The 1954 French flap:

Calcined stone, grass burned under the saucer of Doncourt-Village

NANCY, October 13 ("France-Soir" news brief). - At about 1:30 a.m., yesterday morning, when everything was asleep in Doncourt-Village (the Meurthe-et-Moselle), an abnormal whistling sound awoke the inhabitants of a farm, out in the country. Worried, the farmers went at the window and saw a flat object, "three times as big as a setting sun", they said, posed at the edge of the woods nearby. Soon the object rose with great speed to the vertical and disappeared. At the place indicated by the farmers, the gendarmes found that the stones had been calcined and had taken on a brick-red color on a circumference of 1 m. 50. The earth, everywhere else soaked by rain, was, within this circumference, reduced to ashes on a depth of three centimeters.

A luminous machine observed in Cameroon by credible witnesses

YAOUNDE (Cameroon), Oct. 12 ("France-Soir" news brief). - An enormous illuminated disk was observed Sunday in Yaoundé by a group of trustworthy people: Colonel Cauvin, director of the health and prophylaxis services of Cameroon; Dr. Menn, chief medical officer of the hospital; MM. Dumont, Director of the Security Services; Poileux, Councilor of the Territorial Assembly; Moreau, administrator and deputy mayor of Yaoundé. It was the dog of the house who, by barking, attracted the occupants. Under the disc hung a sort of oscillating cylinder. The machine, after a few seconds, disappeared quickly towards the east.

AN ORANGE DISC emitting bright lights was observed in Champagne-sur-Seine (the Seine-et-Marne) by M. T ..., a seasonal worker in Machault, who took pictures. A butcher at Seine-Port saw at Savigny-le-Temple a similar machine, as well as in Meaux, Mr. Lefranc, a bank clerk in Paris.

AN INCANDESCENT BARREL, two meters high, was seen in a pasture by two young girls from Heimersdorf (Haut-Rhin). The craft rose and disappeared quickly.

Pygmy and fearful Martians

in the Tarn and in Westphalia

THE Martians are familiar, talkative and daring when they are alone. If they are in a troop they become fearful. It's strange, but that's how it is.

Mr. Jean-Pierre Mitto, engineer in Briatexte (the Tarn) was driving home the other night by car with two of his cousins when he saw two small figures running away before him on the road. He braked backwards and saw in a meadow a "saucer" in the shape of a hemisphere towards which the two figures were running at full speed. The craft was, he says, about 6 meters in diameter; it flew away as soon as the "Martians" - who, he estimated, were the size of a child aged 10 to 12 - had resumed their place on board.

The four mysterious characters that Mr. Hoge, a film operator, saw in Westphalia the same evening were about this size: 1 m. 20 or so. On returning home, Mr. Hoge had seen a blue light in a field, 60 meters from the road. He thought it was a crashed plane. Then he noticed that the light came from an object having the shape of a cigar. Four men, in rubber coveralls, were working under the machine.

After ten minutes, they climbed back into their cigar which, taking off, took the shape of a saucer which "projected a dazzling light".

The cinema operator did not have his camera with him, but he has very good eyes since at 60 meters and at night he could distinguish that "his" Martians had "very developed torsos, a big head and small and lean lower limbs."

He admitted he was scared. More courageous, a colonial teacher, Mr. Martin, lent his pen to two Martian women whom he met, he said, on the island of Oléron. It is true that they were "lovely". And they measured 1 m. 70. Perhaps they came from Venus? They traced "incomprehensible" hieroglyphs on his notebook. But it's already a lot that they know how to use a pen...

Iridescent cigars and fireballs have been reported in the Pyrénées-Orientales, Aveyron and Puy-de-Dôme.

In Meaux, Fontainebleau and Nandy, discs of illuminated soccer balls shape were seen flying across the sky. A roadmender even saw - he was coming out of a cafe - a flying liter!

No Martien at the Dubois hospital

The rumor spread in Paris last night that a "Martian", escaped from a flying saucer, and wounded, had was admitted to the Dubois hospital, rue du faubourg Saint-Denis. The hospital management, assailed by phone calls, asks us to indicate that this is a stupid rumor and naturally without any foundation.

FLYING SAUCERS

(4) Continued from the first page

above Machault a circular craft emitting a fairly bright light, of orange color. The disc, which was about the diameter of a full moon, was moving at relatively slow pace, crossing the sky horizontally.

MELUN. -- Mr. Demarchy, butcher in Seine-Port, and one of his friends, who were traveling by car in Nandy, reported seeing a luminous disc flying at an altitude of about 800 meters. The two butchers left their car and followed the evolution of the craft for about a minute.

QUIMPER. -- Mr. Correntin Couarch, 58-year-old, resident of the village of Elliant (the Finistère), farm worker, saw in the sky, at 200 meters above sea level, a luminous craft which he cannot specify the shape and size. He said that, frightened, he had turned off the lantern of his bicycle to avoid attracting attention and walked away quickly. At one kilometer, he said, he looked back and saw the light stopped at ground level.

TOULOUSE. -- In the night from Saturday to Sunday, a baker from Bompas (Pyrénées-Orientales), Mr. Sebelli saw, landed in a street of this village a cigar-shaped object about two feet long, surrounded by iridescent glow.

Mr. Sebelli woke up neighbors who witnessed the fast departure of the craft.

Elsewhere, three young hunters yesterday saw the moves above Gaillac (Aveyron), at high altitude, of a cigar-shaped object in the sky which followed a series of large "S". Each course was accompanied by a noise comparable to a jet of pressurized steam. The craft disappeared suddenly towards the North.

Lastly, in Pont-de-Salars (Aveyron), a person saw in the sky, toward the Couhant, a disc surrounded by a wide luminous circle of an unsustainable shine. Slowly descended toward the horizon, the disc disappeared at breakneck speed.

RIOM. -- During the last night, the police officers Roger Thévenin and Albert Daury, of the Riom urban squad, who were on patrol saw in the sky a cigar-shaped craft that was heading from South to North. Three balls of red fire detached and illuminated for a few moments a part of the sky. The cigar was of a metallic appearance, similar to duralumin.

NANCY. -- During the night from Sunday to Monday, the residents of a farm located a few hundred meters from the village of Moncourt (the Meurthe-et-Moselle), have been excited by an abnormal whistling sound outside. Through the shutters, they distinguished a blinding light that seemed set on a hillside and disappeared soon after by rising vertically. This afternoon, the research undertaken towards the place indicated by the witnesses discovered on a dirt road, traces of intense burn. Samples of rock and dirt were taken to be submitted to experts.

LA ROCHELLE. -- A colonial teacher currently on vacation in the Oléron Island, Mr. Martin, claims to have met two lovely Martian, measuring about 1 m. 70, booted, gloved and helmeted of leather. Both Martians seized Mr. Martin's pend and traced incomprehensible signs in his notebook while trying to make themselves understood. Mr. Martin reportedly carefully kept this manuscript.

And here are the "Martian girls"!

Lacking conversation skills they give autographs

Paris. -- The saucers are inhabited: dozens of French people say so, and the descriptions roughly match: small hairy men, not mean, but using an incomprehensible language and gifted with an uncommon talent for escaping.

Here is now the visit that everybody hoped for: that of the Martian girls. Mr. Martin had the pleasure to be the first to welcome them.

Mr. Martin is currently on vacation on the Oléron island. He is resting, contemplating the waves and the pine trees forest, from the heavy climate of Africa under which he teaches the little black kids to read and write. Hiking is his favorite pastime. The walk he made on Monday will surely stay in his memory. At the turn of the path that smelled a good autumn air, he saw two pretty girls he identified as Martian. They were about 1m70, were wearing boots, glove and had leather helmets. Mr. Martin, barely recovering from his surprise, wanted to start a conservation, but failed to be understood.

Then the two Martians grabbed his pen and his notebook to trace signs that were incomprehensible all the same.

The interview was over.

Mr. Martin reportedly faithfully kept this manuscript. Probably to show it to his young pupils...

The noisy ballet of the Aveyron cigar

Apart from that, the descriptions of the last twenty-four hours are really lacking originality. Let's note all the same the testimony of Mr. Jean-Pierre Mitto, technical agent. "Coming back from Toulouse with two relatives, he said, I suddenly distinguished in the beam of my headlights two small beings who crossed the road only a few meters above my car, I immediately stopped and, to our great amazement, we saw a big red disc take off from a nearby meadow, of a six meters diameter approximately, rising vertically. The craft disappeared in the sky in a few seconds."

The cigar of Bompas (Pyrénées Orientales) spread a commotion in the village, because it landed in the middle of the street, at midnight, however. It is the country's baker, Me. Sebelli, who saws this. In the Aveyron, three hunters followed, above Gaillac, the moves of a two meters long cigar; which followed in the sky a series of big "S". Each move was made with a noise comparable to a stream of vapor under pressure.

Three balls of fire and a red cigar disturbed the night patrol of two police officers of Riom, Roger Thévenin and Albert Daury, and a luminous disc moving at 800 meters of altitude approximately interrupted the travel of two butchers of Melun, who came out of the car to better see the phenomenon.

DISCS, BALLS AND FLYING CIGARS

... and even Martians and Martians girls

Three red fireballs

Riom, 12. -- During the night from Sunday to Monday, the peacekeepers Roger Thévenin and Albert Daury, of Riom's urban corps, who were doing a round, saw in the sky a cigar-shaped craft which went from South to North. Three balls of red light detached from it and illuminated for a few moments part of the sky. The cigar was metallic in appearance, similar to duralumin.

A brightly lit balloon

Melun, 12. -- Mr. Jules Lefranc, a bank employee living in Paris, saw in the sky, near the François de Tessart stadium in Meaux, for about three minutes, an object brightly lit from the inside which, he stated, had the shape of a small soccer ball. The object disappeared, leaving behind, said the witness, a luminous trail the size of a stove pipe.

Residents of Trilport reportedly saw an identical stationary apparatus.

A landing

Limoges, 12. -- In Saillat-sur-Vienne, Sunday evening at dusk, Mr. Roger Gayout, transporter at Limoges, his wife and relatives saw in the sky a very brilliant mysterious machine which, after having moved for a few minutes, seemed to land a few kilometers further.

A blinding glow

Nancy, 12. -- In the night from Sunday to Monday, inhabitants of a farm located a few hundred meters from the village de Moncours (Meurthe-et-Moselle), were stirred by an abnormal whistling sound, through the shutters they distinguished a blinding glow which seemed fixed on the side of a hill and which disappeared shortly after while rising vertically. In the afternoon, research undertaken towards the place indicated by the witnesses revealed traces of intense calcination on a dirt road. Stone and earth samples were taken to be submitted to experts.

A luminous disc

Melun, 12. -- Mr. Demarcy, a butcher at Seine-Port, and one of his friends, who were traveling by car in Nandy, said they saw a luminous disc moving at an altitude of around 800 meters. The two butchers got out of their car and followed the move of the craft for about a minute.

A flaming craft

Mulhouse, 12. -- Having seen a light in a pasture on Sunday evening, two young girls from Heimersdorf, Anny and Roselyne Pracht, 22 and 18 years old, approached thinking it was a fire lit by a shepherd. They then saw, they claim, a machine about 2 meters high. At their approach, the barrel-shaped object, turned to glowing red, rose in the air and disappeared on the horizon. The same phenomenon was seen by two other people.

At an altitude of 200 meters

Quimper, 12. -- Mr. Corentin Couarch, 38 years old, living in the village of Elliant (Finistère), agricultural worker, saw in the sky, at 200 meters above sea level, a luminous craft whose shape and size he could not specify. He said that in fright he had turned off the lantern of his bicycle so as not to attract attention and moved away quickly. At 1 km, he said, he looked back and saw the light stopped at ground level.

"Cigars" in the Midi

Toulouse, 12. -- In the night from Saturday to Sunday, a baker from Bompas (Pyrénées-Orientales), Mr. Sebelli, saw, posed in a street in this village, a cigar-shaped object about two meters in length, surrounded by iridescent lights.

Mr. Sebelli woke up neighbors who witnessed the rapid departure of the apparatus.

Also, three young hunters saw moving yesterday above Gaillac (Aveyron), at a high altitude, an object in the shape of a cigar which described in the sky a series of large "S". Each maneuver was accompanied by a noise comparable to a jet of pressurized steam. The craft suddenly disappeared towards the North.

Finally, in Pont de Salars (Aveyron), a person saw last night u the sky, towards the sunset location, a disc surrunded of a large luminous circle with an unbearable brightness. Descended slowly toward the horizon, the disc disappeared at breakneck speed.

An orange glow

Melun, 12. -- A resident of Fontainebleau said he saw above Machault, a circular craft emitting a fairly bright glow, orange in color. The disc, which was about the diameter of a full moon, was moving at a fairly slow pace, crossing the sky horizontally.

Two pretty Martians!

La Rochelle, 12. -- A colonial teacher, currently on leave on the island of Oléron, Mr. Martin, claims to have met on the island of Oléron two pretty Martian women measuring approximately 1 m. 70, in boots, gloves and leather helmets. The two Martians took hold of Mr. Martin's pen and traced incomprehensible signs on his notebook, while trying to make themselves understood. Mr. Martin is said to have taken great care of this manuscript.

A saucer makes a forced landing in Westphalia

The "Martians" (broad shouldered) repair on the spot and take back the air

Munster, 12. -- Mr. Hoge, a film operator, was near Münster (Westphalia) when he saw in a field four "men" in rubber suits who were busy under an object in the shape of cigar. Mr. Hoge watched them work for ten minutes, without approaching, and, finally, the four men entered by a sort of ladder into the cigar which, after taking off, took the form of a saucer projecting a dazzling light.

The four "men" whose height was about 1.20 m. had, according to Mr. Hoge, a rather large torso, a head proportionally too large for their body and slender legs.

A "Martian" in a cassock calls out to 3 children

Three children from Pournoy-la-Chétive, near Verny (Moselle) claim that they saw a saucer and its passenger. They told their story to their parents, repeated it to the teacher, and confirmed it to the Mayor. All three were roller-skating on Friday afternoon near the cemetery. There was Gilbert Calba, 12 years old; Daniel Hirsch, 9, and his brother Jean-Pierre, 5.

"At around [?]:30, said Gilbert, we saw a luminous and round machine landing, about 2.30 meters in diameter. The craft landed very close to us. It had yellow and white stripes and landed on three feet.

"Soon a man came out, holding an electric lamp in his hand.

"He was very small (about 1.20 m), had large eyes, a hairy face and wore a sort of black cassock like the priest. The man came to speak to us in incomprehensible language and we fled, frightened.

"We looked back a little further. The very bright object rose very high and very quickly in the sky."

This story is partially confirmed by another resident of Pournoy-la-Chétive, Robert Maguin, 16, who said he also saw around the same time a mysterious machine, but he was not close enough to distinguish the details.

A motorist meets two "Martians"

Albi, 12. -- A motorist from Briatexte (Tarn), Mr. Jean-Pierre Mitto, technical agent in a company currently exhibiting at the "Household Arts" of Toulouse, claims to have met, at nightfall, on the National Road Nr 631, the passengers of a flying saucer.

"Coming back from Toulouse, in the company of two relatives, he said, I suddenly distinguished in the beam of my headlights two little characters who crossed the road, barely a few meters from my car. I stopped immediately and, to our great astonishment, we then saw flying away from a neighboring meadow a large red disc with a diameter of six meters. Climbing vertically, the craft disappeared in the sky in a few seconds."

FOR THREE HOURS IN METZ
military specialists
observed
50 meters diameter globe

During the Metz fair-exhibition, the army stand installed a radar device and a powerful projector for visitors; which works non-stop after dark. Sunday, around 8:10 p.m., the projector spotted, in its beam, the presence of a motionless globe in the sky: "It looked like a Christmas tree ball," said the head of the radar station, Commander Cotel, who was soon surrounded by fifteen military specialists.

It was first believed that it was a sounding balloon, then all kinds of assumptions were made. The servants of the projector, at first incredulous, cleaned the windows then even changed the coals of the device. But immediately when turned on again, the projector found the luminous globe whose altitude was evaluated at more than 10,000 meters. This globe had a diameter of 50 meters and remained visible for three hours. It was impossible, on radar, to detect the mysterious craft, since it was not sensitive to metallic waves. Finally, at 11:00 p.m., the strange globe moved east and disappeared. The General Governor of Metz asked Commander Cottel for a full report.

SYMPATHETIC
"MARTIANS GIRLS"

Near Albi, a technical agent from a company exhibiting in the Household Arts of Toulouse, Mr. Jean-Pierre Mitto, returned to his home at the end of the working day. Suddenly, he saw in the beam of his headlights, and the two parents who accompanied him also affirm it, little figures crossing the road. He stopped immediately and saw a large red disc with a diameter of about six meters rising vertically from a neighboring meadow.

A colonial teacher on leave on the island of Oléron does not hesitate to associate his name with an incredible adventure. Mr. Martin was walking on the island when he encountered pretty "Martian" girls, measuring about 1.70 m., booted, gloved and with leather helmets. The two "Martians" grabbed Mr. Martin's pen and traced incomprehensible signs on his notebook, trying to make themselves understood.

The teacher keeps the manuscript preciously.

At Riom, peacekeepers who were doing a round saw in the sky a cigar going up to the north. Three fireballs detached themselves and lit up part of the sky for a few moments. Similar phenomena were seen in Bompas, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, in Quimper (Finistère), in Limoges, in Fontainebleau, in Melun and Mulhouse while in Moncourt (Meurthe-et-Moselle) the inhabitants of a farm were dazzled by a blinding light passing through their shutters. The light disappeared vertically.

11 October 1954: Nandy, Île-de-France, France

An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object was observed by one witness.

Hynek rating: NL

Vallee rating: FB1