The 1954 French flap:

Saucer? Balloon? Moon?

The phenomenon observed on Sunday evening in the
Lille and Cambrai regions,
in Boulonnais, was also seen in Dunkirk

The saucers follow each other and resemble each other to a certain extent, and when a phenomenon is reported in several regions, around the same time and described in similar terms, it cannot be accused of creating the collective mind or hallucination. But several concordant testimonies are not enough either to give an absolutely irrefutable "explanation", we have never claimed to give a meaning to the various phenomena classified under the term "saucer", leaving this care to scientific authorities and waiting for a precise and materially controllable fact that would make it possible to solidly support one of the various theses involved. For now, it is wiser to objectively record the statements of people who claim to have observed any phenomenon, without claiming that they could not have been the subject of an error.

***

We gave yesterday the report made by a person worthy of faith, of a phenomenon observed above Bray-Dunes on September 2. We also indicated that a curious fact had been observed in the evening of Sunday last October 3, above the Boulonnais. It was a rounded object, in shades ranging from orange to dark red and which had deformed, lengthening vertically, in the shape of a cigar, then dividing into two parts and disappearing.

The regional daily newspapers reported on Monday a similar phenomenon which had been observed by many people, including gendarmes, in the regions of Lille and Valenciennes, in particular in Armentières, in Marcoing, in Noyelles-sur-l'Escaut, in Escaudoeuvres, etc...

The times indicated vary between 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.; it was probably one and the same phenomenon observed throughout the northern region and this hypothesis is confirmed by the visit we made this Wednesday morning to a young lady, wife of a shipping interpreter, and residing on the quai des Hollandais.

This person, who still seemed to be deeply moved, told us that Sunday, around 8:10 p.m., when she was returning home and accompanied by her two children, 12 and 10 years old, and that she was in rue des Bassins, heading towards the quay, her little boy suddenly exclaimed: "Look at this mom, what is it?"

"It" was something vaguely oval, motionless, a color ranging from dark red in the center to orange-red around the edge and crossed like by a handle in the middle.

"-But it's the Moon!"

"-Have you ever seen a flat moon?"

Looking more closely, Mrs. X. found that this moon did indeed have a bizarre shape; then suddenly it inexplicably turned into something vertically elongated, as if it were a soft body. Inside this outline, resembling that of a cigar, there were "things", blackish reflections, navy blue. Mrs. X hurried on to reach her home and to called her husband, who had returned a little before her; when he went out, the latter also saw the thing, cigar-shaped but which seemed to have moved away towards the West. The husband's first reaction was "But it's a barrage balloon!", explanations that his wife rejected with authority.

And then, a while later, a new transformation: the cigar split into two rounded parts and everything disappeared in the background of the sky.

The evening was calm and mild, the sky was fairly clear and a few stars were visible; the whole thing had lasted maybe five or six minutes, and without any accompanying noise, or any kind of smoke.

***

Nervous, easily influenced, our interlocutor seemed to us to have been deeply impressed; such phenomena, however great the uncertainty may be in them, should not, however, frighten us, and we reasonably believe that in none of the cases reported they could have been manifestations of beings from other worlds.

We are not far from the opinion of Professor Antoine Bonte, professor of applied geology at the Faculty of Lille who thinks that 90% of cases can be explained: asked about the phenomenon of Sunday evening that had also observed, Mr. Bonte declared that it was simply the Moon, whose brightness was made reddish by a misty area and whose image had been distorted several times by the play of clouds, to be finally divided in half by a stratus.

The thesis seems very admissible and perhaps the witnesses of the phenomenon, including our compatriot on the quay of the quai de shollandais will recognize, on reflection, that it could have been the moon.

The controversy can be fueled as far as the eye can see and saliva, and it is certain that in the era of atomic experiments, and supersonic planes, the tormented sky is the seat of more and more varied and curious phenomena.

But we will conclude by affirming, like the apprentice blacksmith who had just his his knuckles: "there is really nothing to knock on."

The weekend of October 2-3 appears on all graphs as the maximum-maximorum of the 1954 wave. Although the work of counting the press of the time is not yet finished, the 118 various issues of newspapers and magazines I have been able to analyze for this period gives us an almost complete overview, in any case very broadly representative of the regional observations which were reported in the press for Sunday, October 3. I included the observations of the Somme which seemed to me inseparable from those of Nord - Pas-de-Calais and which also appear in the chapter entitled "Zigzag on the mining country" of the book by A. Michel: "Mystérieux Objets Célestes."

I count, as one case, each observation made by an independent group of witnesses. The astonishing quantity of observations reported below, shows once again the interest of thoroughly searching the newspaper archives.

OCTOBER 3, 1954:

[... other cases...]

13) 08:10 p.m. - DUNKERQUE _59_ : A young woman saw an oval object, red-orangeish at the tips, dark red in the center, barred like by a handle, which she first thought to be the Moon. The object distorted and took the shape of a cigar with dark spots. Arrived home, she alerted he husband who saw the objectmore to the West. The cigar split in two parts then disappeared in the background of the sky. (Nouveau Nord Maritime, p. 2, 10/7

[... other cases...]

The Fabulous day of October 3, 1954

[...]

Chronology of the observations of October 3.

We give here only a summary of what was published in the press of the time, for the Nord region, regardless of what the ufologists could later say. We have numbered all these observations, the first of which have nothing to do with the setting of the moon, in order to be able to study them globally in a table. Some are already the subject of a special file.

[... other cases...]

13) 08:10 p.m., DUNKERQUE (59)

- A young woman saw an oval object, red-orange at the ends, dark red in the center, barred like by a handle, which she first took for the moon. The object deformed and took the shape of a cigar with dark spots. Back home, she alerts her husband who sees the object further west. The cigar split into two parts and disappeared in the background of the sky.

(Le Nouveau Nord Maritime 10/7 page 2)

[... other cases...]

All this is only a compilation of the information given by all newspapers of the time, including local editions, and of which ufologists only used a part.

We will see that the analysis of this information makes it possible to eliminate the hypothesis of a flying saucer, in favor of those of multiple observations of the moon, whose image was reddened and deformed by clouds, which also gave it a illusory apparent movement.

Analysis of the observations of October 3, 1954

[... other cases...]

13) 08:10 p.m., DUNKERQUE (59)

First identified as the moon, same apparent behavior than the moon.

[... other cases...]