The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 22-Oct-54-Guebwiller.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
On October 24, 1954, the newspaper L'Alsace reported a "luminous craft in the sky Guebwiller."
It was reportedly seen, among other people, by three 12-year-old boys, residents of Guebwiller, on Friday night, thus on October 22, 1954, at approximately 06:30 p.m. at sunset.
They described it as silent, "of oblong shape and of an intense brightness," and they saw it "for a few seconds", "particularly over the Guebwiller vineyard."
[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
|
Three young boys, twelve years old, residents of Guebwiller, saw on Friday night around 06:30 p.m., in the twilight sky, an object they describe as an oblong shape and of an intense brightness. They managed to look for a few seconds the silent flight of what appears to be a flying cigar, especially over the vineyard of Guebwiller.
In addition, the employees of S.N.C.F. [national railway company], on duty at the railway station of Bollwiller, state to have seen during the same evening a luminous machine which evolved at a few hundreds of meters above them.
[Ref. fle1:] FERNAND LAGARDE:
This ufologist thought that UFO sightings occur at geologically active places and noted this case in a table:
| FLYING SAUCER Ref. | Departements Nr. | Localities name | Fault just above | Fault at 2.5 km | Fault at à 5 km | Observations | Numbering |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 146 | 68 | GUEBWILLER | 1 | in the angle of 2 faults b | 117 |
[Ref. bbr1:] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors indicate, in order to illustrate their opinion on the poor content of the saucer reports in the press, the following extract of which they indicate that the source is the newspaper L'Alsace.
"Three young people saw in the sky of Guebwiller an UFO of oblong shape and an intense brilliance."
"A luminous balled followed by a long white trail crossed the sky..."
The two authors either are unaware of or do not indicate the date of publication of the newspaper article they quote.
[Ref. aldl:] MRS. GUEUDELOT, "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT" ARCHIVE:
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OCTOBER 22, 1954.-
GUEBWILLER. - (68)
Hour: 06:30 p.m.
Three young people saw a U.F.O. in the sky over GUEBWILLER, oblong in shape and intensely shiny.
"L'ALSACE" 24-25/10/54
[Ref. bul1:] "BUHL - PAGE D'HISTOIRE":
[...]
Source: "L'Alsace" from October 1st to December 31, 1954
[...]
October 24: a flying saucer makes in 10 minutes duration an extraordinary demonstration in the sky of Wittelsheim. 3 young 12 year old boys living in Guebwiller saw towards 06:30 P.M. in the twilight sky an object which they described as being of oblong shape and an intense brilliance. They could particularly follow during several seconds the silent evolutions of what seems to be a "flying cigar," above the vineyard of Guebwiller.
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Haut Rhin in Wittelsheim [sic] on October 24, 1954 at 18:30 hours, "an object made a 10 minutes long extraordinary demonstration in the sky of Wittelsheim. Three young 12-year-old boys living in Guebwiller saw towards 06:30 p.m. in the twilight sky an object which they described as being of oblong form and an intense brilliance. They particularly managed to follow during several seconds the silent operations of what seems to be a "flying cigar," above the vineyard of Guebwiller."
The source is indicated as being my website at http://ufologie.net [Its old URL].
[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Journalist Christian Valentin notes in his file an observation on Friday, October 22, 1954 at 06:30 p.m.:
Three 12 year old boys followed the silent evolutions of an object of elongated shape above the vineyard of Guebwiller.
[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:
GUEBWILLER - 10/22/54 at 5,300 km West [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 the newspaper L'Alsace for October 24, 1954, published, on page 7, this article, telling of the observation im Guebwiller in the Haut-Rhin on October 24, 1954, at 06:30 p.m.:
Three young boys, twelve years old, residents of Guebwiller, saw on Friday night around 06:30 p.m., in the twilight sky, an object they describe as an oblong shape and of an intense brightness. They managed to look for a few seconds the silent flight of what appears to be a flying cigar, especially over the vineyard of Guebwiller.
In addition, the employees of S.N.C.F. [national railway company], on duty at the railway station of Bollwiller, state to have seen during the same evening a luminous machine which evolved at a few hundreds of meters above them.
[Ref. spi1:] "SPICA" UFOLOGY ASSOCIATION:
| City | Date and hour of observation | General shape Identification |
General color Hypothesis |
Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WITTELSHEIM [sic] | Sunday 24 October 1954 at 06:30 p.m. | elongated (cigar) Unidentified |
information not communicated None |
Unsolved -lack of info |
[Ref. spi2:] "SPICA" UFOLOGY ASSOCIATION:
| City | Date and hour of observation | General shape Identification |
General color Hypothesis |
Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WITTELSHEIM | Wednesday 20 October 1954 at 18h30 | elongated (cigar) Unidentified |
information not communicated None |
Unsolved -lack of info |
|
The date given as October 24, 1954, by [bul1], [lcn1], [spi1] is wrong. The error started with [bul1] who said the source is L'Alsace for October 31, 1954, but it is actually L'Alsace for October 24, 1954 [lae1].
[lcn1] misunderstood the affair: it is not in Wittelsheim; the Wittelsheim sighting is a different one.
SPICA listed the same case twice [spi1] [spi2], each time with the wrong date.
|
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A part of the vineyard of Guebwiller seen in daytime in 2016. |
With so little information - a bright and silent oblong thing in the sky - we can only assume that it was possibly a meteor.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Guebwiller, Haut-Rhin, multiple, children, object, elongated
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 24, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | January 14, 2010 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 20, 2014 | Addition [rre1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | October 24, 2014 | Additions [lae1], [cvn2]. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet. Probable meteor." |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | June 6, 2021 | Addition [fle1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | September 1, 2023 | Addition [ald1]. |
