The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 14-Oct-54-Lapoutroie.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Nouveau Rhin Français for October 16, 1954, reported several observations of October 14, 1954, including this one shortly after noon:
Mr. G. G. and Miss M. H., Lapoutroie residents, had seen two craft whose shape reminded a cigar or a "boat", which sailed together at "high height" and "disappeared very suddenly."
The "skeptical" researchers Barthel and Brucker wrote in 1979 that Mr. Gaudel, the witness, told them that there was one object, not two, a tiny ball and not a "barrel", and the wife of a witness told them that it was a very fast luminous ball.
[Ref. nfr1:] "LE NOUVEAU RHIN FRANÇAIS" NEWSPAPER:
Lapoutroie. -- Thursday, October 14, shortly after noon, Mr. G. G. and Miss M. H., living in the village, saw two vehicles whose shape reminded a cigar or a "boat." Both cigars sailed together at great heights. They disappeared very suddenly.
Similar phenomena have been seen above the Tête des Faux and the Bonhomme, near Rossberg (between Le Bonhomme and the Bagenelles Pass).
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors note this case of October 14, 1954:
"Lapoutroie - 68 - 12:15 (doubt on the time): investigation. The wife of a witness confirmed the observation to us: luminous very fast ball. The press was literally delirious on this case."
Three pages further, they say that the witness is Mr. Gaudel, that there were not two but one object, as opposed to what "claimed the newspaper L'Alsace", that the object did not have the shape of a barrel but of a tiny ball, and that they happily grant the status of unidentified to "this little incident" to the "unconditional saucerists."
[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 Lapoutroie on 10/14/1954.
[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Christian Valentin indicated that on October 14, 1954, a day with an intense activity on the southern half of Alsace, at approximately midday, two objects with cigar or rowboat shapes have been seen flying together at a high altitude, and then suddenly disappear.
[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 there was a sighting on October 14, 1954, at 12:00 in Lapoutroie, told in "Le Nouveau Rhin Français for Saturday, October 16, 1954:
Lapoutroie: Thursday, October 14, shortly after noon, Mr. G. G. and Miss M. H., living in the village, saw two vehicles whose shape reminded a cigar or a "boat." Both cigars sailed together at great heights. They disappeared very suddenly.
Similar phenomena have been seen above the Tête des Faux and the Bonhomme, near Rossberg (between Le Bonhomme and the Bagenelles Pass).
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Barthel and Brucker read "barrique" ("barrel") instead of "barque" ("small boat")...
It is obviously impossible to say what these people had seen; the information is totally insufficient, the description is insufficient.
This can suggest a meteor or a plane, for example.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Lapoutroie, Haut-Rhin, objects, two, altitude, cigar, rowboat, barrel, boat, Gaudel
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | January 16, 2006 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | April 8, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | April 26, 2014 | Additions [nfr1], [cvn2], Summary, Explanations updated, originally "Not looked for yet." |
| 3.1 | Patrick Gross | October 31, 2019 | Additions [jjt1]. |
