The 1954 French flap:

Saucers, cigars, etc.

Near Munster, four
"Martians"
were repairing their "apparatus"...

Mr. Hoge, cinema operator, saw on Saturday evening, near Munster, four men coming out of a flying saucer.

These men, 1.20 meters, had a strongly developed torso and a large head. In contrast, their lower limbs were short and lean.

Mr. Hoge was on his way home when he saw a bluish light in a field, sixty meters from the road. At first he thought it was a crashed plane. Then he noticed that the light was coming from an object in the shape of a cigar. Four men, in rubber suits, were working under the craft. None of them said a word.

Hoge watched them work for ten minutes, not approaching, because he was afraid. Finally, the four men entered the cigar which, a few meters after taking off, took the shape of a saucer projecting a dazzling light.

On the island of Oléron
"Martian girls" give
autographs

A colonial teacher, currently on leave in the island of Oléron, claims to have met two pretty "Martian girls" measuring about 1.70 meters., in boots, gloves and helmets of leather. The two "Martians" grabbed Mr. Martin's pen and traced incomprehensible signs on his notebook. Mr. Martin keeps this manuscript in a safe place.

A "cigar" takes off in
a street in Bompas

During the night from Saturday to Sunday, a baker from Bompas (Pyrénées-Orientales) Mr. Sebelli, saw, posed in a street of 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 craft.

On the other hand, three young hunters saw Monday above Gaillac (Aveyron), moving at a high altitude, a cigar-shaped object which flew in a series of big "s" in the sky.

Each maneuver was accompanied by a noise comparable to a jet of pressurized steam. The craft suddenly disappeared heading North.

A barrel in a meadow

Having seen a light in a pasture, two young girls from Heimersdorf, Anny and Roselyne Pracht, aged 22 and 18, approached, thinking it was a fire started by a shepherd. They then saw, they claim, a craft of a height of about 2 meters. As they approached, the barrel-shaped craft turned incandescent red, rose into the air and disappeared over the horizon. The same phenomenon was observed by two other people.

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 rees forest, from the heavy climate of Africa under which he teaches the little black kids to read and write. Hiking is his favorite passtime. 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 surpize, 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.

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.

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.

Two pretty Martian girls give an autograph to a French teacher!

Flying saucers are decidedly not finished surprize us. So far the pilots of these celestial machines were hairy gnomes or unsightly giants who although polite did not give us a particularly encouraging vision of the Martian humanity.

A colonial teacher on leave in Oléron island (Charente-Maritime), Mr. Martin, has just discovered amiable representatives of a world that constantly rains down on us objects, for the less, unsightly. This happy mortal was therefore set the other day, in the presence of two pretty "Martian" girls wearing boots, jackets and leather gloves and shiny helmets. At the sight of these women from Mars and of martial looks, Mr. Martin stepped forward and held out gallantly his notebook and pen to get an autograph. Without any reluctance, they traced hieroglyphics commenting them volubly in an unknown language. Then the "Martians", measuring about 1 m. 70, bowed at the teacher and flew away aboard a saucer...

It is said that Mr. Martin carefully preserved this unique manuscript...

Two pretty Martian girls give an autograph to a French teacher!

Flying saucers are decidedly not finished surprize us. So far the pilots of these celestial machines were hairy gnomes or unsightly giants who although polite did not give us a particularly encouraging vision of the Martian humanity.

A colonial teacher on leave in Oléron island (Charente-Maritime), Mr. Martin, has just discovered amiable representatives of a world that constantly rains down on us objects, for the less, unsightly. This happy mortal was therefore set the other day, in the presence of two pretty "Martian" girls wearing boots, jackets and leather gloves and shiny helmets. At the sight of these women from Mars and of martial looks, Mr. Martin stepped forward and held out gallantly his notebook and pen to get an autograph. Without any reluctance, they traced hieroglyphics commenting them volubly in an unknown language. Then the "Martians", measuring about 1 m. 70, bowed at the teacher and flew away aboard a saucer...

It is said that Mr. Martin carefully preserved this unique manuscript...

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."

Now
we have...
Martians girls

La Rochelle, October 12.

A colonial teacher currently on leave on the island of Oléron, Mr. Martin, claims to have met two pretty Martian girls on the island measuring approximately 1 m. 70, in boots, gloves and leather helmets. The two Martians grabbed Mr. Martin's pen and traced incomprehensible signs on his notebook while trying to make themselves understood. Mr. Partin is said to have preciously preserved this manuscript.

A MOTORIST FROM
THE TARN
REPORTEDLY SAW
TWO PASSENGERS
OF A SAUCER

Albi, October 12.

A motorist from Briatexte (Tarn), Mr. Jean-Pierre Mitto, technical agent in a company currently exhibiting at the "Household Arts" of Toulouse, declared 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 parents, 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 and, to our great astonishment, we then saw flying from a neighboring meadow a large red disc with a diameter of about six meters, rising vertically. The craft disappeared in the sky in a few seconds."

Something new on the 'saucer' side
The "Martian girls" are tall and pretty

La Rochelle, 12. -- A colonial teacher, currently on leave on the island of Oléron, Mr. Martin, claims to have encountered on the island two pretty Martian women measuring approximately 1.70 m., booted, gloved and with leather helmets.

The two Martians grabbed Mr. Martin's pen and traced incomprehensible signs on his notebook, while trying to make themselves understood. Mr. Martin is said to have treasured this manuscript.

Albi. -- A motorist from Briatexte (Tarn), Mr. Jean-Pierre Mitto, technical agent in a company currently exhibiting at the "Household Arts" in Toulouse, stated having met the passengers of a flying saucer at nightfall on national road 631.

"Coming back from Toulouse, in the company of two parents, 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 diame-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

[Photo caption:] This photographer, installed on the roof of a Parisian building, armed with a telephoto lens, a pair of spotting scopes and a lot of patience, does he hope to photograph a flying saucer, a "cigar" or simply... the moon? Obviously the last objective is the easiest, but is it not currently the most ambitious dream of all image hunters. An authentic photo of the famous "saucer" or of a Martian, well, this is glory and fortune. (Keystone)

ter of about 4 meters, rising vertically. The object disappeared in the sky in a few seconds."

Nancy. -- The inhabitants of a farm located a few hundred meters from the village of Moncourt (Meurthe-et-Moselle) were disturned by an abnormal whistling sound. Through the shutters, they saw a blinding glow which seemed to be fixed on the hillside and which disappeared soon after, rising vertically.

This afternoon, research undertaken towards the place indicated by the witnesses, revealed, on a dirt road, traces of intense calcination. Stone and earth samples were taken to be submitted to experts.

Quimper. -- Mr. Corentin Couarch, 58, domiciled in the village of Elliant (Finistère), agricultural worker, saw in the sky, at 200 meters of height, a luminous craft whose shape and size he could not specify. Frightened, he put out his bicycle's light so as not to attract attention and moved away quickly. 1 kilometer away, he said, he looked back and saw the light stopped at ground level.

Toulouse. -- A baker from Bompas (Pyrénées-Orientales), Mr. Sebelli, saw an object in the shape of a cigar about two meters in length, surrounded by an iridescent glow.

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

Also, three young hunters saw moving above Gaillac (Aveyron), at a high altitude an object shaped like a cigar which flew in the sky in a series of big "S".

Each evolution 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 in the sky, towards sunset, a disc surrounded by a large luminous circle with unbearable shine. Descended slowly toward the horizon, the disc disappeared at breakneck speed.

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

[...]

Must we go on?
Do we need to mention the furry being, bearing for it around the size a broad corset of orange color, seen close of a saucer by Mr. Narcy, in edge of the road of Wassy (Haute-Marne), October 5 with 7 a.m.. 15 of the morning?

Or also, the 96 centimeters man, carrying a broad leather belt, shoes and panties, which rose in the airs thanks to two boxes in the shape of pears, placed under each arm. This being was seen by Mr. Lacambre, forestry workman in Saint-Pardoux (the Lot), on Monday, October 4, at 8:10 a.m., and the witness has even determined from the footprints that the small being fitted shoe size 21 [Europe standard]...

What to think of the assertion of Mr. Garreau, who swears "on his honor" to have seen a "flying soup tureen" landed in his property, and two perfectly normal men get down of it, who shook hands with him and cuddled his dog before leaving as quickly as they came...

And this handworker of Lavoux (Vienna), Mr. Roger Barrault who, on Saturday October 9, at 7 p.m., was paralyzed by a luminous ray emanating from a "diver" high of 1 m. 50, fitted with boots, with shining eyes, and carrying a heavy moustache...

And the cigar posed in a clearing, in Diges in Yonne, near which Mrs. widows Gaffroy [sic, Geoffroy] saw a man, from the back, in combination and capped of a khaki bonnet...

And Mr. Jean Labonne, of Bergerac, who, on October 2, at 10 p.m., saw a metal mushroom in his garden. "Who's there?" he shouted when distinguishing a shade. "What do you want from me?" But the shade climbed in the mushroom which rose in the airs at an extraordinary speed.

Even in England which started to worry and almost become indignant that not the least saucer, not the least "cigar" or cigarillo, had made the honor of an appearance to the people which had won the battle of Trafalgar. This gap has been just been largely filled by the sensational revelations of an ornithologist, Mr. Cedric Allingham, who claims to have met, on February 18, in the north of Scotland, not a Martian, but a Venusian with whom he had a lengthy and difficult conversation!

This Venusian measured about 1 m 73, he short brown hair, and his skin seemed tanned. He was completely wrapped in a kind of combination which had the appearance of a armored coat. In his nose were two small tubes joined by a metallic wire... Mr. Allingham managed to touch the saucer whose metal was slightly warm, and he finally took the leave of Venusian, not without having offered him his pen, which the man carefully put in a pocket of his combination and after having taken on the run a photograph of the strange character. This rather fuzzy image is, it should be acknowledged, rather unrevealing. One sees the silhouette of a man seen from the back, walking slightly curved, and that, without a little imagination, could easily be matched with the silhouette of any earthman.

Lastly, with the latest news, it is a true avalanche of Martians that comes falling on our grounds.

In Pournoy La Chétive, in the Moselle, three children were roller skating, when a round machine, of 2.50 meters of diameter, lands close to them. A man left from there, holding in the hand a lit lamp which dazzled the children.

He was dressed of a black cassock "like that of our priest", and after having said some unintelligible words, he flew away in his saucer.

In the island of Oléron, for the first time, it was two Martian girls who put foot on the ground. It is Mr. Martin, a colonial teacher on holiday, who brings their description to us. They carried small boots and leather gloves, as well as brilliant helmets. They were extremely pretty and nicely agreed to sign an autograph to the teacher.

I would take a whole book to bring back all the cases in detail. But all these good people swear to god that they invent nothing. Their entourage echoes that. Him, to invent such a story? A family man known for his respectability... A boy who never drank any drop of alcohol in his life? Come on!

So what? Should it be concluded from this that they really saw strange beings, hairy, helmeted, in boots, speaking an incomprehensible language? Do we need to have faith to this story of mysterious green ray which paralyze human beings? Are their accounts, on the contrary, totally invented? Do they rest on a serious basis exaggerated thereafter?

Nothing, absolutely nothing in the current state of the collected information which was made available to the public allows to conclude in the sense of the authenticity. The investigations were led as if it were a question of "checking" the statements of the witnesses and not in the spirit to eliminate all the assumptions leading to plausible and relatively simple explanations. These assumptions are numerous, they go from the joke to the hallucination not to mention the optical illusion. To eliminate them, one would need extremely thorough police information, doubled, in all the cases, of a thorough psychological investigation.

Then only the facts would remain, logically unexplainable, which would constitute the true file on the Martians. One would then notice that this file is extremely thin, if not non-existent, and that in this business, there is much, far too much, literature.

Martians Reported Seen Near France

PARIS, Oct. 13. - A schoolmaster on leave from one of the French colonies has capped France's "flying saucer" serial with a tale about two young women from Mars.

M. Martin said he met the two Martians on the island of Oloron off the French Atlantic coast. They were about 5'-7" tall, wore leather helmets, gloves and boots and were very good-looking.

They borrowed his fountain pen and scribbled some mysterious signs on it. M. Martin could not read the writing but he kept it as evidence.

Flying discs, balls and cigars have again been reported everywhere from the Pyrenees to Alsace and back to Britanny in the past 24 hours. - Reuter.

[...]

On his side a colonial teacher currently in holidays in the island of Oléron, Mr. Martin, claims to have encountered in the island two pretty girls from Mars measuring approximately 1,70 meters, wearing boots, gloves and a leather helmet. The two Martians took Mr. Martin's pen, and traced incomprehensible signs on his notebook, while trying make them understandable. Mr. Martin is said to have carefully preserved this manuscript.

[...]

Gone with
THE WIND

Now an impulsive gentleman fires a shot at a peaceful motorist repairing his engine. And that, under the pretext that, in the night, in the light of the headlights, he took him for a Martian! Bad joke, sir, very bad joke against which it is necessary to speak out firmly.

It is a fact that many people see Martians, but it is no less general and no less proven fact that, according to all testimonies, Martians behave with perfect courtesy, even with emphatic cordiality. There are only handshakes, hugs and signs of friendship. The school teacher from Oléron who met two Martians ladies reports that they were very elegantly dressed in a small travel suit, gaited and gloved. With exquisite good grace, they wrote a thought (illegible) and a signature (no less illegible) on the teacher's album, then left him in the best possible terms. And a restless man would have fun shooting guns at such friendly and peaceful visitors!

We have enough problems on our hands, Monsieur le gunman, without making new ones with the Martians. The dynamic government should urgently distribute a guide to nervous people on how to behave towards visitors who arrive in saucers. No panic, no rushed gesture, the courtesy of a smile, and, on occasion, a fruit juice from the local bar. No untimely curiosity either. A little Martian-style gift, if need be, a bauble, a handkerchief, a scarf... but after asking, with a smile, for the Martian husband's consent.

These, it seems to me, are simple and safe principles. They have the advantage of the month of not exposing motorists who have broken down to be ducked by an earthman in the grip of a global chauvinistic crisis.

France Abuzz Over Saucers

Craze Matches Witch-Hunting

PARIS (Reuters) -- Frenchmen have taken to the flying saucer craze with all the enthusiasm that their medieval forebears devoted to witch-hunting.

Not a day passes without reports from all over France of "flying saucers," "flying cigars," "flying mushrooms," and "flying bells" piloted by 20th century sorcerers.

Villagers seize shot guns and pitchforks and sally forth valiantly to meet any saucer reported landing nearby. Police spend hours following up reports.

Flying saucer stories and speculation about their origin fill the national press. They have even driven sex from the front pages of some popular weekly newspapers. One has offered a reward of 1.000,000 francs (about $2800) to the reader who sends in the first authentic photograph of a flying saucer.

The Mayor of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, a wine village of 1600 people has decreed that any flying saucer which lands in his village will be impounded.

Flying saucer stories come from all levels and ages of the population.

A select few claim that they have actually seen the creatures who pilot the saucers over France. They generally agree that the creatures, usually referred to as Martians, are shorter than human beings in size and appear to be very hairy. Most of these creatures, if they speak, utter unintelligible sounds, but some have made themselves understood in French and even Russian.

Thirteen year-old Gilbert Lafay [sic], of Chateaubriant, said that he saw in a field a flying saucer piloted by a man who spoke to him in French.

Baker's assistant Pierre Lucas of Loctudy claimed that he met a four-foot flying saucer pilot with a hairy oval face and eyes as big as crow's eggs.

A workman, Louis Ujvari, met a flying saucer pilot near Epinal who spoke Russian and asked how far it was from the German frontier.

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Saucers with sirens

The saucers seem generally to be piloted by males. One exception was reported by a schoolmaster, Mr. Martin, who said he met two beautiful Martian girls on the island of Oloron [sic] off the French Atlantic Coast. They were about four feet, four inches, and wore leather helmets, gloves and boots.

The strange visitors from outer space are said to be equipped with "ray guns" which stop witnesses in their track with an electric shock effect and temporarily immobilize automobile engines, but no really unfriendly act by them has so far been reported.

Frenchmen are less well disposed towards their uninvited guests and some accidents have occurred in the hunt for Martians. At Sinceny, Jean Faisan fired two shots at his farmer neighbor, Maurice Ruan, who was repairing his car one night, narrowly missing his head but damaging the radiator.

Faisan explained that when he saw a figure illuminated by two lamps he thought he was in the presence of a "Martian repairing his flying saucer." He ran for his shotgun and fired.

In the village of Troussey, sugar beet gatherer Alexandre Ronneji, who had not had a haircut for several months, was manhandled by a crowd who mistook him for a hairy Martian.

At Tain-l'Hermitage, in central France, a wineyard worker decided that his neighbor, M. Neyret, looked "extraordinary" in the dusk and attacked him savagely, beating him so severely that one ear was torn off. Only then did he find that Neyret was not a Martian.

Press cartoonists and practical jokers are having a field day over the whole affair. Newspapers and popular weekly magazines fill their cartoon pages with saucer jokes.

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Flying Saucer-ers

A worker at a Paris railway depot started his mates on a Martian hunt by capering about in a welder's helmet with a green light inside.

But the king of the saucer jesters was a retired miner of the village of Beuvry-Les-Bethunes, near Lille, who built some flying saucers in his backyard. He made his "saucers" out of gray paper on the fire-balloon principles and lit a paraffin-soaked rag at the base. The warm air lifted the "saucers", some of them over nine feet in diameter, and off they went with the wind showing orange and yellow lights from the flames.

Police found him out after one of his "saucers" had landed near a haystack and almost set it on fire.

Attempts to explain the saucer phenomena have varied from "mass hallucination" to a suggestion that they are new experimental aircraft built in cigar form which can take off vertically.

Another theory is that, under certain atmospheric conditions, exhaust fuel from jet aircraft solidifies and may form "saucer" shapes. It has been said to reach the ground in the form of a rubbery material which dissolved on being touched. Such a material has often be reported to have been found on saucer landing sites.

Although they were greatly outnumbered by the saucermen, saucerwomen also were reported. A vacationning schoolmaster, M. Martin, said he met two beautiful young ladies, presumably from Mars, on the Island of Oloron [sic], off the French Atlantic coast. One report had them about four feet tall, another five feet, seven inches, but all dispatches agreed they wore leather helmets, gloves and boots. They borrowed M. Martin's fountain pen and scribbled some mysterious signs for him on a piece of paper, which he had kept as evidence of the interplanetary encounter.

10/11/1954

Ile d'Oléron

Invention of M. J. Martin who observed two pretty Martian girls. Communication by M. Duquesnoy and B.B. p. 80-81.

159.

Location. Island D'Oleron Bay of Biscay France

Date: October 14 1954

Time: unknown

A schoolmaster, Jules Martin, encountered two beautiful females wearing leather helmets, boots, and gloves. They wrote down some symbols on the sand before departing in a silvery flying disc shaped object. No other information.

HC addition # 307

Source: Robert E Bartholomew, quoting Wilkins

Type: B

Location: Island D’Oleron Bay of Biscay France

Date: October 14 1954

Time: unknown

A schoolmaster, Jules Martin, encountered two beautiful females wearing leather helmets, boots, and gloves. They wrote down some symbols on the sand before departing in a silvery flying disc shaped object. No other information.

Source: Robert E Bartholomew, quoting Wilkins

October 11 1954.

ISLE D' OLERON (CHARENTE-MARITIME : FRANCE)

Jules Martin, a colonial teacher on holiday, encountered two 'cute' space women, 1.7m tall, dressed in shiny helmets, ankle length boots and leather gloves. One them took his ball point pen and wrote some incomprehensible marks on his note book.

• Patrick Gross citing Le Quotidien de Haute Loire 14 October 1954 [*]

Evaluation - Hoax, possibly a journalistic satire on the Allingham hoax