ALSACAT-1947-08-19-SELESTAT-1
The regional newspaper Le Nouveau Rhin Français for August 30, 1947, had reported "a celestial observation" of August 19, 1947.
A friend of the newspaper had told them that as he was on Kestenholz Street in Colmar, at about 8 p.m. at dusk, he suddenly saw in the direction of the Illwald and the Ried a bright yellow object moving from north to south.
The light changed from yellow to bright green and suddenly transformed into "a kind of ball of red fire which flashed brief sparks."
The observation had lasted about 4 seconds.
The newspaper wondered what was "this object moving at such speed? A rocket, a missile? One of those famous 'flying saucers'?..."
| Date: | August 19, 1947 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ~08:00 p.m. |
| Duration: | ~4 seconds. |
| First known report date: | August 30, 1947 |
| Reporting delay: | 10 days. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Sélestat |
| Place: | |
| Latitude: | 48.264 |
| Longitude: | 7.435 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 500 m |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | ? |
| Witness(es) types: | A friend of the newspaper. |
| Reporting channel: | Regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | ? |
| Visibility conditions: | Night |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Hynek: | DD |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | The August 19, 1947, ~08:10 p.m. meteor. |
[Ref. nrf1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEAU RHIN FRANCAIS":
A friend of our newspaper told us the following observation made on Tuesday eight days ago. While he was in Kestenholz street around 8 a.m. at dusk, he suddenly saw in the direction of the Illwald and the Ried a bright yellow object moving from north to south. From the yellow the light changed to a bright green and suddenly turned into a kind of red fireball from which sprang brief sparks. The sighting lasted about 4 seconds. What was this object moving so fast? A rocket, a missile? One of those famous "flying saucers"?...
We reported at the time of the occurrence that the phenomenon was also observed from Colmar.
[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:
Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book telling the story of UFO sightings, flying saucers sightings, in Alsace, from the beginning to 1980.
In this book, he reports that Le Nouveau Rhin Français for August 30, 1947, Colmar issue, published this article, one of three related to the observation on August 19, 1947:
A friend of our newspaper told us the following observation made on Tuesday eight days ago. While he was in Kestenholz street around 8 a.m. at dusk, he suddenly saw in the direction of the Illwald and the Ried a bright yellow object moving from north to south. From the yellow the light changed to a bright green and suddenly turned into a kind of red fireball from which sprang brief sparks. The sighting lasted about 4 seconds. What was this object moving so fast? A rocket, a missile? One of those famous "flying saucers"?...
We reported at the time of the occurrence that the phenomenon was also observed from Colmar.
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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
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"Kestenholz" was the German name for the town of Bas-Rhin now named Châtenois. The Kestenholz street is probably now the Châtenois street.
The Illwald is in the Southeast of Sélestat. The Ried area is also in that direction.
Looking to the southeast, the man said the thing was going north to south, but with no landmark this could have been east to west.
I managed to find this article on page 6 of the Swiss newspaper "La Feuille d'Avis de Neuchâtel" for August 21, 1947; which indeed explains as a meteor and not a flying saucer the thing that passed in the sky on August 19, 1947 about 08:15 p.m.
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Several people in the city noticed on Tuesday night around 08:10 p.m., a bright glow that completely crossed the sky rather slowly from south to north. The green and straw-yellow gleams which accompanied the phenomenon made it very beautiful to watch. This is not a projectile (luminous bullet for example) but a meteor. The thesis of the flying saucers can in no way be supported!
The August 19, 1947, ~08:10 p.m. meteor.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 11, 2014 | Creation, [nrf1], [cvn2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | October 24, 2014 | First published. |
