The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 14-Oct-54-Eguisheim.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
On October 16, 1954, the regional newspaper L'Alsace published reports of sightings on October 14, 1954 at 06:10 p.m., including this one:
"It is also at 06:10 p.m. that two millers of Altkirch, who were returning from Colmar where their congress was held witnessed a similar phenomenon. They drove by car between Eguisheim and Hattstatt to return home, and coincidentally they were talking about flying saucers, when suddenly they saw passing in the sky in front of them, a few kilometers away they estimated, a strange object. It was not a saucer or a cigar, but a machine which had substantially the shape of a soup tureen. It was a fiery red and disappeared towards the Rhine at a prodigious speed."
"It was by reading in "L'Alsace" the news that we published yesterday, that the two men decided to tell their adventures to our Altkirch newsroom."
[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
We reported in yesterday's issue the phenomenon witnessed the day before, Thursday, at 06:10 p.m., on the road from Battenheim to the Ile Napoleon, by an industry executive from Mulhouse, his wife and their little daughter.
They had seen, rushing in straight line in the sky and disappearing in the direction of Switzerland, an elongated object, emitting a bright light. The appearance lasted about two seconds.
As might have been be expected, the mysterious craft was seen by other witnesses, who told us yesterday about their observations.
The first witness, a professor in Mulhouse, was riding a motorcycle on the road of Sierentz. He arrived at the exit of Habsheim, when he saw a thing of a shape difficult to define, especially remarkable by the intense green light that emanated from it, and the trail, also green, it left behind. The object dove straight towards Germany, where it disappeared.
"I first thought of a plane crashing down to the ground. But how to reconcile this hypothesis with the light and the green trail? No reflection by clouds was possible. The sky was already dark, but where the stars were not yet visible, was in fact entirely clear..."
Such are the explanations provided to us by this witness, entirely trustworthy.
It is also at 06:10 p.m. that two millers of Altkirch, who were returning from Colmar where their congress was held witnessed a similar phenomenon. They drove by car between Eguisheim and Hattstatt to return home, and coincidentally they were talking about flying saucers, when suddenly they saw passing in the sky in front of them, a few kilometers away they estimated, a strange object. It was not a saucer or a cigar, but a machine which had substantially the shape of a soup tureen. It was a fiery red and disappeared towards the Rhine at a prodigious speed.
It was by reading in "L'Alsace" the news that we published yesterday, that the two men decided to tell their adventures to our Altkirch newsroom.
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors indicate that if the newspaper "L'Alsace" is believable, on October 14 at 06:10 p.m. (06:15 further in the book) between Hatstatt and Eguisheim in the department of Haut-Rhin, two millers from Altkirch who returned from Colmar observed within a few kilometers a sort of soup tureen of red color which took the direction of the Rhine.
They mention this case for the purpose of saying that flying saucers do not exist, among other reasons, because the various descriptions of such sightings are ridiculously referring to all sorts of objects like "soup turreen", "cigar", "saucer", "donut" etc. They note further in their book that the description is evidently of a meteor.
Further in the book they locate the case as of October 16, 1954, and say that the witness could not be located through their investigation.
[Ref. aldl:] MME GUEUDELOT, ARCHIVES "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":
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OCTOBER 14, 1954.-
EGUISHEIM. - (68)
Time: 06:10 p.m.
Two millers from ALTKIRCH who were returning from Colmar observed at 6:10 p.m. between HATTATTT and EGUISHEIM, a few kilometers away, a sort of red soup tureen which headed towards the RHINE.
"L'ALSACE"
[Ref. jjt1:] JACQUES JOURNOT:
As he published an investigation report of a case of 1978, this investigator for the Haut-Rhin for the Lumières Dans La Nuit group evoked that there was a sighting report in Eguisheim on 10/14/1954.
[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:
Jean Sider indicates that Barthel and Brucker say the witness was not found after investigation and that the description was that of a meteor, but they do not give any indication about what they did to check the case.
[Ref. rre1:] RAOUL ROBE:
In the article on an Alsatian alleged sighting, that of Merxheim in 1975, the author shows a series of other "known UFO sightings around" that location, including:
EGUISHEIM - 10/16/54 at 14,3 km N. [from Merxheim]
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that at 06:00 p.m.in the South of Alsace, according to L'ALSACE for Friday, October 16, 1954, the following sighting took place on October 14, 1954:
We reported in yesterday's issue the phenomenon witnessed the day before, Thursday, at 06:10 p.m., on the road from Battenheim to the Ile Napoleon, by an industry executive from Mulhouse, his wife and their little daughter.
They had seen, rushing in straight line in the sky and disappearing in the direction of Switzerland, an elongated object, emitting a bright light. The appearance lasted about two seconds.
As might have been be expected, the mysterious craft was seen by other witnesses, who told us yesterday about their observations.
The first witness, a professor in Mulhouse, was riding a motorcycle on the road of Sierentz. He arrived at the exit of Habsheim, when he saw a thing of a shape difficult to define, especially remarkable by the intense green light that emanated from it, and the trail, also green, it left behind. The object dove straight towards Germany, where it disappeared.
"I first thought of a plane crashing down to the ground. But how to reconcile this hypothesis with the light and the green trail? No reflection by clouds was possible. The sky was already dark, but where the stars were not yet visible, was in fact entirely clear..."
Such are the explanations provided to us by this witness, entirely trustworthy.
It is also at 06:10 p.m. that two millers of Altkirch, who were returning from Colmar where their congress was held witnessed a similar phenomenon. They drove by car between Eguisheim and Hattstatt to return home, and coincidentally they were talking about flying saucers, when suddenly they saw passing in the sky in front of them, a few kilometers away they estimated, a strange object. It was not a saucer or a cigar, but a machine which had substantially the shape of a soup tureen. It was a fiery red and disappeared towards the Rhine at a prodigious speed.
It was by reading in "L'Alsace" the news that we published yesterday, that the two men decided to tell their adventures to our Altkirch newsroom.
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If they were actually driving from Eguisheim towards Hatstatt, the two witnesses drove roughly to the south. The object was in front of them, and going towards the Rhine, so that would coincide well with the other observations reports of what was probably the meteor that day at 18:10.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Eguisheim, Haut-Rhin, red, object, soup turreen
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | October 1, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 8, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | April 26, 2009 | Addition [jsr1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | February 20, 2014 | Addition [rre1]. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | April 26, 2014 | Additions [lae1], [cvn2], Summary, Explanations; were previously: "Not looked for yet. The meteor of 06:10 p.m. that day.". |
| 3.1 | Patrick Gross | October 31, 2019 | Additions [jjt1]. |
| 3.2 | Patrick Gross | August 8, 2023 | Addition [ald1]. |
