The 1954 French flap:

RECRUDESCENCE
OF SAUCERS
in the sky of France
and also of the Oise

[Photo caption:] Mrs. Masse and her husband show us the direction in which they saw moving a luminous object.

It is now in groups that the "flying saucers" are spotted in the skies of France - in the Oise in particular - and sometimes even, witnesses declared to have seen them moving in the company of a newcomer in the fantastic aerial flotilla: the "flying cigar", already reported in the Puy-de-Dôme and the skies of Rome.

In the department it is the same day, ie Tuesday, that these strange craft were reported.

In Villers-sur-Coudun...

In Villers-sur-Coudun, a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lucien Masse, both aged 65, declare having seen that day, at 10 p.m., a luminous shape similar to a large cigar which moved vertically and horizontally in the sky. The phenomenon having already occurred, they say, the day before at the same hour, Mr. Masse, a former shoemaker, who had attended it the first time alone, was able, during the second appearance, to call his wife and son, who confirmed having also seen the craft. In both cases, these witnesses specify, the cigar moved 15 minutes west of their point of observation. It had they say "a brightness stronger than the stars and reached

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SAUCERS
RUFFLES

Continuation of our 1^st page

twice the size of the largest of the latter.

... and in Compiègne

In Compiègne, it is also two days in a row that the celestial craft appeared, according to the witness.

This is Mr. Perez, 30, an employee of the Englebert factories in Clairvoix, who said he saw Tuesday from 8:15 p.m. to about 9:00 p.m., and Wednesday at 9:15 p.m., two luminous balls, one orange and one, smaller, green. The behavior of these objects, adds Mr. Perez, who lives in Compiègne, however, varied from one day to the next.

On Tuesday, the balls remained motionless and at a short distance from each other, while the next day they varied in luminous intensity: the green one slowly died out and the orange one became brighter. Both extinguished and did not show up anymore as soon as a plane buzzed in the sky, Perez adds.

Previously the balls, which were located substantially to the south of the Compiègne witness' observation spot, seemed, he said, very far from each other and seemed to move at a great altitude.

Finally, the three other appearances took place respectively in Lodeve, north of the Hérault department, at La Fleuranderie, in the Indre, and in Oberdorf (Moselle).

A flying cigar

In the first case, it was three trustworthy inhabitants of Lodeve who declared to have seen a flying cigar on Saturday at 7 p.m. which, moving at about 1,500 meters, was heading south. Witnesses were able, they say, to observe for nearly five minutes the cigar, which towed a red globe and moved silently at the speed of an airplane.

Finally, in Oberdorf, it is a rural policeman, Mr. Louis Moll, who claimed to have seen Sunday, around 9:15 p.m., "an intense glow coming from space and touching earth in the east."

This glow, the guard added, was similar to that of a neon tube and came from an object of rather vast proportions. It changed color and became reddish.

After 40 seconds of immobility, the object started to spin and take on the appearance of an orange ball, disappeared at breakneck speed in a southeast direction, concluded Mr. Moll.

Flying saucer?

The above document is not an artist's conception of a "flying saucer", it is indeed a real photo, representing, in flight, the famous English plane without wings, the "flying cage-bed", announced by the British Minister for Communications last week at the opening of the "Farnborough Air Show."

As one would add a body to an automobile chassis, our designer coated the craft with a coating which, in reality, could be made of aluminum.

The result looks quite like a small flying saucer. The "bed-cage" has interesting characteristics: taking off and landing vertically, it can, thanks to its - classic - reactors, move in all directions.

Is this craft a reduced version of the saucers that claim to have recently seen in the Oise, Mr. and Mrs. Lucien Masse from Villers-sur-Coudun and Mr. Pérez of Compiègne? Nothing allows us to say so.

The day when this will be possible will disappear a mystery that began, there is almost

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FLYING
SAUCER?

Continued from the 1^st page

eight years old, when the poor Portuguese fisherman saw a flying disc above the sea performing strange acrobatics in the sky.

A few weeks later, an A.F.P. dispatch reported that in Switzerland, a group of tourists observed a saucer moving at high altitude over a lake.

A little later the "saucers", successively reported above Italy, France, Mexico and the United States, were attributed the first victim.

An aviator at a US military base took to the air after believing he spotted a "saucer". He never returned to his base. The next day, a patrol discovered his charred plane. We never knew what happened.

At this time, the "saucers" became for many, a danger. Weren't they, some journalists wondered, craft from an enemy country, didn't they pose a threat?

In the United States, where one is most passionate about this matter, the secret service of the US Air Force knew dark days.

The public was starting to worry. The "saucers" had even been seen above Washington, where one followed, the "Washington Post" said their movements on a radar screen. A squadron of "jets" had taken to the air but the fantastic devices, the newspaper concluded, quickly disappeared.

Brains were boiling, some specialists argued that the saucers came from Mars or Venus, which has a breathable atmosphere.

An explanation - the first of a dozen others, all different - was given on August 6, 1952, to the press.

A US Army physicist, Mr. Noel Scott, put lightly ionized air molecules into a glass bell inside which the vacuum had been created. The air molecules became phosphorescent.

For its part, the great magazine "Life" published photos of "saucers" taken by amateurs.

Are flying saucers an illusion or a reality? The question remains open and the "flying cage-bed" is obviously not a sufficient explanation.