The 1954 French flap:

Sequedin and Haubourdin had
their "Sunday saucers"...

This time, we get it! The canton of Haubourdin can record in its annals the appearance of its first saucer... and a Sunday saucer moreover.

It is not a hallucination, because it has been seen, more or less distant, by dozens of pairs of eyes.

Let's get to the facts.

Sunday evening, several municipalities in the region, which do not have much opportunity to be talked about, were brought to the attention of the press by the appearance of saucers.

In Lille, a large group of walkers could attend, at the Canteleu bridge, the exhibitions of a flying machine successively taking the shape of a sphere, magnifying visibly, to split into two cigars, and return to its original shape.

The most astonished of the inhabitants of the canton of Haubourdin was, without question, Mr. Ferdinand Millecamps, 21, mason, living at 22, rue Victor Loridon. Passing Sunday, around 8 p.m., on the Sequedin bridge, he saw, some five hundred meters from him, a large luminous object placed on the rails, between Hallennes and Sequedin. The object rose vertically, and Mr. Millecamps came to tell Haubourdin people of the event. Residents of Sequedin confirmed Mr. Millecamps' statements.

At around the same time, a group of inhabitants of "P'tit Belgique" could, in this populous district, witness the evolutions of a mysterious luminous craft moving in the sky.

The facts are there. More than one resident promised to explore the sky in the evening to witness an identical fact. The future chronicle of "Flying saucers" may bring us other revelations at short notice.

... AND MARCQ-EN-BAROEUL

The good town of Marcq was beginning to look poor among the communes which had the honor of receiving the visit of the Martians. Since the saucers crisscross the skies of France, they seemed completely unaware of the existence of Marc-en-Baroeul!

Let the Marcq residents console themselves, the honor is safe, because the city has finally seen its flying saucer. It appeared in the sky on Sunday, around 8 p.m., seeming to come from the direction of the Citadel of Lille.

Mr. Lucien Lemaire, head of department at Marcq's town hall, was at the time on rue des Lilas, in the company of other people. He saw very clearly the round-shaped object, which emitted orange gleams. At some time a second disc detached from the first, lit up and then resumed its place.

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...]

11) 8 p.m.. MARCQ EN BAREUL _59_ Mr Lucien Lemaire and several people saw, seeming to come from the Citadelie, an object of round shape emitting orange gleams. A second disc split from the first, lit up and took back its place. (Nord Eclair 10/6, p.10.)

[... 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...]

11) 8 p.m., MARCO-EN-BAROEUL [sic] (59)

- Mr Lucien Lemaire and several people saw, seeming to come from the Citadelle, an object of round shape emitting orange gleams. A second disc detached from the first, lit, and took back its position.

(Nord Eclair 6/10 page 10.)

[... 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...]

11) 8 p.m., MARCO-EN-BAROEUL [sic] (59)

Same direction than the moon, same apparent behavior than the moon that night.

[... other cases...]