The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 1-Oct-54-Ardres.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Nord Littoral, of Calais, reported on page 5 for October 2, 1954, that the day before, therefore October 1, 1954, in the morning, their correspondent in Ardres who was preparing for hitting the road when he saw a cyclist come by, looking completely distraught and absolutely breathless: he told him that a young man had seen a flying saucer come down, and had brought it with him.
The young man was Mr. Olivier Hembert, a resident of Landrethun-lès-Ardres, who said:
"I was working in the fields when suddenly I found a curious machine..."
The first moment of emotion passed, "he dropped it, went to pick it up and went to take it to Ardres" where the gendarmerie then kept it.
It turned out that it was a British sounding balloon which had crossed the Channel and had landed in the region.
[Ref. nll1:] NEWSPAPER "NORD LITTORAL":
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Finally "they" are coming!
It is not yet the Calaisis but only the Ardrésis which has the privilege of "owning" two. The first is not one and the second seems to have been born from the imagination of two young people.
But finally, since one talks about it so much in the area we have to sacrifice tradition and objectively relate, for the sake of information, the two "events."
Yesterday morning, our correspondent in Ardres, preparing to hit the road suddenly saw a cyclist appear who looked completely distraught and absolutely out of breath who says to him:
There is a young man who saw a flying saucer descend and he even brought it with him!
The young man in question was Mr. Olivier Hembert, residing in Landrethun-lès-Ardres.
- I was working in the fields when suddenly I found a curious machine...
The first moment of emotion passed he dropped it, went to pick it up and went to take it to Ardres. It is the gendarmerie who currently holds it.
Obviously it was only a vulgar sounding balloon of the aeronautical service of Great Britain.
It had crossed the Channel and landed in the Ardresis. The gendarmerie carried out the findings and the usual investigation.
In Nielles-les-Ardres, two young people René and Robert Demerval, aged 15 and 19 respectively, claim to have seen these last times over Nielles-les-Ardres a curious disc; the elder, whom we saw and heard yesterday, told us:
- We were in the courtyard of Mr. Lengagne's farm for whom we work. It was almost dark and above us a sort of red and white disc moved. Others who were with us saw it!
And he mentioned names of farm workers. But alas, this testimony does not seem at all serious since the other alleged witnesses are by far, much less categorical!
The gendarmerie of Ardres who heard of this affair does not seem, like us, to take this "appearance" in the skies of Nielles-les-Ardres very seriously.
On the other hand, in the Ardrésis, more importance is given to the passage of this luminous object above Bonningues-les-Ardres, a few weeks ago because there, the testimonies are as formal as they are consistent.
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Negative case, weather balloon.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Ardres, Pas-de-Calais, Landrethun-lès-Ardres, Olivier Hembert, saucer, crash, weather balloon, sounding balloon, gendarmes, negative case
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 2, 2020 | First published. |
