The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 5-Oct-54-Uxem.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The regional newspaper Le Nouveau Nord Maritime for October 9, 1954, headlined about a "Flying Sphere equipped with a parachute", which landed in a field in Uxem.
On Thursday October 6, 1954, in the afternoon, they had received a letter from one of their readers, Mr. Maurice Gesquière, agricultural worker domiciled in Moëres.
He told them he had picked up a white parachute from a field to which were attached two very light aluminum hemispheres.
The newspaper reported that the next day, they learned that Rosendaël's gendarmes, on a tour of the Moëres, had seized this mysterious device.
The newspaper described it as two aluminum half-spheres interlocking one with the other to form a ball of 32 centimeters of diameter, pierced with small holes through which passed the strings of a parachute. The sphere had marking in English, "bottom half", on one of the parts, "top half", on the other, and a marking painted in black, on the device: "Armless not wanted."
The newspaper said that the gendarmes were unable to identify the device, and were intrigued by the fact that the parachute attached to it did not seem to be the original one, but rather a piece of white canvas coarsely tied.
On Friday afternoon, the gendarmes were to return to Moëres to question Mr. Gesquières, whom they had been unable to find in the morning. Mrs. Gesquière then told them that her husband had picked up a sphere and a parachute, "Wednesday", therefore on October 5, 1954, in a field in Uxem.
[Ref. nnm1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEAU NORD MARITIME":
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We received Thursday afternoon from one of our readers, Mr. Maurice Gesquière, agricultural worker, domiciled in Les Moëres, a letter in which our correspondent informed us that he had picked up, in a field, a white parachute to which were attached their very light aluminum hemispheres.
This Friday morning, we learned that the gendarmes of Rosendaël, on a tour of Les Moëres, had just seized the mysterious object.
As Mr. Guesquière indicates, these are two aluminum half-spheres, which fit into one another to form a ball. The diameter of the latter is 32 centimeters. It is pierced with small holes through which pass the ropes of a parachute.
The sphere has marking in English ("bottom half", on one of the parts, "top half", on the other; which can be translated as "half at the the top" and "half at the bottom.") Another marking is painted, in black, on the deveice: "Armless not wanted."
The gendarmes could not identify the device. However, one fact intrigues them: the parachute attached to it does not seem to be the original one. The latter mus have been recovered and replaced by a piece of white canvas, roughly tied, actually.
This Friday afternoon, the gendarmes were to return to Les Moëres to interrogate Mr. Gesquières, whom they had been unable to touch in the morning. Mrs. Gesquière then told them that her husband had picked up a sphere and a parachute on Wednesday in a field in Uxem.
As the flying saucers swarm in the sky of France, the flying sphere of Les Moëres also poses its little enigma...
Everywhere, they are seen, everywhere they surprise, and the incredulous will decrease with regard to their apparitions...
Thus at the rolling metal mills of Beaufor, near La Fère (Aisne), some fifteen workers stopped their work for a quarter of an hour, in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, to watch several flying saucers pass by. The fact, recorded in the report of this important factory, is true, and it is very difficult to admit a collective hallucination of this magnitude...
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Les Moëres was then a French commune in the Nord department. It became, on January 1, 2016, a delegated commune of the new commune of Ghyvelde; wich is 3 kilometer in the Northeast of Uxem.
Obviously there is neither "landing", nor extraterrestrial craft.
On September 10, 1954, Marius Dewilde, according to his statements, had been confronted in front of his house to "little men" who boarded a craft which took off; the case was widely publicized.
Marius Dewilde had explained to the journalists who questioned him that in the night he could not see whether these "little men" had arms or not. When he sketched them, he sketched them without arms, and at least two of these sketches appeared in the press, including in the region. So journalists with little concern for precision then started writing about "armless Martians."
I think the inscription "Armless not wanted" painted on the thing is simply what explains the case. Someone must have found these two hemispheres, probably pieces of English or US war equipment, tied a piece of cloth to make a "parachute" - so there was no "original" parachute - and painted the inscription on it, "Armless not wanted."
The fact that the gendarmes seem to have some trouble finding Mr. Guesquière could even indicate that he was not just the discoverer of the object but also the "manufacturer" of the device.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Uxem, Les Moëres, Nord, Nord, Maurice Gesquière, spheres, aluminum, debris, crash, parachute, marking, writing, paint, prank, farce, landing, field, gendarmes
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | May 13, 2020 | First published. |
