The 1954 French flap:

SAUCERS, DISCS, CIGARS...

A mustached Martian was walking
in the Vienne

If the round of "flying saucers" continues throughout France, we should not believe that our country is the only one to receive the visit of these craft. Now Cameroon, Lebanon, Germany, Egypt are entering their competition.

Mr. Roger Barrault, laborer in Lavoux (Vienne), riding a bicycle, was suddenly stopped by a double beam of light emanating from a sort of "diver" just 1.50 m high with boots without heels, very bright eyes and a strong mustache.

The diver strolled about a minute on the road, says Barrault, then suddenly disappeared into the nearby forest

Several people have, on the bridge of Saint-Laurent-les-Mâcon, seen, above the Saône a disc which disappeared after a short while. New think, this disc was not bright but dark.

In Tourrières [sic], 17 km from Angoulême, around thirty people saw a kind of cigar which remained motionless at about forty meters above national road number 10 for about twenty minutes. The craft, which had two fins, then decided to leave at a speed of around 150 to 300 km / hour.

Mrs. Lebert, guardian of the Pont Chapelle castle at La Ferté-Macé (Orne), observed a mysterious craft in the middle of the afternoon in the sky. This craft, which looked like a rocket, rose silently vertically, leaving behind a luminous white trail. It could be observed for several seconds and then disappeared quickly. A woman and children living in the local suburbs have also witnessed the phenomenon.

Mr. Christian Couette, son of a plumber from Tesse-la-Madeleine, was riding a bicycle in the direction of Ranes, when he was overtaken near the pond of Lande-Forêt in the commune of Beauvain by a luminous craft which, at high speed, grazed the treetops. The object, about four meters in diameter, had the shape of a ball of fire domed on the top. It could be observed for ten seconds.

While driving his car, Mr. Jean Bertrand, mechanic in Carcassonne, saw, flying at low altitude, a spherical craft of shiny metal, the upper part of which seemed to be made of plastic. He was able, he says, to easily distinguish two hum-

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The saucers

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an forms in this craft; which disappeared at a high speed in the East direction.

IN CAMEROON

Yaoundé, 11. -- Several trustworthy people claim to have witnessed one of these phenomena known as "flying saucers".

These are Colonel Cauvin, director of hygiene and prophylaxis services in Cameroon, Doctor Menu, chief doctor of the Yaoundé hospital, and Mssrs. Dumont, director of security services in Cameroon, Pouilleux, adviser to the territorial assembly of Cameroon, Moreau, administrator, deputy mayor of Yaoundé, and their wives.

All these people, gathered at the hospital’s chief doctor, were preparing to go to the cinema when they were intrigued by the attitude of the house dog who suddenly began to growl and bristle his hair. Thinking that strangers were prowling around his house, Doctor Menu went out and saw a bright object in the sky. He immediately called his guests who all then declared that they had seen, almost vertically above the plateau where the hospital is located, a huge disc, violently illuminated, motionless at an altitude of about 800 meters.

This "appearance" lasted 15 seconds. The craft was very exactly in the shape of a mushroom, whose diameter could not be precisely estimated by those present - under which a cylinder very slightly swayed whose length was equal to the diameter of the hat and also very bright.

Suddenly, the "saucer" took the direction of the East and its volume seemed to decrease visibly. Then it stopped for a few seconds before quickly gaining altitude and disappearing.

IN LEBANON

Beirut, 11. -- Mr. Max Favell, representative in Beirut of a German firm, claims to have seen at the seaside a motionless craft in the sky which emitted a whitish light.

Mr. Favell clarified that the craft which was a few meters from the ground landed for a few seconds, then took off vertically, spinning on itself, and soon disappeared into the sky. The witness did not notice any trace on the ground at the place of landing of the craft.

Following this statement, a journalist, Mr. Abdelkarim revealed that he had also seen the same day, but around 7 p.m., a kind of red ball moving in the sky and coming from the North. Mr. Abdelkarim, fearing that little credit would be given to his "vision", had not revealed it to anyone.

IN EGYPT

Alexandria, 11. -- Several hundred residents of Alexandria reported the presence in the sky of a luminous object which seemed to move from red to orange, then to green and blue gray. Officials from the meteorological service at the Alexandria airfield alerted the Helouan observatory, near Cairo, by telephone, asking that the phenomenon be photographed. However, it disappeared before the special telescope of the observatory could be readied.

The deputy director of the observatory, Mr. Azouz Ismaïl, told the press that it could be an aurora borealis. A magnetic storm had been observed for 48 hours; which would make the explanation likely.

IN GERMANY

Bonn, 11. -- A "flying saucer" was observed for about two minutes by 13 members of a gliding school above the airfield of Ockstadt, near Frankfurt.

The thirteen pilots and student pilots were watching the evolution of an instructor when they saw appearing above the glider in flight, at about 3.000 meters of atlitude, a "slightly swollen silver disc" which was moving without the slightest noise. The witnesses, including several former Luftwaffe aviators, are formal to declare that they cannot have been the victim of an optical illusion.

ECHOES

- The Martians are getting bolder. So far they were content to stroke the girls' chins and friendly pat the men they met.

Now they are taking the cows off the pastures!... This is the latest saucer story, the most beautiful to date. It happened in the Saône-et-Loire, from where a subscriber of L'Abeille writes to us: A few weeks ago, the residents of Mâcon saw a saucer following the course of the Saône river, apparently to count its bridges. As a result of some fever which made it admit as probable, a few days later, the story of another saucer which would have landed in the early morning, in the communal swamp of Saint-Laurent-les-Macon and stole two cows there... The gendarmerie investigation was formal. The two cows were in the meadow before the installation of the saucer, and they were undoubtedly not there after.

What the gendarmes reflected on. "A cow and two more would be very cumbersome for a journey of 79 million kilometers (distance from Earth to Mars) In addition, two cows are quite heavy ...

With such an overload, the saucer would have risked being unable to return, its fuel exhausted too soon.

The Martians therefore had to try to sell their loot before leaving."

The gendarmes therefore advised the farmers victims of theft, accordingly, the next fairs to see if they would recognize their cows on the market. And they themselves questionned the local butchers.

"Didn't Martians come to offer you two Charollais cows?"

A testimony that in the Beaujolais region, the gendarmes have as much humor as the cattle thieves.

About October 10 [, 1954]

? [=unknown hour]: St.Laurent-les-Mâcon (Saône-et-Loire):

[... other cases...]