France 1954 ▶ Home ☰

Cette page en français

The 1954 French flap:

The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.

◀ Previous  All  Next ▶

October 4, 1954, Villers-le-Tilleul, Ardennes:

Reference for this case: 4-oct-54-Villers.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

The most reliable report - or less unreliable - on this case is the report written by the Gendarmerie National of Flize on October 12, 1954; however, this report was made public only in the 2000s. This report indicated the following:

On October 4, 1954, a young girl (the name is censored) told the gendarmes she "has been in the presence of a machine called "FLYING-SAUCER":

Between 06:40 p.m. and 07:00 p.m., she had just closed the cows into a park located at the east exit of Villers-le-Tilleul and about 200 meters from the last house of the village, when she saw a machine that caught her attention, posed 20 meters to her left in relation to her walking direction, on a grassy field opening into a small clearing and accessing a dirt road on which she was traveling.

As she was cycling, she stopped and thought at first that the thing was a camping tent.

She said that the craft was 2.50 to 3 meters high, and 2 meters wide, it was an oval body topped by a kind of conical but rounded hat. It rested on the ground on a rectangular part.

As she tried to approach, a hatch lifted from the bottom up, this hatch would have had a height of 1 meter, a width of about 0.60 meters, and was about 60 to 80 centimeters from the ground.

A human jumped out of this hatch and immediately closed it behind him. Then he stayed still for a moment.

During the time she was able to observe him, the girl noted that he was a man of normal size, appearing to have his head surrounded by a square shape, with very sharp eyes. His arms were hanging, his hands seemed to be in one piece with fingers welded to each other. The man wore a long, long-haired garment of red-brown color.

At one point, the man would have come towards the girl who got scared and fled on her bicycle without looking back.

The girl had been questioned by the teacher and other people in the village, and never changed her first statements. She was considered as very intelligent and recognized as being sane by her teacher and the doctor. She was not "emotional or suggestive" and reasoned like a child of her age, but seemed very thoughtful. According to her parents, she did not engage in "readings that would upset her mind."

The gendarmes note that a 24-year-old woman, whose name is censored, residing in one of the last houses at the east end of the village had not seen anything but had heard for a long time a noise resembling the one that makes a cream skimmer and this, in the direction where the girl had seen the craft, and at the same hour. She had even ventured on the road to check if it was a vehicle. She stated that she had not mistaken herself with a farm skimmer being very far away from the nearest one at the time of the audition.

The 49-year-old father of the girl, and another, 46-year-old, farmer, had arrived at the location that evening at 9 p.m. They noticed nothing abnormal, except that the grass had been somewhat wrinkled in a gyratory direction.

The Gendarmerie Brigade personnel went to the location on October 6, 1954 and found nothing.

The report concluded as follows:

"For his part, the Commanding Officer did not gather any further details on this affair. It is certain that the above information seems to have a certain "consistency" but it is difficult to admit that the statements of the young [X] are entirely true. The population of Villers/le Tilleul keeps cool. An important part of this population believes the statement made by the young [X] is sincere and real. In the most general opinion, it would be a sophisticated flying machine, sent by a foreign nation."

The first appearance of this case in the ufological literature is by ufologist Jacques Vallée in 1966, when in a "preliminary Catalog of 500 observations" he simply noted that there was an observation at "Villers le Thilleul" (sic) on October 4, 1954, at 06:40 p.m.

From 1966 on, in his catalog of "landings", he would note that on October 4, 1954, in Villers-le-Tilleul, "the young Bertiaux", aged 10, saw an object "shaped like a tent" (which will become "big as a tent" from the second version on, which is wrong, the girl had never said that, she had given dimensions, and the "tent" was only her first interpretation attempt of what the object could have been and not an indication of size that would have meant nothing anyway - and an "unknown person" near the object. Instead of specifying a source, he noted from 1969 on that the case is "Personal", which has sometimes been interpreted as a first hand knowledge by Jacques Vallée, but only means that he has a source in his personal file. The girl was changed to a boy because the English language in which his catalog first appeared lost the correct information, the error will persist in all the next versions of his catalogue. Vallée gives the name "Bertiaux", but one will find later in other ufologists writings on the case, "Bertieux", "Berthaux", "Bertaux", "Bertheaux" "Berteaux" and even "Berthieuz", with an age of sometimes 8, and most often 10 years old. As for the first name, it would be Eliane.

In 1975, the two French authors and ufologists Charles Garreau and Raymond Lavier report the case with a little more detail; which suggests that they had either read the Gendarmes report or talked to them. The report seems in fact at least partially in line with that of the gendarmes.

Garreau and Lavier specify that the witness was "Eliane Berthaux", 10 years old, and that it was her parents who had alerted the gendarmes of the Flize Brigade who had conducted the investigation. They quote the girl as saying:

"A little ahead of me, about ten meters to my left, I saw something I first took for a camping tent, and as I got closer I saw a hatch rise on the top of this thing that was not a tent but a 3-meter-high craft, and looking like a big egg. It rested on the ground by a rectangular foot. The hatch was one meter high, 0.60 meters wide, a little man appeared, jumped to the ground, his head was square-shaped, his eyes were piercing, his arms dangling, but seemed in one piece, with his fingers welded, he was wearing long-haired, red-brown clothes, and he walked in my direction, I was frightened, I fled at full speed, without looking back."

They confirm that two other testimonies partially confirmed Eliane Berthaux's story: first Mr. Antoine Barrois, 70-year-old, from the same village, who saw a luminous red craft rise, but did not care about it. Also, according to them, another resident of the same village, heard a noise, "a kind of buzz."

Garreau and Lavier then embark on their theory - inspired by the Australian ufologist Bruce Cathie - of a "grid" flown over France by UFOs; they were convinced that the observations are occurring at the corners of a network of 43-kilometer wide squares. They also believed that other cases of "hairy beings" in these same days were a "confirmation" of the reality of this case.

Since Garreau and Lavier were telling that the man the girl saw was a "little man", in many future sources he will become "a little being". Remember that in the report of the Gendarmes, it was just a "human being."

Since Garreau and Lavier had talked about a hatch on the upper part of the object, Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon would place it in their 1979 version "on the top" of the object. In the report of the Gendarmes, the hatch was located neither on the top nor on the upper part of the objet, it had simply opened as "raised from bottom to top".

In 1981, a ufologist from the region, Jean-Michel Ligeron, published about the case. He had found the witness, who had become "Madame C." He gave some details: the place where she parked the animals was the place called "Le Moulin", the path was a small stone path, the object in the form of a "tent" appearing on the ground was of red-orangeish color. The human pilot is now "a little being", and she saw it "a few split seconds" after seeing the object (it is no longer mentioned that he jumped out through the hatch), and his eyes are now "red-luminous" instead of being "very piercing". The hatch is described as a sliding door at the top of the object posed on the ground.

The trace in the grass disappears in this version: when Eliane's father, accompanied by a friend who was there, immediately went to the scene of the observation and inspected thoroughly the presumed location where the object had landed, they "did not find any trace on the ground, the grass was not even trampled."

The father, Ligeron told, returned to the scene the next morning, but found nothing.

Jean-Michel Ligeron said he had learned that a villager from Villers-le-Tilleul had time to observe a red-orange luminous object, just in the direction where Eliane was at the moment when she had fled. This witness would have been "Mr. Antoine Barrois, deceased since."

In 1995, in his "Regional Catalog of Humanoid Observations - 3rd issue", ufologist Raoul Robé gives ufology sources and summarizes the case, and for the first time, a prosaic explanation is proposed: "several elements still make think of a mistake with a helicopter?"

The next, Raoul Robé completed: J. M. Ligeron spoke of a shape of "tent", very different from that of an egg, and incoherent with the dimensions of 4.5 m high, 1.50 m wide; he recalls that there was no mention of a flying object for the witness because the object was seen only on the ground; the observation is done at sunset and "the color encourages to speak of a reflection of the sun." The witness heading southeast, then returning to the northwest, the UFO would be west-southwest and "might be a setting sun?" He points out that according to Eric Maillot it could have been a "complex misinterpretation?"

In 1997, Jean Sider gives the "Figuet" version but invents that the machine that Figuet reported as rested on a "rectangular foot" was posed on a "triangular" support.

The next year, Raoul Robé protested about Jean Sider's version, recalling that "we have advanced a hypothesis of complex misinterpretation (sunset and helicopter)..." while also pointing out that "the village of Omont ... is the nearest village (same source of confusion?)." "But J. Sider only used the 1986 version of our catalog (published in LDLN), and for good reason... he refuses to read us; "knowing our prose in advance" (mail received at the secretariat in 1996)."

In 2002, in Les Mystères de l'Est, the annual publication of the CNEGU, Eric Maillot mentions the case of October 4, 1954, in Villers-le-Tilleul at "more than 6 p.m. (twilight?)" as a close encounter of the third type described by Jean-Michel Ligeron as an object in the form of a tent, red orange, fixed to the ground, seen furtively, with a sliding door and a small hairy entity with red and bright eyes.

Eric Maillot assures that the case results from "media influence on a child wearing glasses", that the description is succinct and that it could have been "a goat or something else", and that "there was no flying object there."

Of course in those years, one continued to reproduce the meager version of Jacques Vallée and / or Garreau and Lavier on the Web, including the various errors.

In 2018, "skeptical" ufologist Dominique Caudron took things in hand. He recalled what was published by Vallée, Garreau and Lavier, and J. M. Ligeron, and also the report of the Gendarmerie that became available then. He believed that if the data had been available earlier, one would not have suggested that the "craft" was the setting sun - [the Sun with a hatch?!?], the Gendarmerie's report no longer allowing this explanation.

He notes that the characteristics of the craft of oval appearance, 2.50 to 3 meters high and 2 meters wide, surmounted by a rounded cone, with a hatch that opens upwards, producing a noise of farm cream skimmer, and the crumpling of the grass in a gyratory direction, are details that, together, inevitably designate the culprit: a helicopter.

Regarding the color, he notes that according to Jean-Michel Ligeron it was an orange-red color, but that the gendarmerie report says nothing about it, and as between 06:40 p.m. and 07:00 p.m. on that date, it was the hours "between dog and wolf", where one cannot see the colors too well. So if Mr. Barrois saw a very luminous red light rise, it must probably be because he was talking about the color of the helicopter's traffic light.

Dominique Caudron examined various models of helicopters, and found that it is the Sikorky S-51 which would be the best match, with its rotor at the top of a cone. Since "France did not use it in 1954", he envisages that such a Royal Canadian Air Force craft could have been in France on the NATO base of Marville-Montmédy.

As for the occupant, his "head surrounded by a square shape with very piercing eyes" would simply mean a helmet, with headphones, and special glasses. The "hanging arms" would simply mean that he stayed there for a few moments while the girl was looking at him. The "hands seeming in one piece with fingers welded to each other" would simply correspond to mittens. The most bizarre remains the "long-haired coat of red-brown hair", curious clothing to fly a helicopter in early October, but he believes that it is rather insufficient to make for a Martian, especially since he was described as a "man of normal size".

He concluded:

"The only thing that conforms to the mythology of the "hairy Martian" is therefore the long-haired garment, but since there is no 1.20 m being nor flying saucer, there has never been any "hairy Martian" in Villers-le-Tilleul."

Reports:

[Ref. gen1:] GENDARMERIE NATIONALE:

[Ref. jve8:] JACQUES VALLEE:

[Ref. jve9:] JACQUES VALLEE:

[Ref. jve5:] JACQUES VALLEE:

[Ref. jve6:] JACQUES VALLEE:

[Ref. jve1:] JACQUES VALLEE:

[Ref. jve3:] JACQUES VALLEE:

[Ref. ldl1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":

In a list of cases that the magazine called for investigation or re-investigation, there was:

[Ref. prn1:] PETER ROGERSON:

[Ref. jve4:] JACQUES VALLEE:

[Ref. gal1:] CHARLES GARREAU AND RAYMOND LAVIER:

The two French authors and ufologists report on the observation at Villers-le-Thilleul in the Ardennes, October 4, 1954 at some time a bit later than 6 P.M..

Elianne Berthaux, a 10 years old girl, had just led the cows of her parent's farm in a park at the south-eastern exit of the community, at approximately 200 meters away of the last houses. She went on a bicycle to return, and at the end of a few tens of meters she had the strangest encounter which she narrated to the gendarmes that her parents alerted:

"A little in front of me, within ten meters on my left, I saw a thing which I initially took for a camping tent. While I approached, I saw a trap door being raised on the top of this thing; which was not a tent but a 3 meters high machine, and which resembled a large egg. It rested on the ground on a foot of rectangular shape. The trap door was about a meter high, and 0.60 meters broad. A small character appeared. He jumped to the ground. His head was surrounded by a square shape. His eyes were very sharp. He had hanging arms, but which seemed made of only one part, with fingers like welded together. He wore clothing with long hairs, of brown-russet-red color. He advanced in my direction. I became frightened. I fled at full speed, without looking back behind. "

The authors estimated that two other testimonies partly confirm the story by Eliane Berthaux:

Mr. Antoine Barrois, aged 70, of the same village, saw the rise of a sharp red luminous machine. He did not worry about it.

Also, another inhabitant of the same village heard a noise, "a kind of buzz."

The authors indicate that their sources are their personal file and an investigation report by the gendarmerie, and they indicate that it is the brigade of Flize in the Ardennes which carried out the investigation.

[Ref. jve2:] JACQUES VALLEE:

The author indicates that on October 4, 1954, a 10 year old child named Bertiaux saw an object "in the shape of tent", which landed close to Villers-le-Tilleul in the Ardennes. An individual was not far from the object.

[Ref. agd1:] ALAIN GAMARD:

[Ref. jve7:] JACQUES VALLEE - "HISTORIA" MAGAZINE:

[Ref. tbw1:] TED BLOECHER AND DAVID WEBB:

[Ref. fru1:] MICHEL FIGUET AND JEAN-LOUIS RUCHON:

The two authors indicate that in Villers-le-Thilleul in the Ardennes, on October 4, 1954 at 06:00 p.m., Eliane Bertiaux, a 10-year-old girl, had just lead the cows of her parents' farm in a park, in the south-eastern exit of the locality. To regain her residence, she uses her bicycle, and she sees, after having crossed a few tens of meters, a thing that she initially thought was a tent. While approaching, she observes the machine on the ground, it has the shape of a large egg which rests on a rectangular foot. A trap door of one meter height and broad of 60 cm opens at the top of the object. A small being appears and jumps to the ground. It has the head surrounded by a square shape, its eyes are piercing. It has hanging arms, but which seem made of only one part, with welded fingers. It wears clothing of long hairs, of red-brown color. The entity then advances towards her. "I became afraid, I fled at full speed without looking behind", the witness said.

A second witness, Antoine Barrois, aged 70, observed a luminous, very sharp red machine which rose. Finally, a third person heard an unusual buzz at the time of the events.

The authors indicate that their sources are the Vallée catalogue, case 193, and C. Garreau and R. Lavier in "Face aux E.T." pages 24-25.

[Ref. gep1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "GEPO":

[Ref. mft1:] MICHEL FIGUET:

[Ref. cck1:] GILBERT CORNU AND HENRI CHALOUPEK:

The authors indicate that on October 4, 1954, several young children of Villers-le-Tilleul in the Ardennes had the vision of an object in the form of "a big egg" of a height of 3 meters with a "trap door" which opened at its top.

A small being with arms hanging and stiff as if they were made of only one part - an impression still confirmed by the fingers which seem welded together - suddenly jumped to the ground.

The 10-year-old young girl who was the main witness became frightened and fled, "without looking back," with the result that one is unaware of how it ended.

The authors indicate that the sources are the Vallée Catalogue, case 196; and Garreau and Lavier in "Face aux E.T." pages 24-25.

[Ref. mft2:] MICHEL FIGUET:

[Ref. jsx1:] JACQUES SCORNAUX:

[Ref. lgs1:] LOREN GROSS:

[Ref. rre1:] RAOUL ROBE - CNEGU:

[Ref. rre2:] RAOUL ROBE - CNEGU:

[Ref. jsr1:] JEAN SIDER:

This ufologist documents the case as follows:

On October 4, 1954, at approximately 06:00 p.m. l, Eliane Berthieux, 8 years old, returned home by bicycle when she suddenly noticed a mass she initially took for a camp-site tent, the scene occurring in the very center of pastures crossed by a path.

She approached and noticed that it was actually an egg-shaped craft shape resting on a triangular support.

A trap door of approximately 1 meter in height and 60 cm broad opened at the top of the apparatus, then a small being came out and jumped to the ground.

Its head was surrounded by a square form and its eyes were piercing. Its arms seemed of only one part, the fingers appeared welded. It wore a clothing of long hairs, russet-red brown.

It moved towards the young girl who was seized by fright and fled at full speed without looking back.

A Mr. Barrois had seen a sharp luminous craft, and a third person, not named, had heard a buzzing sound.

Jean Sider indicates that the source is Michel Figuet, p. 117.

[Ref. rre3:] RAOUL ROBE - CNEGU:

[Ref. goe1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

The Belgian ufologist indicates in her catalogue that in 1954, on October 4, in France in "Villers le Thilleul (Flize)", around 18 hours, "Eliane Berteaux, ten-year-old young girl, comes to lead the cows in the meadow. She goes back by bicycle: 'A little in front of me, at some twenty meters on my left, I saw something like a camp-site tent. While I approached I saw a trap door being raised on the top of this thing which was not a tent, but a craft, 3m high, and resembling a large egg. It rested on the ground by a foot of rectangular shape. The trap door measured about 1 m in height and as 60 cm broad. A small being appeared. It jumped to the ground. Its head was surrounded by a square shape. Its eyes were very piercing. It had hanging arms but which seemed made of only one part, with welded fingers. It wore clothing of long hairs of russet-red brown color. It advanced in my direction. I became frightened. I fled at full speed without looking back.'"

"Mr. Antoine Barrois, 70-year-old, saw rising a luminous machine, red very sharp, but he did not worry about it. Another witness heard a sound, a kind of humming noise."

She indicates that the source is "GARREAU and LAVIER: 'Face aux extra-terrestres' - DELARGE 1975, J'ai Lu, p. 26, 27".

[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":

[Ref. emt1:] ERIC MAILLOT:

Eric Maillot mentions the case for October 4, 1954 in Villers le Tilleul at "more than 6 p.m. (twilight?)" as a close encounter of the third kind described by Jean-Michel Ligeron as an object in the shape of a tent, of red orange color, fixed on the ground, seen furtively, with a sliding door and a small hairy entity with red luminous eyes.

Eric Maillot notes that the case results from a media influence on a child who wears glasses, that the description is brief and that it could have been a goat or any other such thing, and that there was no flying object.

[Ref. fbn2:] FABRICE BONVIN:

In a table, Fabrice Bonvin notes selected cases of the 1954 Frnech flap, including this one:

[Ref. djn1:] DONALD JOHNSON:

[Ref. ars1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

[Ref. fbn1:] FABRICE BONVIN:

Fabrice Bonvin notes:

[Ref. ads2:] "L'ARDENNAIS" NEWSPAPER:

[Ref. cnu1:] CNEGU - "LES MYSTERES DE L'EST":

[Ref. jbu1:] JEROME BEAU:

[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:

Luc Chastan notes in his database that in the Ardennes in Villers le Tilleul on October 4, 1954 at 18:00 hours, "a girl comes to lead the cows of the farm of her parents into a park, at the south-eastern exit of the locality. To go back home, she goes up on her bicycle, she sees, after having crossed several tens of meters, a thing which she initially takes for a camp-site tent. While approaching, she observes the craft on the ground, it has the shape of a large egg which rests on a rectangular foot. A trapdoor, one meter in height and 60 cm broad opens at the top of the object. A small being appears and jumps to the ground. Its head is surrounded by a square shape, its eyes are piercing. It has hanging arms, but which seem made of only one part, with welded fingers. It wears clothing of long hairs, of brown-russet-red color. The entity then advances towards her. 'I was seized by fear, I fled at full speed without looking back', the witness would say."

"A second witness as for him observed a luminous craft, of a very sharp red, which was rising. Finally a third person heard an unusual buzzing sound at the time of the facts."

Luc Chastan indicates as source: "Ovni, Premier dossier complet... by Figuet M./ Ruchon J.L. ** Alain Lefeuvre pub. 1979".

[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:

The website indicates that on 4 October 1954 at 18:40 in Villers-le-Tilleul, France, "Ten-year-old Bertiaux saw an object 'like a tent' and an unknown man near it."

The website adds: "Villers-le-Tilleul, France. Ten year old Bertiaux saw an object at 6:40 p.m. "like a tent" with an unknown man nearby."

And: "Close encounter with an unidentified craft and its occupants. One tent-shaped object, about 10 feet across, was observed by one male 10-year-old witness in a forest. One humanoid was seen. 10-year old Eliane Berteaux had just led the cows to pasture and was returning in her moped when she saw some meters to her left what appeared to be a metallic tent. While she approached she saw a trap door being raised to the top of the object, which was really an object resembling a large egg. It rested on the ground on a rectangular base. The trap door measured about 1 m in height and 60 cm in width. A small humanoid then appeared. It jumped to the ground. On his head he wore a large square helmet. It had very piercing eyes and arms that hung on its sides. It wore a russet red color outfit. The humanoid moved towards the witness and this one ran away in fear. In the same area, Antoine Barrois, 70 years of age saw a red luminous object rise from the ground."

The sources are indicated as: "Webb, David, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports; Poher, Claude, Etudes Statistiques Portant sur 1000 Temoignag, Author, undated; Bowen, Charles, The Humanoids: FSR Special Edition No. 1, FSR, London, 1966; Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073); Vallee, Jacques, Challenge to Science: The UFO Enigma, Henry Regnery, Chicago, 1966; Vallee, Jacques, Preliminary Catalog (N = 500), (in JVallee01); Vallee, Jacques, A Century of Landings (N = 923), (in JVallee04), Chicago, 1969; Schoenherr, Luis, Computerized Catalog (N = 3173); Delaire, J. Bernard, UFO Register Volume 7 (1976), Data Research, Oxford, 1976; Hatch, Larry, *U* computer database, Author, Redwood City, 2002; Rosales, Albert, Humanoid Sighting Reports Database".

[Ref. rte1:] RAYMOND TERRASSE:

The author declares that he creates a "new branch of ufology", "marifology, on mathematical bases: 9, 13, 46, the figure of head was the number of letters of the term our lady, allotted to the Blessed Virgin by Bernard de Clairvaux; 13 is the symbol of the letter M according to its place in the alphabet [!]; and 46, the numerical total of MARIE" [!]. He thus lists UFO cases whose witness name is 13 letters long and quotes among these: "Villers le Lac and Mrs. Eliane Bertaux" [sic].

[Ref. prn2:] PETER ROGERSON:

[Ref. tai1:] "THINK ABOUT IT" WEBSITE:

[Ref. nip1:] "THE NICAP WEBSITE":

[Ref. jgz1:] JULIEN GONZALEZ:

The author indicates that there was a close encounter of the third type at Villers-le-Tilleul, in the Ardennes, on October 4, 1954, at 6:00 p.m..

It was not very cold, and the weather was clear and cloudless, with good visibility, but night fell. Eliane Berteaux, 10-year-old, led a herd of cows in the pasture which was about 400 to 500 meters from her parents' house. At the place known as "Le Moulin", she borrowed a small stone path with her flock, parked the animals, then returned to work by the same route.

At that moment, returning to her home by bicycle, she suddenly saw on her left a strange object in the form of a "tent" of red-orange color appearing on the ground. A few split seconds later, she was surprised to see, standing nearby, a little being who seemed to wear a kind of combination covered with long hair and with bright red eyes.

She just had time to discern a kind of up-sliding door on the object posed on the ground, but with great fright, she ran away without looking back to her parents' house, and reported to them what she had seen.

His father accompanied by a friend who was there decided to go immediately to the scene. They inspected the site where the object had allegedly been but did not find any trace on the ground, the grass was not even trampled.

In order to better understand, Mr. Berteaux returned to the scene the next morning, but found nothing.

Another inhabitant of Villers-le-Tilleul, Antoine Barrois, had time to observe a bright red-orange object, just in the direction in which Eliane Bertiaux was at the moment when she had fled.

A third person who remained anonymous is said to have heard a buzzing sound.

According to Eliane the object measured 4 to 4.5 meters high on 1 to 1.50 meters wide. She never heard any noise.

At the time, there had been an investigation by the Gendarmerie Nationale of the Brigade of Flize, and there was a counter-investigation almost 25 years later by Jean-Michel Ligeron during which Mrs. C..., formerly Miss Eliane Berteaux, had confirmed her statements of the time. She added that she refuses any literature relating to UFOs for fear of being frightened.

Sources are indicated as C. Garreau et R. Lavier, "Face aux Extra-Terrestres", pages 24-25; Michel Figuet and Jean-Louis Ruchon, "OVNI, le premier dossier complet des rencontres rapprochées en France", page 117; Jean-Michel Ligeron, "OVNI en Ardennes", pages 27-29; Jean Sider, "Le dossier ]954 et l'imposture rationaliste", pages 185.

[Ref. gei1:] "GROUPE D'ETUDES ET D'INFORMATIONS SUR LES PHENOMENES AEROSPATIAUX NON IDENTIFIES":

[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":

This database recorded this case 10 times:

[Ref. prn3:] PETER ROGERSON - "INTCAT":

[Ref. dcn1:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:

[Ref. dcn2:] DOMINIQUE CAUDRON:

Dominique Caudron lists cases if the French wave of 1954 in which "hairy Martians" were reported, including:

"10/04/1954 06:15 p.m. Villers-le-Tilleul (08) Eliane Berteaux (10 years old)"

He summarizes:

A link "read the case file" directs to the specific case file by Dominique Caudron, see [dcn2].

Explanations:

Probable helicopter.

It should be obvious that as the witness was a child, so her words may be relatively unaccurate on some points.

Dominique Caudron seems to want to clear the proponents of the previous version proposing that the UFO was the setting sun, but it does not hold much: the hatch on the object already excluded the Sun in my opinion, and this hatch that opens was mentioned by Garreau and Lavier, the only source somehow detailed, as early as 1975. [*]

[*] Update on November 8, 2019 - Regarding the paragraph above, a reader draws my attention to the fact that it was on his advice in 2016 that Dominique Caudron was prompted to modify his own hypothesis of a misinterpretation of the setting son in his original text (before the Gendarmerie report appeared on the GEIPAN website) he was considering. My reader had then indicated to him in December 2016 various aspects to rectify, such as the real presence of the entity confirmed in the Gendarmes report, the misinterpratation with the sun which was not possible given the hour conformed in the Gendarmerie report; then it was ma reader who suggested Caudron should dig the track he considered more likely SH5 Dragonfly, which Dominique Caudron then did.

As noted by Raoul Robé in 1995, then by Dominique Caudron in 2018, there are details that suggest a helicopter; however, there are also details that do not quite "match", and no "formal proof" that it was a helicopter. Because there is even less formal proof that the craft and its occupant would have been extraterrestrial visitors, I also think it was probably a helicopter.

The Marville-Montmédy Air Base or "RCAF Station Marville" was installed as part of NATO installations for the Royal Canadian Air Force, in the Meuse department about 50 km East-South-East of Villers-le-Tilleul, and it was occupied by the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1953 to 1967. This is undoubtedly what made Dominique Caudron think of a Canadian helicopter.

Among the details that "match" badly:

It is almost obvious, but I must mention this: the door of the S-51 does not open from the bottom up, but slips to the side. An "upwards-opening" door would make the use of the craft for its rescue missions quite improbable:

Some details reinforce the possibility of the helicopter, especially the noise, and the grass flattened "in a gyratory direction". According to the dimensions given by the girl - who says she was 20 meters from the craft - it was higher than wide; Jean Marie Ligeron's sketch makes it a vertical "egg". Of course this position explains that the girl reported no insignia, no cockade, no mark such as "RESCUE", "US NAVY" and other registrations of an American S-51 or cockades of French naval aviation, and other marks of other countries. It also explains that she did not mention the color because from the front this helicopter shows almost only Plexiglas:

But again, from the front too, there is no possibility of a door that opens from the bottom to the top.

On J. M. Ligeron's sketch, the craft is indeed "vertical". The door is not at all "in the right place" for an S-51. Unfortunately I have no element that allows to consider the sketch as reliable; I do not know, for example, whether it was "approved" by the witness or made according to his own ideas by J. M. Ligeron, who probably did not think to ask the witness for a sketch, and in any case, did not propose any sketch by the witness...

French Naval Aviation had two Sikorsky S-51s, the first purchased in 1951, the next in 1952, assigned to Escadrille 58S on the Arromanches aircraft carrier. The French Army had acquired Sikorsky WS-51 "Dragonfly", S-51s built under license from Westland in the United Kingdom, since 1952 to replace, the Hiller 360 bought from 1950 on; in 1954, the French military had at least 9 Sikorsky WS-51 "Dragonfly", used by the Army Health Service, headed by the doctor-general Robert; they had been in Vietnam theaters of operations, and in 1954 the "surviving" apparatuses had been brought back to Metropolitan France for training at the Rochefort school (Charente-Maritime) and on the Bourget-du-Lac field (Savoy); others will serve in Algeria, but after November 1, 1954.

The Canadian military bought their first Sikorsky S-51 in 1947, there were only 5 left in 1955, and I could not find any indication that these Canadian helicopters were in France even once.

The S-51s were obviously also used by the US Air Force, the US Navy and the US Marines, the British Royal Navy and the British Royal Air Force, Italy, from 1950 onwards.

About the surname of the witness, with such variable spellings: the statistics of the births between 1941 and 1965 unfortunately do not allow to decide firmly:

Keywords:

(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)

Villers-le-Tilleul, Ardennes, Eliane Bertiaux, Berthaux, Berthiaux, Antoine Barrois, tent, trap, door, hatch, foot, egg-shaped, square, occupant, arms, eyes, fingers, red, brown, object, camper, luminous, buzz

Sources:

• [gen1] Report by the Gendarmerie Nationale, Mézières, France, October 12, 1954, published by the GEIPAN circa 2014.
• [jve8] "A Descriptive Study of the Entites Associated with the Type 1 Sighting", article by Jacques Vallée, in the ufology magazine Flying Saucer Review (FSR), U-K., Volume 10, #1, page 8, January / February 1964.
• [jve9] "Flying Saucers - A Challenge to Science", book by Jacques Vallée, Ace Star Books - Henry Regnery publishers, USA, page 189, 1966.
• [jve5] "Catalogue préliminaire de 500 observations", listing in "Les Phénomènes Insolites de l'Espace", book by Jacques and Jannine Vallée, Table Ronde publisher, France, 1966.
• [jve6] "The pattern behind the UFO landings", article by Jacques vallée, in the ufology magazine Flying Saucer Review (FSR), U-K., Gordon Creighton editor, Special Issue #1 "The Humanoids", page 12, November / December 1966.
• [jve1] "Un Siècle d'Atterrissages", catalogue by Jacques Vallée, in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans la Nuit (LDLN), France, #102, page 8, October 1969.
• [jve3] "Passport to Magonia - On Ufos, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds", book by Jacques Vallée, Contemporary Books publishers, USA, page 218, 1969.
• [jve1] "Chronique des Apparitions Extra-Terrestres", French translation of "Passport to Magonia", book by Jacques Vallée, Denoël publisher, France, page 291, 1972.
• [jve1] "Pasaporte a Magonia", book by Jacques Vallée, Plaza & Janes publishers, Spain, page 253, 1972.
• [ldl1] "Réenquêtes 1954", in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #118, page 4, June 1972.
• [prn1] "The Catalogue - An International Catalogue of Type I Reports - Part 7", compiled by Peter Rogerson, in the ufology magazine MUFOB, U-K., New Series 2, page 9, March 1973.
• [jve4] "Chronique des Apparitions Extra-Terrestres", French translation of "Passport to Magonia", book by Jacques Vallée, Denoël - J'Ai Lu publisher, France, page 268, 1974.
• [gal1] "Face Aux Extra-Terrestres", book by Charles Garreau and Raymond Lavier, Jean-Pierre Delarge - Mame publishers, France, page 24, 1975.
• [gal1] "Face Aux Extra-Terrestres", book by Charles Garreau and Raymond Lavier, Jean-Pierre Delarge - J'Ai Lu publishers, France, pp 24-25, 1975.
• [jve2] Summary by Jacques Vallée in "The Humanoids: A Survey of World-Wide Reports of Landings of Unconventional Aerial Objects and their Alleged Occupants", book by Charles Bowen, Neville Spearman publishers, U-K., 1969.
• [jve2] Summary by Jacques Vallée in "En Quête des Humanoïdes", book by Charles Bowen, French translation of "The Humanoids", J'ai Lu publisher, France, page 42, 1974.
• [agd1] "A Provisional Check-List of French humanoid cases", list by Alain Gamard, in UFO Register, compiled by J. Bernard Delaire, Data Research, U-K., Voulme 7, part 1 and 2, page 42, 1976.
• [jve7] "1954: 7 jours, 40 observations", article by Jacques Vallée, in "Les Soucoupes Volantes", History magazine Historia, France, Special Issue #46, page 44, 1976.
• [tbw1] "HUMCAT", catalogue par Ted Bloecher et David Webb, USA, circa 1979.
• [----] "Etudes Statistiques Portant sur 1000 Témoignages", by Claude Poher, France, undated.
• [jve5] "Catalogue préliminaire de 500 observations", listing in "Les Phénomènes Insolites de l'Espace", book by Jacques and Jannine Vallée, Robert Laffont publisher, France, page 250, 1978.
• [fru1] "OVNI, Premier Dossier Complet des Rencontres Rapprochées en France", book by Michel Figuet and Jean Louis Ruchon, Alain Lefeuvre publisher, France, page 117, 1979.
• [----] "Computerized Catalog", compiled by Luis Schoenherr.
• [gep1] "Fichier de Recensement Pasqualini, list, in the ufology bulletin GEPO Informations, ufology group GEPO, France, #20, May / August 1980.
• [----] "OVNIS en Ardennes - 10 ans d'enquêtes sur les soucoupes volantes", book by Jean-Michel Ligeron, Jean-Michel Ligeron publisher, 1981.
• [mft1] "ATTERRISSAGES D'UFO sur le continent français du 26 septembre 1954 au 18 octobre 1954", liste par Michel Figuet dans le magazine d'ufologie Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #249-250, page 25, March / April 1985.
• [cck1] "Ephémérides des Années d'Espoir de l'Ufologie", article by Gilbert Cornu and Henri Chaloupek, in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans la Nuit (LDLN), #255-256, page 27, September / October 1985.
• [mft2] "Catalogue Francat des rencontres rapprochées en France (Listing 800 1982) (2 - Suite)", list compiled by Michel Figuet, in the ufology magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, #257-258, page 17, November / December 1985.
• [jsx1] "Catalogue des traces de pas d'ufonautes (2 - suite)", article par Jacques Scornaux, dans le magazine d'ufologie Lumières Dans La Nuit (LDLN), France, N° 271-271. page 11, January / February 1987.
• [lgs1] "The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse - UFOs: A History - 1954 October", monographie par Loren E. Gross, USA, page 9, 1991.
• [rre1] "Catalogue Régional d'Observations d'Humanoïdes - 3^ème édition", compiled by Raoul Robé, in the annual ufology magazine Les Mystères de l'Est, CNEGU, France, #1, pages 10-13, 1995.
• [rre2] "Complément à la 3ème édition du Catalogue Nord-Est des Observations d'Humanoïdes", by Raoul Robé, in the annual ufology magazine Les Mystères de l'Est, CNEGU, France, N° 2, page 5, 1996.
• [jsr1] "Le Dossier 1954 et l'Imposture Rationaliste", book by Jean Sider, Ramuel publisher, France, page 185, 1997.
• [rre3] "Catalogue régional des apparitions d'humanoïdes dans le Nord Est - Réponse des 'débunkers de l'Est' à Jean Sider", article by Raoul Robé, in the annual ufology magazine Les Mystères de l'Est, CNEGU, France, #4, page 141-1/3, 1998.
• [goe1] "Chronologie OVNI", web page compiled by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 2003, at users.skynet.be/sky84985/afin54.htm
• [lhh1] "*U* Computer Database", database by Larry Hatch, USA, circa 2002.
• [emt1] "Examen critique des cas cités dans 'OVNIS en Ardennes' de J-Michel Ligeron", article by Eric Maillot, in "Les Mystères de l'Est", CNEGU publisher, #7, page 2/11, 2002.
• [djn1] "Encounters With Aliens On This Day", web page compiled by Donald Johnson, USA, circa 2005, at www.ufocat.com.
• [ars1] HUMCAT (Humanoids Reports Catalog), Albert Rosales.
• [fbn1] "Epistémologie de l'Insaisissable", article by Fabrice Bonvin, Switzerland, on the Internet, March 2001.
• [fbn2] "Epistémologie de l'Insaisissable", article by Fabrice Bonvin, Switzerland, on the Internet, March 2001.
• [ads2] "Il y a 50 ans, les 'soucoupes' envahissaient la région...", article in the regional newspaper L'Ardennais, France, October 3, 2004.
• [cnu1] "Revue de Presse", in the annual ufology magazine Les Mystères de l'Est, CNEGU, France, #10, page 75, 2005.
• [jbu1] "Lundi 4 octobre 1954", web page by Jérôme Beau, France, RR0 website, circa 2006, at www.rr0.org/data/1/9/5/4/10/04/index.html
• [lcn1] Base OVNI France, website by Luc Chastan, France, circa 2006, at baseovnifrance.free.fr/detobs.php?numobs=643
• [uda1] "4 Oct 1954 - Villers-le-Tilleul, France", web page by the website UFOdna, circa 2008, at www.ufodna.com/uf18/uf9/189067.htm
• [rte1] La Taverne de l'Etrange, website by Raymond Terrasse, France, December 1, 2008, at tyron29.kazeo.com/Ovnis-l-orthogeometrie,r81559.html
• [prn2] "Intcat 1954 - International Catalogue of Entity Reports", compiled by Peter Rogerson, U-K., circa 2012, at intcat.blogspot.fr/search/label/1954
• [tai1] "1954: October Sightings", catalog on the UFO website Think About It, USA, not dated, found 2014, at http://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/8-1954-october-sightings
• [nip1] List on The NICAP Website, USA, found in 2014, at http://www.nicap.org/reports/1954_ufocat.htm
• [jgz1] "RR3 - Le Dossier des Rencontres du Troisième Type en France", book by Julien Gonzalez, Le Temps Présent publishers, France, pp 109-110, 2014.
• [gei1] Case record by the "Groupe d'Etudes et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés" (GEIPAN), France, circa 2014, at http://geipan.cnes.fr
• [ubk1] Online database UFO-Datenbank, Germany, found in 2016, at ufodatenbank.de
• [prn3] "INTCAT 1954", catalogue compiled by Peter Rogerson, U-K., circa 2016, at https://intcat.blogspot.com/search?q=1954
• [dcn1] "Pas de martien à Villers-le-tilleul", web page by Dominique Caudron, France, version of April 25, 2018, at http://oncle.dom.pagesperso-orange.fr/paranormal/ovni/confusions/martiens/martiens_poilus/villers/villers.htm
• [dcn2] "Pas de martiens velus en 1954", web page by Dominique Caudron, France, version of March 12, 2019, at http://oncle.dom.pagesperso-orange.fr/paranormal/ovni/confusions/martiens/martiens_poilus/martiens_poilus.htm

Document history:

Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home

This page was last updated on June 26, 2022.