The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: Beg-Nov-54-Haillicourt.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
In its local edition of Béthune for November 14, 1954, the regional newspaper La Voix du Nord reported that men equipped with powerful torches who were going to "pick" pigeons at night in the church Notre-Dame in Haillicourt over the last few days, had thus caused gleams, which the rumor had called "mysterious", or perhaps, the newspaper is not clear on this matter, that the rumor was that a flying saucer had landed on the church.
[Ref. vdn1:] NEWSPAPER "LA VOIX DU NORD":
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The rumor spread these last days, that mysterious lights had been seen in the bell tower of the Notre-Dame church, during the evening. From there, to peddle the rumor that a flying saucer had landed on the church, there was only one step.
What was it really about? Not Martians, of course. Two residents of the locality had entered the bell tower and equipped with powerful electric flashlights, proceeded to the "Pick-up" of the pigeons inhabiting the tower.
They had no idea that on their descent that they were going to be picked up in their turn, by the mayor and the secretary general of the town hall. Low-cost pigeon enthusiasts, to say the least, show the most inconceivable recklessness!
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Negative case, rumour.
Misinterpretations of this kind really took place, but in this case the newspaper is on the verge of manipulation:
If they did not make up the story of men looking for pigeons with flashlight in the bell tower, then, that residents intrigued by the lights in the Bell tower would not be a rumour but a fact, an understandable reaction.
If the residents decided it was a flying saucer landing, we are either in the rumor or the misinterpretation. But the newspaper wrote:
"From there, to peddle the rumor that a flying saucer had landed on the church, there was only one step."
The newspaper does not say wether this step has been taken or if it is an entertaining fiction of their own.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Haillicourt, Pas-de-Calais, bell tower, steeple, lights, negatice case, pigeons, flashlight
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
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| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | October 17, 2021 | First published. |
