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ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

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Case of Aubure, on July 29, 1947:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1947-07-29-AUBURE-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper L'Alsace for July 31, 1947, reported that on Tuesday, July 29, 1947 at 01:50 a.m. precisely, a luminous disc was seen at an altitude of about 1500 meters above Aubure, heading to the east, slower than a shooting star, but brighter and incredibly large.

A noise similar to that of a siren was then heard for half an hour.

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: July 29, 1947
Time: 01:50 a.m.
Duration: ?
First known report date: July 31, 1947
Reporting delay: 1 day.

Geographical data:

Department: Haut-Rhin
City: Aubure
Place: ?
Latitude: 48.197
Longitude: 7.221
Uncertainty radius: 2 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: ?
Number of known witnesses: ?
Number of named witnesses: 0
Witness(es) ages: ?
Witness(es) types: ?

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: Local Press?
Type of location: ?
Visibility conditions: Night
UFO observed: Yes
UFO arrival observed: ?
UFO departure observed: ?
Entities: No
Photographs: No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es): No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): No.
Witness(es) feelings: ?
Witnesses interpretation: ?

Classifications:

Hynek: NL
ALSACAT: Probable meteor.

Sources:

[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":

"Flying Saucers" in the sky of France?

Tuesday morning, July 29, 1947, at 1:50 precisely, a luminous disc appeared in our region, at an altitude of 1 500 m above Aubure and heading eastwards, slower than a shooting star but brighter and incredibly large. A noise similar to that of a siren was then heard for half an hour.

[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

The former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book about the history of UFO or flying saucers sightings in Alsace, from the beginnings to 1980.

In this book, he recounts that L'Alsace for Thursday, July 31, 1947, described a sighting that occurred on Tuesday morning, July 29, 1947 at 1:50 a.m.:

FLYING SAUCERSin the sky of France?

Tuesday morning, July 29, 1947, at 1:50 precisely, a luminous disc appeared in our region, at an altitude of 1 500 m above Aubure and heading eastwards, slower than a shooting star but brighter and incredibly large. A noise similar to that of a siren was then heard for half an hour.

Discussion:

Scan.

About Christian Valentin's book:

It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left) , ref. [cvn2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.

I think Alsatian ufologists and, generally, people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.

The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)

The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!

The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com

Map.

In July 1947, the "flying saucers" are something very new, known in the world press including the Press in Alsace by the echoes of the numerous observations in the United States.

We see that therefore there is no care to give details: no duration, speed, precise location, no information about the witness or witnesses.

If there were a mention of a trail, we would think very strongly that it was a meteor. In the absence of such a mention, it is also possible to think it was a meteor, but it is difficult to pronounce any sure explanation due to the lack of information. It can nevertheless be noted there is apparently no strangeness in the report.

The siren sound for half an hour might have been exactly that: a siren that started for some reason.

As noted in [cvn2], the observation can be related geographically and temporally to the sighting from the forest of Dambach.

Photo.

Localization of Aubure.

Photo.

Aubure and landscape.

Evaluation:

Probable meteor.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

File history:

Authoring:

Main author: Patrick Gross
Contributors: None
Reviewers: None
Editor: Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version: Create/changed by: Date: Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross April 5, 2014 Creation, [lae1], [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross April 5, 2014 First published.

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This page was last updated on April 5, 2014.