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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 Ohlungen, in October 1954:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1954-10-00-OHLUNGEN-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper Le Nouvel Alsacien reported on October 19, 1954, about a "flying Saucer over Ohlungen":

"From Ohlungen, it is communicated to us that a flying saucer was seen above the town by a W. J. that reportedly moved at about 2000 m altitude. He gives the following details: it was heading from east to west and was dark red. Seen from the ground it was approximately 15 cm in diameter, and it was dragging a tail long of about 1.5 m. From time to time were noticed sparks coming out of the luminous ball."

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: October 1954
Time: ?
Duration: ?
First known report date: October 19, 1954
Reporting delay: Days.

Geographical data:

Department: Bas-Rhin
City: Ohlungen
Place: Above the village, UFO in the sky.
Latitude: 48.811
Longitude: 7.700
Uncertainty radius: 5 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: 1
Number of known witnesses: 1
Number of named witnesses: 0
Witness(es) ages: ?
Witness(es) types: ?

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: Someone to the regional Press.
Type of location: Above the village, UFO in the sky.
Visibility conditions: ?
UFO observed: Yes
UFO arrival observed: Yes
UFO departure observed: ?
Entities: ?
Photographs: No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es): No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): No.
Witness(es) feelings: ?
Witnesses interpretation: ?

Classifications:

Hynek: NL or DD
ALSACAT: Possibly the meteor of October 16, 1954.

Sources:

[Ref. nan1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEL ALSACIEN":

Flying Saucer over Ohlungen

From Ohlungen, it is communicated to us that a flying saucer was seen above the town by a W. J. that reportedly moved at about 2000 m altitude. He gives the following details: it was heading from east to west and was dark red. Seen from the ground it was approximately 15 cm in diameter, and it was dragging a tail long of about 1.5 m. From time to time were noticed sparks coming out of the luminous ball.

[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 in October 1954 in the Bas-Rhin in Ohlungen, there was a sighting reported in the NOUVEL ALSACIEN for Tuesday, October 19, 1954 on page 12:

Flying Saucer over OHLUNGEN

From Ohlungen, it is communicated to us that a flying saucer was seen above the town by a W. J. that reportedly moved at about 2000 m altitude. He gives the following details: it was heading from east to west and was dark red. Seen from the ground it was approximately 15 cm in diameter, and it was dragging a tail long of about 1.5 m. From time to time were noticed sparks coming out of the luminous ball.

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. [cv2]; 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.

Ohlungen is about 25 kilometers north of Strasbourg.

The report is quite useless as there is no specific date and no observation hour.

However, the description is obviously compatible with a meteor.

It could be again an observation of the meteor of October 16, 1954, seen by many witnesses and sometimes interpreted as a flying saucer.

Evaluation:

Possibly the meteor of October 16, 1954.

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
Editeur: Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version: Create/changed by: Date: Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross April 21, 2014 Creation, [nan1], [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross April 21, 2014 First published.

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This page was last updated on April 21, 2014.