The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 16-Oct-54-Haguenau.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper L'Alsace for October 19, 1954, reported among other observations that day, that in Haguenau, on October 16, 1954 at 07:30 p.m. a "round and red craft" crossed the sky from the north to the South, followed by a "bright white and orange trail."
[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
After cigars, brooms, barrels, it is now the "melons" that appear in the sky of Alsace. In fact, many people claim to have seen a shining machine on Saturday night, in the form of a melon, and leaving a white-orange trail of two meters, flying over the Bas-Rhin.
This has indeed been observed not only in Strasbourg but also Niederhaslach, Haguenau and Wissembourg. Finally, in the Haut-Rhin, people also saw a craft that seems to be the same crossing the Bas-Rhin sky at a frightening speed.
It is at 07:30 p.m. that the phenomenon was observed for the first time on Saturday night in Strasbourg. Three people near the EDF plant on the street of Hobsheim saw a craft shining with light and in the shape of a bowler hat who spun in the sky.
">At 9:35 p.m. nine people were enjoying the warmth of the evening at the bar of the flying club, at the Polygone, also saw the same craft cross the night sky from east to west. The same description was given by a dozen young people in Niederhaslach awaiting the results of the election of the new mayor on the village square. A craft flew over them at 09:35 p.m., at an estimated altitude of very roughly fifteen thousand meters. The assumption that this would be a balloon lit by the last rays of the sun was rejected given the extraordinary speed at which the "flying melon" crossed the sky from one side of the horizon to the other. An investigation was opened by the police. A quarter of an hour before, that is to say, at 09:20 p.m., a flying saucer flew at low altitude, in a burst of sparks, on the Stanislas hospital in Wissembourg. The craft was seen by the local police and residents.
Finally in Haguenau, at 07:30 p.m., a round and red machine crossed the sky from north to south, followed by a bright white and orange trail. At 11:30 p.m., another craft was seen. In Masevaux, seven people who saw between 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. a craft that was shaped like a cigar and was followed by a green trail. From the Hundsrück, the "flying cigar was heading to the Sundel."
In Eguisheim, at 10:30 p.m., a few people were surprised by the appearance of a spherical apparatus that at a breathtaking speed and in total silence, crossed the sky in the direction of the Trois-Châteaux.
[Ref. lml1:] NEWSPAPER "LE MERIDIONAL":
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STRASBOURG. -- After the cigars, the brushes, the barrels, it is now the "melons" that make their appearance in the sky of Alsace. Indeed, several people, among them pilots of the flying-club of Strasbourg, claim to have seen Saturday evening a shining machine, having the shape of a melon, and leaving a trace of two meters of white-orange color, that flew above the area of the Bas-Rhin.
This machine is said to have been seen almost at the same hour in Strasbourg, Haguenau and Wissembourg.
The "melon" evolved at a high altitude and moved according to some in a south-eastern direction, according to the others in an East-West direction.
A similar phenomenon was observed in Niederhalslach (valley of the Bruche).
CHAUMONT. -- During more than one hour, Sunday afternoon, the 400 witnesses of the soccer game in Langres could follow the evolutions of an unknown apparatus which was at very high altitude.
Some believed that it was a weather-balloon, which, say the others, appears not very probable, for before disappearing, the machine moved in opposite direction of the wind.
In addition, in Chaumont, a mechanic, Mr. Auguste Poulot and his three children noticed at the beginning of the night the passage of a flying cigar.
DIJON. -- Ten days ago, Mr. André Narcy, aged 47, roadmender, arrived at his work very breathless: "I saw a flying saucer", he claimed.
And he gave much details: a machine of orange color stopped in a field, a small being dressed of a hairy cape, a beautiful vertical take-off of the mysterious apparatus. Moreover Mr. Narcy could show the place. With two of his comrades, Misters Riel and Henry, he went back there. All three stated that indeed the dew had dried on a great surface, that the grass had taken "a milky color", that one saw traces of "round feet", etc...
In short, questioned again by the gendarmerie, Mr. Narcy comes to acknowledge that he made up this story entirely to excuse his late arrival at work.
FOIX. -- Following the many appearance of flying machines of unknown type currently reported in all the areas of France, Mr. Rene Dejean, deputy of Ariège (socialist) addressed to the president of the Council a written question asking him among other questions:
- "Whether were created or not a service missioned to gather the existing documentation on this matter and to study the nature and the origin of the said machines.
- "Whether the information currently collected and gathered makes it possible to absolutely exclude the assumption of machines piloted or controlled by living beings of unknown species and origin.
- "Whether the government has, on the contrary, sufficient information to allot the production of these machines to the industry of a foreign Country.
- "Whether in this last case the international agreements signed by France already allowed consultations relating to the use of such machines in a possible conflict.
[Ref. mle1:] NEWSPAPER "LE MIDI LIBRE":
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(Continued from the first page)
ernational treaties signed by France already allowed consultations relating to the use of such machines in a possible conflict".
A "cigar" near Alès
Sunday, around 15 o'clock, Mr. Soulier, shoe-maker in Vézenobres, was hunting in the commune of Bouquet, close to Alès, when he suddenly heard a noise similar to that of a chain going down at the bottom from a well. Intrigued, he looked up and saw 30 meters high only a machine of cylindrical form going down vertically. This "cigar", of a metallic blue, 5 to 6 meters in height, by 3 meters in diameter, carried four crutches at its base.
The craft remained motionless more than one minute, then climbed back vertically to a vertiginous pace. And Mr. Soulier again the same noise of chain heard.
A luminous ball in the Lozère
A resident of Saint-Privat-de-Vallorgue (the Lozere), absolutely worthy of faith, stated he saw a luminous ball from 3 to 6 meters in diameter, which suddenly rose in the sky while changing color.
Mr. Maillet adds that the sphere hovered without any noise and that it left behind a light whitish cloud.
A "melon" in Alsace
After the cigars, the brushes, the barrels, the rugby balls, "melons" are appearing, this time in the sky of Alsace. Several people, including pilots of the Flying Club of Strasbourg, claim to have seen a shining machine, melon-shaped, and leaving a trace of two meters white-orange in color, flying over the area of the Bas-Rhin.
It is said this craft was seeing almost at the same hour in Strasbourg, in Haguenau and in Wissembourg.
Soccer unthroned by the "saucers"
Sunday afternoon, in Langres, the show was not on the ground, but in the sky.
During more than one hour, the 400 attendees of the soccer game managed to follow the moves of an unknown apparatus which was at very high altitude. Some believed that it was a sounding-balloon but, others say, it does not look very likely, because, before disappearing, the craft moved in opposite direction of the wind.
[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:
October 16 [1954]
[... other cases...]
?: Niederhaslach/Haguenau/Wissembourg(Bas-Rhin)valley of the Bruche(Fed. Ger.): lumin. obj..
[... other cases...]
[Note: Quincy indicated as a separate case, the fourth here, "valley of the Bruche(Fed. Ger.)"; in reality the valley of the la Bruche is not in Federal Germany but in France in the Bas-Rhin and this case is that in Niederhaslach.]
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
Aimé Michel wrote about the October 16, 1954, 09:30 p.m. meteor:
THE TEST OF THE METEOR. October 16, as if it was purposely, a splendid meteor crossed the north of France towards 09:30 p.m.. It was observed on a score of departments by thousands of people, from the Allier to Lorraine and from the Swiss border to Paris. Naturally many witnesses believed to have seen a Flying Saucer and said so. The newspapers printed "Flying Saucer in Orly", or "in Montididier", or "in Metz." But once again the description made by all these weak brains appeared of a remarkable honesty.
[...]
The innumerable gathered testimonies show indeed that even when the witnesses called "Flying saucer" the observed object, their description is identical on 200.000 square kilometers where the visible phenomenon was visible: an "orange ball followed by a trail", a "large luminous ball with a tail", a "flying egg followed by a trail", a "bottle's bottom with a trail of thirty times its diameter", etc. The same phenomenon is uniformly described.
[...]
[Ref. aldl:] MME GUEUDELOT, ARCHIVES "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":
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SATURDAY OCTOBER 16, 1954.-
STRASBOURG. - (67)
Several people, including some pilots from the STRASBOURG flying club, claim to have seen SATURDAY evening, a shiny craft having the shape of a "melon" and leaving a trail of 2 meters of white-orange color, fly over the BAS-RHIN region.
This craft was reportedly seen almost at the same time at: STRASBOURG, HAGUENAU and at WISSEMBOURG. The "melon saucer" was moving at a high altitude and was heading, according to some, in a SOUTH-EAST direction, according to others in an EAST-WEST direction.
"OUEST FRANCE" for OCTOBER 19, 1954. p.2
[Ref. fru1:] MICHEL FIGUET AND JEAN-LOUIS RUCHON:
The two authors indicate that in Haguenau in the department of the Bas-Rhin, on October 16, 1954, at an unspecified time, several people saw a shining machine having the shape of a melon and leaving a trace of orange white color.
The source is noted "La Montagne for 10/19/54".
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors note this case of October 16, 1954:
"Haguenau - 67 - towards 07:30 p.m.: no investigation. Obvious description of a fireball."
They suspect that the exact time is not 07:30 p.m. but 09:30 p.m., which joins the case to the series of the observations of the meteor of 09:30 p.m..
Further in their book, they claim that "the few serious investigators" who had admitted the fact that it was a meteor which had generated this type of observations were the technicians of the scientific office of the Air Force.
[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
In 2004, Christian Valentin wrote a dossier published in the magazine "Les Saisons d'Alsace", which was devoted to the French flap of 1954 as it was lived in Alsace.
Among briefly mentioned cases fot this date, he indicates that on October 16, 1954, at 07:30 P.M., in Haguenau, a machine of round shape and of red color followed by a white and orange scarf crossed the sky from the north to the south.
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Bas Rhin in Haguenau on October 16, 1954, at ane unknown hour "Several people saw a shining machine having the shape of a melon and leaving a trace of orange white color."
The source is indicated as "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... by Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** Alain Lefeuvre pub. 1979".
[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 indicates that the 16th of October 1954 was an eventful evening throughout Alsace, from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. with numerous reports of bright balls in different directions, and that observations located around 21:30 were those of a superb meteor, visible that evening from twenty departments of France, according to "Mysterious Objects in the Sky" by A. Michel, Seghers publisher, on page 245, and "La Grande Peur Martienne" by G. Barthel and Brucker, Nouvelles Editions Rationalistes, page 202. He adds that the proximity, a few hours apart, of fireballs with opposite trajectories and perpendicular paths "is, according to the experts, a remarkable phenomenon."
He indicates that in the newspaper L'ALSACE for Tuesday, October 19, 1954, in the French-speaking issue, published the following article:
After cigars, brooms, barrels, it is now the "melons" that appear in the sky of Alsace. In fact, many people claim to have seen a shining machine on Saturday night, in the form of a melon, and leaving a white-orange trail of two meters, flying over the Bas-Rhin.
This has indeed been observed not only in Strasbourg but also Niederhaslach, Haguenau and Wissembourg. Finally, in the Haut-Rhin, people also saw a craft that seems to be the same crossing the Bas-Rhin sky at a frightening speed.
It is at 07:30 p.m. that the phenomenon was observed for the first time on Saturday night in Strasbourg. Three people near the EDF plant on the street of Hobsheim saw a craft shining with light and in the shape of a bowler hat who spun in the sky.
At 9:35 p.m. nine people were enjoying the warmth of the evening at the bar of the flying club, at the Polygone, also saw the same craft cross the night sky from east to west. The same description was given by a dozen young people in Niederhaslach awaiting the results of the election of the new mayor on the village square. A craft flew over them at 09:35 p.m., at an estimated altitude of very roughly fifteen thousand meters. The assumption that this would be a balloon lit by the last rays of the sun was rejected given the extraordinary speed at which the "flying melon" crossed the sky from one side of the horizon to the other. An investigation was opened by the police. A quarter of an hour before, that is to say, at 09:20 p.m., a flying saucer flew at low altitude, in a burst of sparks, on the Stanislas hospital in Wissembourg. The craft was seen by the local police and residents.
Finally in Haguenau, at 07:30 p.m., a round and red machine crossed the sky from north to south, followed by a bright white and orange trail. At 11:30 p.m., another craft was seen. In Masevaux, seven people who saw between 9:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. a craft that was shaped like a cigar and was followed by a green trail. From the Hundsrück, the "flying cigar was heading to the Sundel."
In Eguisheim, at 10:30 p.m., a few people were surprised by the appearance of a spherical apparatus that at a breathtaking speed and in total silence, crossed the sky in the direction of the Trois-Châteaux.
[Ref. spa1:] SPICA UFOLOGY GROUP:
| City | Date and hour of observation | General shape Identification |
General color Hypothesis |
Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HAGUENAU | Saturday 16 October 1954 | ball, balloon or melon (3D) Unidentified |
white None |
Unsolved -lack of info |
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Barthel and Brucker were right to note that this was the obvious description of a meteor; but there was no need to claim the hour must have been 09:30 p.m. Nothing prevented another meteor before, at 07:30 p.m., as other reports in this catalog show. Their will to change the hour was accompanied by the silencing of the North to South direction, which is not at all that of the meteor at 09:35 p.m.
This was probably the meteor of 07:30 p.m. of that day.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Haguenau, Bas-Rhin, craft, round, object, trail, white, red, orange
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | March 19, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | December 26, 2009 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [lcn1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | July 14, 2010 | Addition [lml1]. |
| 3.0 | Patrick Gross | April 29, 2014 | Additions [lae1], [cvn2], Summary, Explanations. |
| 3.1 | Patrick Gross | June 12, 2015 | Addition [spa1]. |
| 3.2 | Patrick Gross | February 25, 2021 | Addition [gqy11]. |
| 3.3 | Patrick Gross | September 5, 2023 | Addition [ald1]. |
