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. Drouillard, 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.

Also, 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.

According to a fairground man near Clamecy:

A MARTIAN
gets down from his cigar
to light
a cigarette

People down to earth enough to doubt the phenomena duly observed every day by thousands of French people are beginning to wonder whether these stories of flying cigars are not a re-edition of the Garap affair and if it were not an ingenious advertisement mounted by the National Tobacco Board...

A Martian seen smoking!

A fairground merchant from Clamecy who went to the Corbigny fair with a friend said that on the road, at 5 a.m., his car engine stopped suddenly, while the headlights went out.

- I felt, he said, like an electric shock and I saw then about fifty meters away, in a meadow, a machine of cylindrical shape, of a fairly large diameter, of a greyish color, around which three small beings moved. It seemed to me that one of them was smoking, because I could clearly make out a small red glow in the emerging day. My comrade and I were immobilized, unable to make a movement. Then we saw the machine rise and take height. Only then could we restart the car and continue our journey.

A wheelwright from La Carie, near Clamecy, said that he had seen the mysterious machine. But he did not see the Martians smoke. The three witnesses were heard by the gendarmerie.

A resident of Montbazès (Aveyron) also received an electric shock when approaching a "four to five meters in diameter round craft which radiated intense brightness" in the middle of a meadow. Five workers who worked in the workshop of a mechanic saw like him the craft then rise silently and at full speed.

An Iranian was almost kidnapped by Uranians

Finally, in Tehran, Etlaat, the evening newspaper, publishes without comment the story of a resident of the city who complains of having been the victim of an attempted abduction aboard a saucer.

The craft was stopped in the middle of the street in a populous district of Tehran. Approaching it, the Iranian felt attracted by a magnetic force and uttered cries of terror which stirred the neighbors. Whereupon the saucer took off.

- The pilot, the witness said, was small, dressed in black and had the head of an elephant!...

Professor Oberth, a German rocket scientist who gave a new lecture on saucers yesterday in Oldenburg, believes that the Martians - or, to speak like him, the Uranians - "are able to read the minds of men through astro-psychology."

A maths teacher from Lisieux, a doctor and a Beaujolais coffee-maker, a Lyon rugby player, a Limousin transporter yesterday saw saucers, fireballs and luminous mushrooms. Near Louviers, a craftsman and his apprentice saw yesterday around 3 a.m., on the railroad tracks, a bell 3 meters high which launched green sparks and jumped at their approach 10 meters high. The two men also jumped in surprise, but much lower.

Finally near Langres, one not only saw but touched a flying cigar, which was also taken to the gendarmerie. It was made of silver cardboard, pierced with portholes, lit inside by an electric flashlight and suspended from eighteen children's balloons.

 

A GIANT ROCKET, taking off from a field, was seen by M. Pierre Vidal, cook, residing at Croix Daurade, near Toulouse, and his nephew, Ange Hurle. It disappeared in a bright orange and pale green wake. At the presumed location of the rocket, the grass was covered with a fatty vapor with an oil smell.

A professor of mathematics from Lisieux, Mr. Bon, saw in Saint-Germain-de-Livet, above a wood, a silvery disk seven or eight meters; which rose silently in the sky, rotating on itself. After diving to the ground from an altitude of about 800 meters, it left again at the horizontal at a dizzying pace.

A GENERAL COUNCILMAN, a coffee-maker, a rugby player and a swimming champion, saw above the chapel of Romilly in the direction of Montgelas (Rhone) a flying saucer looking like a ball of fire.

A three meters high bell, moving with twelve meters jumps in an orange glow and emitting greenish sparks, was seen for an hour on the Evreux Louviers railway by an artisan, his apprentice and a farm worker.

A LUMINOUS MUSHROOM, which moved quickly and silently, was seen Monday evening around 9:30 p.m., by Mrs. Drouillard, at La Roche-sur-Yon.

A FLYING CIGAR, of metallic appearance, from which three red balls detached, was seen by Messrs. Roger Thévenin and Albert Daury, guardians of the peace of the urban body of Riom (Puy-de-Dôme).

ANOTHER CIGAR, surrounded by iridescent lights was observed in Bompas (Pyrénées-Orientales) by the baker M. Sebelli.

AN OBLONG-SHAPED ENGINE, moving in the sky as in a big "S" and making a sound of steam under pressure was seen by three young hunters above Gaillac (Aveyron). The same machine was reportedly observed in Pont-de-Salars.