The 1954 French flap:

The Courier of the Somme

On the road from Ligescourt to Vron

Two young men say they saw a "flying saucer"

who took back the way of the sky 70 meters from them

On all sides the "saucers" and "cigars" continue to furrow the sky, People of good faith have seen them everywhere. The case becomes serious and the most skeptical of yesterday are now wondering if there is not something fishy.

And now, for the second time, a flying saucer appeared in the district of Abbeville. Two young people from Vron saw a flying saucer on the road.

The two young men had completed their work on Friday. It was 6:45 p.m. They were driving a bicycle on the paved road that leads from Ligescourt to Vron.

Suddenly, four kilometers from Ligescourt, Devoisin, traveling ahead, saw on the road, 150 meters away, a mass in the middle of the floor with on its left, something moving and he took it, at the time, for an animal.

Always pedaling, he thought of "flying saucers" and alerted his companion: "Look," he said, and he drove aside to free Condette's visual field.

Condette also saw, the saucer that flew away. Both were then about 70 meters from the amazing machine!

"I dreamed all night!"

That's what we have first learned from the two young men. Both are categorical. They did not seem to be pranksters or specialists in dirty tricks. Others have told us. We have seen this. And the two young men who were called on the construction site came to us cap in hand to tell us, barely recovered from their emotion of the day before: "Yes sir, it's true, we saw a saucer..."

In our business we see many men. We are used to hearing, understanding, judging. I swear I think these two young were not lying, or else, if there is no saucer, there is a supernatural phenomenon they are not the only victims of.

Devoisin who pedaled in front, saw a man.

- How was he, that man?

- I first thought it was a kid, then an animal... You see, when riding, without expecting it... One do not realize right away...

- He was tall, short, dressed like what?

- At a hundred meters, I realized it was a human being. You would have thought it was a diver and I think, without being able to say, because everything happened so quickly, it could have had a mask.

- A local guy who would not want to be recognized... But let's be serious... And what color were his clothes?

- I do not know... at the time, it made me feel funny... I did not see him for long because he bypassed his craft; which left immediately...

- You did not see if the door was open?

- No, because when we arrived, he went behind his "saucer"... All this happened in the time to ride barely a hundred meters by bike...

- And the saucer, how was it?

- In the form of a beehive, with a peaked roof ...

- Big?

Both say it could have been two meters high and it occupied nearly the width of the road. About three meters.

- What color was it, this saucer?

- Orange!

Both assert this...

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In Beauchamp, it's been reported that flying saucers were seen, moving like a red disc above the forest of Eu.

In addition, an industrial Vimeu, back from a hunting trip in the Pas-de-Calais, also saw an "orange disc", that he was able to follow it for some time over the wood of Auxi-le-Château.

---

Devoisin and Condette then agree that the "saucer" was shaped like a beehive, or a haystack.

- But how did it took off, this "beehive-saucer-haystack"?

- It fled without noise... It first turned like a spinning top... Then shot straight up... At a speed of 40-45 kilometers per hour...

- What direction?

- It went to a beets field - which are high at the time - headed for the wood of the "Logis Vert" between Vron and Vironchaux...

- It went quickly, says Condette. It went into the slums and Devoisin was immediately climbed on a pylon supporting electrical wires to see it better.

- Yes, says Devoisin, it shaved the beets horizontally, as if she was going to mow the greens, and then it disappeared into the woods without a sound... But... It's amazing...

- You were not afraid? Did you not fall from the pylon?

- No, but I had never seen that...

- Did you sleep well that night anyway?

Condette said "yes". But Devoisin says he had "dreamed". And his grandfather, to with whom he spends the night, found the next day his bed all over, the sheets all upside down.

Serious young people

We let the young people go to work. Not a single second, they gave the impression of a smile and, frankly, to make fun of the world.

We went to Vron. Following the same path as the two workers the day before. Needless to say, we found no trace of the saucer.

In the country of the two "witnesses to the saucer," we went to greet the sympathetic teacher to complement our investigation, he said "they could not be bluffers, the two young men he had had in his classroom were unable to engage in such fancies..."

A mechanic told us: "I saw them coming back ... They were as pale as linen..."

Curious, we answered back that they told us not having been afraid...

- Let them say that! Today! But at the time... Devoisin looked indescribable... He looked like he was going to have seizures...

In this investigation, we would not distort anything. And we also met the parents who live on the hillside leading to Abbeville.

- How were they, your children, when they came back?

Here we are told that one was "really upset" there, that the other sat down with nothing to say...

They were both pale and their story, perhaps implausible to some, had a real content for those who know them and who saw or heard them after they were back to Vron at full speed...

Anyway, the sky of the district of Abbeville - we said that yesterday to the Deputy Prefect - seems to enjoy a curious and phenomenal privilege...

Albert ENDERLIN

A kind of beehive
posed on the road,
near Abbeville,
and a disturbing
dwarf spacesuit

Two young people, Bernard Devoisin and René Condette, domiciled in Vron, working at the Enterprise Delpierre, had just left Friday around 6:45 p.m. a building site in Lugescourt [sic] and returned home by bicycle.

Four kilometers from Lugescourt, they saw about 150 meters in front of them, placed on the tarmac road, a mass of orange color in the shape of a hive, with a pointed roof, which could be two meters high and which held the entire width of the road, about three meters.

Devoisin, who pedaled head on, even saw something moving on the left. He took it from afar for an animal, but which seemed to be clothed in a diving suit. It happened very quickly, and we can understand that in their turmoil, the young people did not have time to realize.

In any case, at their approach, the mysterious being, small in size, disappeared from their sight by circumventing the saucer, which set off immediately about 70 meters from the cyclists.

The craft disappeared quickly, without noise, and the two witnesses returned upset "pale as sheets" a mechanic said. Add that these are serious young people, well regarded by all, and their teacher considers them incapable of bluffing.

Multicolored half-moon
in Armentières

The sky of the Armentières region has also been visited by a flying saucer.

The thing happened on Sunday between 9 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. A flying object, a sort of golden half-moon, marked in its center by a greenish bar, stopped above rue Fleury, at Chapelle-d'Armentières.

All the inhabitants observed at length "the thing". It was, moreover, one of them who, using binoculars, was able to specify its shape. Suddenly the saucer moved away, after gaining altitude, in the direction of the Pas-de-Calais.

Almost everywhere

Also, it is reported in Beauchamp that the saucers were seen as red disks moving above the forest of Eu and above the wood of Auxi-le-Château.

***

In addition, an industrialist from the Vimeu, returning from a hunting trip in the Pas-de-Calais, also saw, an orange disc that he was able to follow for a while.

***

Finally, on Saturday evening, two residents of Jeumont who remain anonymous but whose good faith cannot be doubted saw a bizarre saucer-shaped object above the city before climbing vertically and disappearing.