The 1954 French flap:

NEW MYSTERY
in the Picardy sky?

Residents of the Péronne region reportedly saw on the ground, yesterday evening, a flying saucer between Estrées-Deniécourt and Foucaucourt-en-Santerre. Like the smoke of powder, the rumor ran yesterday evening in several neighboring municipalities, of the district of Péronne, that a flying saucer would have been seen in the evening, by inhabitants near the wood of Foucaucourt-en-Santerre.

How much credit should be given to these new claims?

At the time when the news reached us, it was not possible for us to carry out an investigation, even a fast one, to hear some of the witnesses of this new and strange appearance.

Be as it may, the skepticism that could arise from the statements of the two workers of Acheux-en-Amiénois may be mitigated by the fact that this time, those who could give a more detailed description of the curious object could be numerous.

Before further information, we are reluctant to insist too much on this new "mystery".

[Photo caption:] Here are the two residents of Acheux-en-Amiénois who, Tuesday morning, saw, between Harponville and Contay, the flying saucer we talked about yesterday. We recognize, on the left, Mr. RENARD and, on the right, Mr. de GILLABOZ.

"200 m. away
from us: a
flying saucer"

... but "the thing"
disappeared when
the two men
approached it

LILLE, Sep 9. (Part. Dept.)

A flying saucer reportedly landed Tuesday morning in the vicinity of Amiens, between Harponville and Contay. This is what two masons from Acheux-en-Amiénois claim, Mr. Emile Renard, 27, and his worker Yves de Gillaboz, 23.

"The craft, gray in color, was two hundred meters from us," they said. It looked like an unfinished haystack, the rounded top of which was like an upturned plate. It might have been ten meters long in diameter.

Mr. Renard was the first to run towards the "saucer", but it did not wait for him.

"I suddenly saw the craft rise silently as smoke escaped from a nozzle at its bottom. The craft went diagonally, then vertically and quickly disappeared.

Questioned separately by the gendarmes, the two men told exactly the same story and gave the same details, but on the spot one could not locate any trace of the "saucer."

However, many inhabitants of the district of Péronne reported that they had seen the craft above the wood of Foucaucourt-en-Santerre.

"Flying saucers" in the Picardy sky?

The investigation opened at Estrées-Deniécourt hits the "law of silence"

As we reported yesterday, the charming town of Estrées-Deniécourt, following "trustworthy statements", according to the usual expression, was in a stir on Wednesday evening because, it seems, a crowd of people had noticed, in a wood, on the way to Soyécourt, between the localities of Estrées-Deniécourt and Foucausourt-en-Santerre, the presence of a flying saucer.

Undercover first, publicly then, the claims of one and another had quickly spread, even to the town of Aubervillers where a local resident, agricultural worker at the briquetterie in Villers-Carbonnel had "pushed the audacity" up to touching the curious object.

The official investigation provoked by public rumor first, and our article next, seems to have temporarily paralyzed the tongues of most of the "privileged" who approached "the strange luminous body".

Indeed, including a team of Amiens electricians, working near the "landing area", all eyewitnesses to the strange phenomenon have kept of the Martian object only a very fleeting vision and are unable to give, for lack of dimensions, even approximate, a very vague idea of this "ghost aerial ship".

All this is really not serious and we must deplore the ease with which the facetious and... the convinced are making he general public accept probably imaginary arguments that they embellish and still argue more for the needs of the cause.

Of course, you do not have to have seen a flying saucer to believe in flying saucers. Just as it is not necessary to have seen New York to believe in the existence of America. But come on...

Will the slightest meteor be renamed? Will the smallest sounding balloon be transformed in people's minds? Can we also imagine that this psychosis of flying saucers which currently exists, will soon cause clouds of crows to be taken for these strange celestial bodies? [*]

Let's keep our feet on the ground and avoid "harassing" journalists, even by phone, when they don't take it seriously.

NEW MYSTERY IN THE PICARDY SKY

We read this morning, in the "Courrier Picard":

Residents of the Péronne region allegedly saw, on the ground, yesterday evening, a flying saucer between Estrées-Deniécourt and Foucaucourt-en-Santerre. Like a powder rocket, it was rumored last night in several neighboring municipalities of the Péronne district that a flying saucer would have been seen in the evening, by residents near the wood of Foucaucourt-en-Santerre.

How much credit should be given to these new claims?

At the time when the news reached us, it was not possible for us to carry out even a quick investigation to hear some of the witnesses of this new and strange appearance.

Be that as it may, the skepticism that could have arisen from the statements of the two workers of Acheux-en-Amiénois will be maybe be mitigated by the fact that this time, those who could give a more detailed description of the curious object would be quite numerous.

Before further information, we would be remiss to insist too much on this new "mystery".

A farmer from the Corrèze:

"I kissed a helmeted Martian who was coming down from a flying cigar"

USSEL, September 14. If an Amiens resident "saw" the passengers of a flying saucer, a farmer of Bugeat (Corrèze) "chatted" with the pilot of a "flying cigar".

Mr. Antoine Mazaud says that Friday evening when he came home from work, he met an unknown man wearing a helmet on a path. This character spoke to him in unintelligible language after having friendly shaken his hand and giving him a hug... The stranger then climbed into a cigar-shaped craft, three to four meters long which, taking off vertically, set off towards the west, without making more noise than a bee.

- The machine was not lit, said Mr. Mazaud.

The "Martian", according to him, was of normal size.

The farmer, he said, only told the story to his wife. But she told a neighbor who repeated it to the village merchants. "And that's how the whole country found out." The lieutenant of the gendarmerie questioned the farmer and then went to the place to look for traces of the saucer... or the cigar.

He couldn't find anything. But the adventure of Mr. Mazaud singularly recalls that of the two Canadian women who about a month ago made conversation with an amiable Martian who left them after ten minutes to fly aboard his saucer. One learned three days later that the saucer was an American helicopter whose pilot had wanted to have fun at the expense of the two walkers.

However, one wonders if this flap of saucers across France is not a collective hallucination.

Flying
saucers
and jokers...

Amiens, September 16. -- The flying saucer of Estrées-Deniécourt, near Amiens, was only a joke of some electricians of a company of the city who admitted to wanting to have fun at the expense of the press and the gendarmerie.

Minutes were drawn up for contempt of court and a report was sent to the public prosecutor of Amiens.

Echoing the news

"Flying saucers" in St-Phocas

No, of course, we are not going to "do that again" with the "flying saucers".

However, we must agree that this regional "affair" of celestial apparitions on the land of the district of Péronne, was only a vast scam to reality, but that, nevertheless, it left serious doubts in the minds of some people.

Thus, Tuesday evening, at the Flemicourt ball, a charming lady asked us most seriously in the world:

"You don't hide the truth in your newspaper?"

***

Since Sunday evening, the Peronne agglomeration has had its giant in the person of Phocas, patron of gardeners. This is thanks to the dedication of the members of the Santerre Bicycle-Club Committee, their lovely wives and, also, a host of friends who greatly contributed to this resurrection.

We suggested that Phocas illustrates each of the important regional events. So, we will think, perhaps, to present it in public at the next fair of Saint-Michel.

The traditional St-Michel fair promises to be even brighter than its predecessors, but despite the importance of the funfair, the Municipality is looking to set up an attraction likely to make the curious come.

It is too early to reveal this project, but we will probably be fixed in a few days.

***

A NOISY SAUCER
SEEN BY
TWO HUNTERS
IN ITALY

GROSSETO. -- Two hunters, MM. Becherini and Fromiconi, both residents of Pitigliano, near Grosseto, told to the police last Tuesday that they saw, in a cloudless sky, "a round, white object that flew with a strange noise."

The two fighters were near Cadtelfranco when they heard "a strange and very violent noise, different from that of classic plane engines and jet planes emgines."

It looked like thunder when it rumbles at high altitude, they added, but the sky was cloudless.

"Several minutes later we saw a round, white object moving very slowly on a perfectly horizontal line. It stopped suddenly for a few seconds, then disappeared in the opposite direction from where it came from. Shortly after, the object reappeared, slowly moved in a semicircle, stopped again, then disappeared at high speed. This time, definitively."

A.C.P.

A "flying pot"
in Abbeville

In Abbeville, Mrs. widow Bonnard, 73, said she saw an illuminated "flying pot" that glided noiselessly toward the sea. She vigorously denies having been hallucinated.

Pranksters will be punished

The flying saucer of Estrées-Deniecourt, near Amiens, was just a joke from some electricians of a company of the city who admitted that they wanted to have fun at the expense of the press and the gendarmerie.

A fine was written up for contempts of court and a report was sent to the Public Prosecutor of Amiens.

The flying saucer
of Estrées-Deniecourt
was only a joke

The flying saucer of Estrées-Deniecourt, near Amiens, was just a joke by a few electricians from a city company who admitted that they wanted to have fun at the expense of the press and gendarmerie.

Minutes were drawn up for contempt of court and a report was sent to the Public Prosecutor of Amiens.

Cookware
in the sky

AFTER
THE SAUCERS...
THE BASINS

Abbeville is getting up to date. A gap is filled: the city has its saucer or rather its flying basin.

A respectable 79-year-old widow declares indeed, having seen, one of these last nights, in the sky of Ponthieu, "a flying machine, in the shape of a basin, lit from everywhere, sliding without the sound of an engine between the suburbs of la Portelette and that of Rouvroy, that is to say towards the sea."

The witness particularly emphasizes the majestic beauty of the illuminated object and vigorously denies having been the victim of an hallucination.

We want to believe in her basin, but we are very afraid that all these stories will someday end up "basinating" [=bore] our readers.

***

Besides, two young electricians from Amiens who, on September 8, stirred the village of Estrées-Deniécourt, claiming having seen a flying saucer land near the National Road, have just admitted that it was only a pleasant joke.

They may pay a lot for their hoax. Because the gendarmes let themselves be fooled. After all, since it is a saucer, nothing more normal that they pay the bill.

THE FYLING SAUCER
OF ESTREES-DENIECOURT

On September 8, the village of Estrèes-Deniècourt was in turmoil: several electricians from company of Amiens assured that a saucer had landed near a wood, 600 meters from the road Paris - Saint-Quentin.

Most of the inhabitants wisely stayed at home. The boldest and most curious went to the place indicated; the gendarmerie itself was alerted, and did not notice any trace of the famous saucer, but noticed inconsistencies in the assertions of the electricians.

Finally, one of them admitted:

- All this is not true: there was no flying saucer at Estrèes-Deniècourt. We invented this story to fool the population, but we did not think that the case would be so important.

It was then established that it was Serge Grimbert, 20, 43, rue Rembault, Amiens, who had launched the "hoax": he recognized it willingly. With him passed confessions his comrades Christian Coulevern, 24 years old, living 29, rue de Job, in Amiens, Roland Gourguechon, 22 years old, 31, rue Bazin, in Doullens and René Cléret, 20 years old, 40, rue de l'Abreuvoir, in Albert.

In such circumstances, the gendarmes thought it necessary to write up a report which was sent to the prosecutor of the Republic office of Amiens. Will the magistrates decide to prosecute the young people who "fooled everyone"? We will know it soon. But one fact is certain: no flying saucer landed in Estrèes-Deniècourt, but even an imaginary saucer can cost a lot.

AMIENS

Falying saucers
and jokers

The flying saucer of Estrées-Deniécourt, near Amiens, was just a joke by a few electricians from a company in the city who admitted that they wanted to have fun at the expense of the press and gendarmerie.

A fine ticket had been written up for contempt of court and a report has been forwarded to the Public Prosecutor of Amiens.

FLYING SAUCERS
AND JOKERS

Amiens, 17. - The flying saucer at Estrées-Deniécourt, near Amiens, was just a joke by a few electricians from a company in the city who admitted that they wanted to have fun at the expense of the press and the gendarmerie.

Minutes were written up for contempt of court and a report was sent to the public prosecutor of Amiens.

Saucers...
and
pranks

This was to be expected. The flying saucer affair was to be joked about. Some with a slightly inappropriate taste. Thursday, late in the evening, an alleged Mr. Leroy, from Bois-Grenier, informed us by phone that a flying saucer had landed in the Dufour meadow. He said he had notified the gendarmerie. In his naive candor, this volunteer correspondent believed that immediately we were going to jump on the spot. Perhaps he waited for us behind the hedge of the meadow to mock our disappointment. But he just spent his telephone costs for nothing. A phone call to the gendarmerie, whose PR agent didn't seem to be happy with the inconvenience, revealed the deception.

A similar story happened near Amiens:

The flying saucer of Estrées-Deniécourt was, in fact, only a joke of some electricians from a company who admitted that they wanted to have fun at the expense of the press and the gendarmerie.

A formal report was type for contempt of court and a report was sent to the public prosecutor of Amiens.

Another saucer...
... which was only a Hoaks

Saucer here, cigar there, flying pot elsewhere: the comedy continues.

Every day brings new and ever more fantastic appearances.

The craft coming from Mars, Venus, Saturn..., or the nearest weather station take every day every conceivable shape: round, oval, oblong, cubic, pyramidal, conical, rectangular, triangular, hexagonal... one looks like a saucer, the other like a pot; the latest one looks like a bowl.

If this goes on, the whole range of household utensils will pass by.

In our region, the latest saucer - basin was seen in Abbeville by an old lady of 79 years old (the age when the one can distinguish, in the darkest night, the shape and contours of the smallest object!)

The problem is that each new appearance corresponds to a new admission by the "visionaries."

So, yesterday, two young electricians from Amiens confessed that the saucer they had seen... it was only a hoax.

Of course, you shouldn't be joking with such... serious things. But finally, when they declare that they wanted to box the police and certain journalists, one cannot help but think of the special envoy of "Nord-Eclair" and the "Sherlock Holmes" of the police of the air which, in Quarouble, methodically noted the traces of claws, on the railway sleepers, and meticulously measured the interval between two traces in order to be well convinced that it is not a wild cat!

Alert in the Somme

The "flying saucer" was only a duck and the pranksters who put the village in agitation will be prosecuted

Amiens, September 17. -- On last September 8, the village of Estrées-Deniecourt (Somme) was in agitation. While returning from work, several workmen electricians employed in Amiens, had declared that they had just seen a flying saucer land at the edge of the wood, with a few sixty meters of the main road.

And they gave many technical details about the apparatus, and specified that many motorists had stopped to admire it.

"Come with us, they said to the villagers, you'll see if it ain't true."

But the majority of their compatriots, seized with panic, preferred to hide on their premises. There were only few brave men who risked themselves on the spot. There, there was no more saucer than there are icebergs in Senegal. Then the "witnesses" said that the metallic bird had flown away.

The gendarmes were alerted, and noted more than one inconsistency in the lies of the electricians. Subjected to a tight interrogation, the latter had to admit that they had entirely invented the story.

They did not think that the affair could take such an importance and regretted having launched such a tall story.

They regret it more especially as today, the gendarmes have just established a verbal lawsuit, which was transmitted to the court of Amiens and which is drawn up against Serge Grimbert, 20 years old, of Amiens who is the instigator of the tall story, and his comrades, Christian Coulevara, 24 years old, of Amiens, Roland Gourguechon, 22 years old, of Doublens and Rene Cleret, 20 years old, of Albert.

Did A FLYING SAUCER

land in Quarouble?

A resident of Quarouble, Mr. Marius Dewilde, told the police in Onnaing that he saw a flying saucer the other night land near his home. It was around 10:30 p.m. when his dog began to bark abnormally. Believing in a robbery in his barnyard, Mr. Dewilde went out and saw, less than six meters away, a craft which was hurriedly reinstated by two men, one meter tall, wearing glass helmets. Mr. Dewilde saw them in the beam of his electric flashlight and was even dazzled, he said, by the reflections reflected by the glass heads of the pilots of the saucer. The air police carried out their investigation which made it possible to find traces on one of the sleepers of the railway line near which Mr. Dewilde made his strange discovery...

The flying saucer
d'Estrées-Deniécourt
was just a joke

The flying saucer of Estrées-Deniécourt, near Amiens, was only a joke of a few electricians of a company of the city who admitted that they wanted to have fun at the expense of the press and the gendarmerie.

Minutes were drawn up for contempt of court and a report was sent to the Public Prosecutor in Amiens.

A wave of strange "objects" is sweeping France

Dark-lovers Martians lovers play pass walls

But all those who have seen "saucers" are not dreamers

A plague of "flying saucers" and other mysterious craft is sweeping Europe, and the number of recorded testimony shows that France appears to be particularly targeted. There is no day, since weeks, where many of these events are reported from the Vendée, the Moselle and the Quiévrain to the Bidassoa.

In the Limousin, in particular, where a farmer was embraced on September 10, by a stranger; although he was peaceful, terror took hold, especially in the area of Roches (Creuse), where children no longer dare to go to school alone and where shepherdesses no longer want to keep their flocks since a dark shadow was reported hiding in the brushes. There is concern that the friendly Martian re-embarked leaving on the earth one of his companions.

In Diges (Yonne), two women saw each in her turn, a cigar land in a meadow and its pilot was leaning, perhaps on its engine. The "being" was of normal size, dressed in khaki and wearing a cap, but they were so scared that by the same reflex, they fled and locked themselves in.

Malenkov and Eisenhower shaking hands around a "saucer"

A pseudo-writer, on the contrary, delighted that these fantastic creatures come to join his philosophical ramblings, assimilates the "anti-saucerists" to troublemakers and warmongers. He writes without smiling: "These cigars and saucers could well make all of us agree. Perhaps this is why some people do not want to hear about it. Think about it! Eisenhower and Malenkov shaking hands around a saucer! What an idea!"

What to think of this new fever? Should we follow in their disdainful disapproval those who believe without verification, it is all hallucinations - sometimes collective - or should we believe with the others these are real craft originating from the human genius or more romantically coming from another world?

No doubt it is better to examine things more closely. The case now takes a too serious turn for trafficking in nonsense or admit all the news. It is time to grasp the problem and reason healthily on the sum of elements accumulated since more than seven years.

The first victim...

For it is on June 24, 1947, that the first "saucers" were reported in the manner described thousands of times since.

It was an American businessman, Kenneth Arnold, who saw that day "nine luminous discs flying in formation at high altitude" when he had taken off from Chehalis (Washington) on a personal plane. He could see that these "craft" were "flat like frying pans or saucers" before their disappearance and, if the case made little noise, the term "flying saucers" (soucoupe volante) was already launched.

It took six months before a new apparition was reported again in America, but this one was to end in tragedy, beginning to worry the public opinion. On January 7, 1948, the police in Fort Knox (Kentucky) warns the military at the Godman Airfield that "a huge fiery object, surrounded by a reddish glow" was flying in their direction. Three reservists fighter pilots were in flight, precisely at that time, on "Mustangs" propeller planes, and the tower alerted the control. Captain Mantell, leader of the squadron, immediately saw the "object" and putting gas on dove after it although his two comrades and himself had left for a flight at low altitude and were deprived of oxygen masks. The two crew members did not exceed 4,000 meters. Only Mantell went up to almost 7,000 meters before telling on the radio, breathless:

- It's frightening...

These words were the last and no one ever knew what they meant. The plane broke up in flight and the body of the unfortunate pilot was found horribly disjointed. The first reaction of Mantell's friends was naturally to think that he had been "downed" by the mysterious craft. His exclamation seemed to indicate that what he saw was awful and that monsters had fired at him.

This is the first victim - the first "martyr" - who tragically marked the true arrival of the "saucers" on earth.

An investigation commission was appointed, but its work was long and hard at a time when the high-speed compressibility phenomena were still unclear. When it put out its report on the accident, it finally explained that the pilot had climbed too high, probably in the pursuit of an atmospheric phenomenon. Deprived of oxygen, he had probably exclaimed that he was losing consciousness. The aircraft, abandoned to itself, had probably dislocated by diving at nearly the speed of the "wall of sound".

But psychosis was already on his way. What can the fairly conservative assumptions of technicians do against the taste of wonderful and the supernatural?

...and the first "hoax"

It is in any case strange to see that the appearances of "flying saucers" multiplied at once in America where 1,192 cases were reported, in waves, from 1947 to 1952. And it is no less surprising to see that, little by little parallel waves manifested themselves in France three to five weeks behind those recorded in the U.S.A.

Of course, the "pro-saucerists" interpret this pattern to their advantage: - We are part of the same humanity that the Americans and the "saucers" have no reason to despise us when visiting Earth. Their pilots wherever they come from can be as much interested in France and in the United States and if we see less it is because our territory is seventeen times smaller than that of the U.S.A.

It is certainly flattering to our national pride. But more Cartesian than sentimental "anti-saucerists", are concerned with this regular shift:

Just long enough to newspapers to inform you of the virus, they reply. After the Mantell crash anyway America was so gripped by the fear of the saucers deadly saucers that it accepted all the fables.

The most sensational story was published by one Franck Scully of Denver, who told in a weekkly magazine, then in a book, how a circular machine, that came from another planet, crashed in the United States, described the autopsy by a famous practitioner of sixteen little creatures found on board and stated that metal debris from the machine, heated to 10,000 degrees, had not melted. The finally palpable "saucer" and these little men in blue linen clothes made such a noise that an investigation commission - again - joined in. Frank Scully, interrogated, had to admit the "hoax". His piece of metal melted at 637 degrees and the case ended with two convictions for fraud.

But once again, the explanation came too late. The book beautifully sold and the author won a lot of dollars.

1953 has not been a hot year for "saucers".

In France, the first known "saucer" was reported in Antibes, in August 1949, but the following came in waves, parallel, we repeat, to those in the US. There is a fever in 1950, two in 1951 and one particularly important in 1952. That year, there were eleven appearances in May, six in June, six in July, two in August and two in September, eight finally in October.

This is precisely the time when America also see many "flying objects" and made us know its anxiety. We will see how calm then returned across the Atlantic. Here, 1953 was also quiet. The saucers disappeared from our skies until last August where a new wave started discreetly in Norway with the meeting of a helicopter by two young people who were picking blueberries.

This time Europe had exclusivity. The wave grows slowly, recalling the Loch Ness [Monster] who in the past returned in the heart of summer to fill the gaps in the news. But the Scottish snake was a prisoner of the lake while the "saucers" do not recognize borders nor countries nor the dreams and the real facts are now mingled with the disorder.

Awake hallucinations

We must reject from the first five recent stories - the most sensational alas! - just too unreliable.

In Vernon, the young witness has a strong imagination well known in the region.

In Quarouble, near Valenciennes, the gatekeeper who saw "little people" was a victim, one year ago, of a head injury and is subject, since then, to nervous disorders. Prints appear on the wood of the railway track, but may give rise to infinite interpretations.

Near Amiens, four pranksters had to admit they had wanted to make fun of their friends. In Bugeat (Corrèze), Mr. Mazaud has probably been embraced by someone but the air police firstly believes in a light aircraft that came in this deserted place at dusk, for a rendez-vous with a smuggler.

In Craintilleux finally, near St-Etienne, the giant, Hitler lookalike, double-faced (one grimacing at the front and the other, jovial, at the back) climbed in his saucer without opening the door, in the manner of wall-crossing ghosts, really seems too childishly wonderful. Witnesses, actors and writers have probably the romantic spirit that suits this kind of occurrence. And the Martian they thought they saw will at least have the advantage of providing them something for a play or a novel.

Medicine knows about these awaken hallucinations which can be experienced by completely normal people. Who did not see in the dark shadows move where there was nothing? It should be noted in this connection that virtually all reported landings of "saucers" took place at night and no one has yet seen Martians having a shape significantly different from ours in daylight.

Should we conclude that all recorded reports are the work of unbridled imaginations?

Certainly not.

Kenneth Arnold and Mantell were not dreamers. Most French witnesses aren' either.

September 7 [1954]

07:16 a.m.: Foucaucourt-en-Santerre (Somme): 1 disc.

During this same day, October 7, when the people who knew about the sighting numbered less than 10 persons, numerous inhabitants of the district of Peronne in several villages scattered over a radius of 30 kilometers, reported that they had seen an object flying over the woods of Foucaucourt-en-Santerre. The description they gave matched exactly that of the two masons and corresponded as to time, details, dimension, and color.

The investigation which followed was never conducted on a higher level than that of the police and nothing whatsoever came of it.

We have a choice between the following interpretations:

1. That the thing was a hoax. However, this conclusion presupposes the participation of several villages located at some distance from each other, and the participation of many persons who did not know each other. It presupposes also the participation of the police of each of these villages because anyone who has lived in the French countryside realizes that the policeman knows everyone, plays cards in the local cafe and consequently hears all the gossip. Over and above the presumption of the cooperation of the police in one village with the persons of that village it would have been necessary for the police of the various villages to cooperate with each other. I don't know what the likelihood of such an hypothesis would be in America; in France there is none.

2. Let us take note that the description of this phenomenon resembles very much that of the famous affair of Marignane, on October 26, 1952, almost exactly two years before. Therefore, one possibility is that the two masons and the other persons involved saw exactly what they said they saw.

3. Collective hallucination is a remote possibility. The least we could say of such an hypothesis is that it would be a very fine case in point, twice as impressive because of the telepathic thought transmission required, since so many different persons in so many different places thought they saw the same thing.

A rather interesting event is described by Aime Michel, although briefly, concerning an object reported flying over a wooded area in the Peronne district called Foucaucourt-en-Santerre. People living in an area covering some 30 kilometers got a glimpse of the UFO, various witnesses reporting the same details as to time and size. Michel was struck by the fact the UFO, a cigar-like body, resembled the thing reported at Marignane, France, back on October 26, 1952. 70.

• 70. Michel, Aime. "Flying Saucers in Europe, Saucers -- or Delusions?" Fate. January 1958. Vol.11, No.I. #94. pp.33-34.

September 8 1954. Evening.

ESTREES-DENIECOURT (SOMME : FRANCE)

A group of electricians returning home from work saw an unidentified object land on the edge of the woods a hundred or so metres from the highway. A number of motorists stopped to observe it.

Patrick Gross citing Var Matin Republique 18 September 1954.

Evaluation - The alleged witnesses confessed that the story was a hoax, and were prosecuted.

NEW MYSTERY
in the sky of Picardie?

The inhabitants of the Péronne area have seen on the ground, in the evening of yesterday, a flying saucer between Estrées-Deniécourt and Foucancourt-en-Santerre. Like a smoke of gunpowder, the noise ran last night in several neighboring communes, the district of Peronne, a flying saucer would have been seen in the evening, by residents near the wood Foucancourt-en-Santerre.

How much credit is to be given to these new claims?

"Flying saucers in the sky of Picardie?
The investigation opened in Estrées-Deniécourt
hits the "wall of silence"

As we told yesterday, the charming town of Estrées-Deniècourt, following "statements worthy of faith", as the saying goes, was in turmoil, the evening of Wednesday because, it seems, a crowd of people had noticed, in a wood, on the way of Soyécourt, between the localities of Estrées-Deniècourt and Foucancourt-in-Santerre, the presence of a flying saucer.

Under the cloak first, then publicly, the assertions of the ones and the others had spread rapidly, even in the town of Assevillers, where a resident of the place, farm worker at the brickyard of Villers-Carbonnel had "pushed the audacity" to touch the curious craft.

The official inquiry provoked by the public rumor first and our article afterwards seems to have momentarily paralyzed the language of the "privileged" who approached "the strange luminous body".

Indeed, including a team of electrical workers of Amiens, working near the "landing area", all the eyewitnesses to the strange phenomenon have kept of the Martian machine only a very fugitive vision and are unable to give, in default of dimensions, even approximate, a very vague idea of ??this "ghost" craft.