ufo - UFOS at close sight: the 1954 French flap, December 9, Evaux les bains, Creuse

Reference for this case: 9-Dec-54-Evaux-les-Bains.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.

Summary:

Ufologist Raymond Veillith noted in the 1960s the statements of one Mr. Sauthon of Evaux-les-Bains in the Creuse, saying:

"In the night of Thursday 9 to Friday 10, December 1954, at about 10:45 p.m., while going outside in the Hotel's yard, I was first struck by a fast gleam passing in the sky and coming from the North-East and going towards the South-West. Immediately after this, a luminous ball of approximately 10 centimeters diameter resembling a large star with changing color, changing from an opaque white to a flaming red, was hovering in the sky for some 20 minutes; the latter being at an angle of 90°, and moving rather slowly towards the West. With an impression of getting closer to the ground - I repeat getting closer to the ground - for logically this phenomenon if disappearing in the distance should have decreased its surface; which was not the case. Cloudy sky [illegible] without any star, clearing at about 11:45 p.m."

In 1976, another version, without sources, appeared in the catalog for the Creuse department of the ufology magazine INFO-OVNI:

On December 9, 1954, from 10:40 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., in Evaux-les-Bains, many witnesses including Mr. Sauthon, Miss Lassauzais, Mr. Micart, Mr. Darrigade, saw a luminous ball, red flame colored changing to a pinkish white; which went like a shooting star from north-east to south-west, then came to a standstill above the water tower of "La Ville du Bois" in the town of Sannat, for about 20 minutes, seeming to swing from right to left at that time. It "disappeared" around 11:00 p.m., seeming to leave towards the horizon.

Reports:

OBSERVATION REPORT

Statement by Mr Sauthon in Evaux les Bains (Creuse)

1°) "In the night of Thursday 9 to Friday 10, December 1954, at about 10:45 p.m., while going outside in the Hotel's yard, I was first struck by a fast gleam passing in the sky and coming from the North-East and going towards the South-West. Immediately after this, a luminous ball of approximately 10 centimeters diameter resembling a large star with changing color, changing from an opaque white to a flaming red, was hovering in the sky for some 20 minutes; the latter being at an angle of 90°, and moving rather slowly towards the West. With an impression of getting closer to the ground - I repeat getting closer to the ground - for logically this phenomenon if disappearing in the distance should have decreased its surface; which was not the case. Cloudy sky [illegible] without any star, clearing at about 11:45 p.b."

2°) "In the night of Friday 10 to Saturday 11 same phenomenon; no perceptible noise; light appearing specific to the object, at a certain time a small cloud passed in front of it, but for a short duration, for it reappeared at once. Relatively clear sky, slightly cold temperature."

3°) "It appears that a person of Sannat, a village 10 kms of Evaux, returning to her home at about 05:15, coming from a wedding which had taken place in my Hotel, entrusted to the Mayor of Evaux that she saw on Sunday, December 12, 1954 at 05:15 two luminous discs one of which was of 40 centimeters and another smaller, the direction indicated would be appreciably the same one as the other days, i.e. the West. With regard to this case, I leave its whole responsibility to the Mayor for Evaux which reported it to me, not having seen this person myself there since."

Note: 1st case: 6 witnesses. 2nd case 5 witnesses
Communicated by Mr. R. Veillith "Les Pins"
LE CHAMBON SUR LIGNON (Haute Loire)

P.S. Investigated by myself.

December 9 [1954]

10:45 p.m.: Evaux-les-Bains (Creuse)

033 ../12/09/1954, 10:40 p.m.- 11 to.00 p.m. - EVAUX-les-BAINS

Numerous witnesses (Mr. SAUTHQN, Miss LASSAUZAIS, Mr. MICART, Mr. DARRIGADE etc..)

Luminous ball, of a red flame color passing to a pinkish-white, went like a shooting star NE-SW, then stopped appreciably above the water tower of "La Ville du Bois" (Cne SANNAT) about twenty minutes. It then seemed to swing from right to left. Around 11.00 p.m. it disappeared, seeming to leave towards the horizon.

On the occasion of an investigation into a 1976 case in the Creuse, this ufologist indicates that the last observation in the Creuse reported by the Press was that of Evaux-les-Bains on December 9, 1954.

The website indicates that on 9 December 1954 at 22:45 in "Evaux.Bains, France", "Hovered." And: "A hovering object was observed. One object was observed by several witnesses for over 25 minutes."

Explanations:

Case Nr.	Date of observation	Place of observation	Country of observation	Hour of observation	Classification
19541209	09.12.1954	Charenton	France		NL
19541209	09.12.1954	Evaux Bains	France	22.45	NL
19541209	09.12.1954	Evaux Bains	France	22.45	NL

Raymond Veillith (1920-2009) was the founder of the French UFO journal Lumières Dans La Nuit.

The document that I give here, of which I have the original, followed a path that says something about the difficulty of preserving ufologists' files.

In the 2000s, there was a discussion on an English Ufology mailing list, "UFOupdates", about a case in Latin America. The well-known ufologist Richard H. Hall then said he had newspapers clippings of the time on this matter; which were held by Major Donald Keyhoe, who had long been the Director of NICAP; Richard Hall also was a prominent member of NICAP.

Richard's problem was that these clippings were in Portuguese, and no one had been able to translate it so far. He then asked if anyone was willing to translate them into English. I volunteered, and Richard Hall did not just send me these clippings, but a big packet of UFO documents of all kinds, all in languages other than English.

Like many ufologists, Raymond Veillith had corresponded extensively with Donald Keyhoe, sending him by mail information on sightings in France. The paper is a carbon copy, made by Raymond Veillith on his typewriter, and in the United States, it had slept for fifty years in the NICAP archive pending a translator that I thus became...

Shortly after the sending beautiful post to me, Richard Hall, to my great sorrow, died...

I do not know exactly what Mr. Sauthon saw. If I take his report as a standalone report, it seems that there was first a moving light that could have been a meteor, then a slowly descending light that could have been a star or a planet.

Is the 90° angle an elevation or a direction? Since the thing would have descended, there is little chance that it was at the same time at the zenith and towards the West, 90° would then be a direction. But it is the East... where Jupiter was at 25° of elevation.

Towards the West, there was Mars, at 248° and 5° of elevation, and visually "descending to the ground" in a duration compatible with the reported 20 minutes.

The INFO-OVNI ([ioi1]) version does not really help since it groups in a narrative this observation and that from Sannat.

In short, there were enough things in the sky to explain an astronomical misinterpretation but the report is not clear enough for me.

In the INFO-OVNI version, the difference is that the fast ball and the stationary ball are the same object; therefore it would not be an astronomical misinterpretation. But is this reliable?

We still have a direction: Sannat is 225° (South-West) at 8 kilometers from Evaux-les-Bains. Even better, I spotted a water tower at 243° at 1 kilometer from the center of Evaux-les-Bains.

Version:	Created/Changed by:	Date:	Change Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	December 14, 2003	First published.
1.0	Patrick Gross	December 19, 2009	Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Additions [uda1].
1.1	Patrick Gross	November 2, 2016	Addition [ubk1].
1.2	Patrick Gross	June 15, 2019	Additions [ioi1], Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet."
1.3	Patrick Gross	August 25, 2019	Addition [cat1],
1.4	Patrick Gross	December 2, 2021	Addition [gqy1].

The 1954 French flap:

December 9, 1954, Evaux-les-Bains, Creuse:

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