying saucer: as she was going to the hairdresser, passing the Sadi-Carnot street, when she saw a large luminous ball of every colors that seemed to pass at a very high altitude and at the speed of a lightning.

She saw it above the house of Mrs. Larmanjat, going towards the circular square. The "crat" made no noise and left no trace of smoke behind itself.

Reports:

[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:

The two authors quote the newspaper "La Vendée Libre" for November 14, 1954:

"La Roche-sur-Yon (85). Time: 7 o'clock.

"Mrs. Albert, employee at La Ménagère by Mr. Morillon, has seen what is commonly referred to as a flying saucer."

"- I was going to the hairdresser, when, while passing the Sadi-Carnot street, I saw a large luminous ball. It was of every colors and seemed to pass at a very high altitude and at the speed of a lightning. I saw it above the house of Mrs. Larmanjat. It was going towards the circular place. The machine did not make any noise and did not leave any trace of smoke behind itself."

"... Apparently it is one of these flying saucers which so puzzle our citizens."

[Ref. jcx1:] "LES MYSTERES DE VENDEE" WEBSITE:

The website's author found this observation in Barthel and Brucker's book and notes the following:

• The relevant issue of "La Vendée Libre" is unfortunately not available for reading in the Departmental Archives, either because it is missing or because it is in a too bad state, and all the observations which it contains thus remain unknown except three cases among them this one. The entirety of the September 1954 month is in the same case and some observations of this period will only be known when these documents are scanned, unless this month is quite simply lost.
• Barthel and Brucker are making some incredible interpretation by modifying the dates of the observations without explaining at all how this makes sense.
• Barthel and Brucker make a curious analysis which raises doubts, since they claim that the three events are at the same date while only one is dated exactly, then they claim that there are no ufological facts on November 11, 1954, then that ufologists give false dates by mistaking the dates of publications in newspapers and the dates of the sightings, which is sometimes true but is obviously not a question here.
• The author of the "Mysteries of Vendée" website presents the three cases dated as of November 11 since one is dated at November 11, and that there are no precise details for the two others. He notes that it was not necessarily the same object that was observed in each occurrence.

Explanations:

There had been a case in the Vendée on the 11th of November 1954 "early in the morning" which seemed to have been caused by a meteor. Does this case relate to it? It is not impossible but it is not certain. The mention of the absence of "trace of smoke behind" the supposed machine makes it possible to remain circumspect as to the explanation by a meteor. But the paucity of the data and the lack of an investigation make it difficult to go beyond that.

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

La Roche sur Yon, La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée, large, ball, luminous colors, fast, silent, Albert

Sources:

[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.

• [----] Article in the regional newspaper La Vendée Libre, France, November 14, 1954.
• [bbr1] "La Grande Peur Martienne", book by Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker, Les Nouvelles Editions Rationalistes publishers, France, pp 132-133, 1979.
• [jcx1] "Les Mystères de Vendée", website, at: journaldumerveilleux.perso.cegetel.net

Document history:

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This page was last updated on January 2, 2019.