ALSACAT ▶ Home ☰

Cette page en français

ALSACAT:

◀ Previous case Next case ▶

Case of Saint Gilles, on July 25, 1965:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1965-07-25-SAINTGILLES-1

Summary:

The regional newspaper L'Alsace for July 31, 1965, reported the observation of an unidentified flying object near Turckheim.

The newspaper said that the witness was Jean-Paul Clog, 26, owner of a tile business, residing at 9, rue des Cigognes in Colmar. He is described as a man that is to be taken seriously, not being "one of those braggarts, nor a young man with too much imagination." The newspaper said he had a great sense of reality, and states that it was only after an indiscretion that the newspaper learned of his adventure, as Mr. Clog, for fear of appearing ridiculous, had been carefully keeping the matter quiet.

He told them with reluctance:

"Arriving by car from Wihr-au-Val in the night from Saturday to Sunday," on July 25, 1965, "I just passed the level crossing at Saint-Gilles when suddenly in the dark sky, I saw a glowing oblong shape and immobile. It is impossible to me to hypothesize on its size and the distance at which she was. My sister sitting next to me saw the same show, unusual. "

"I pretended to want to stop to see the turn that would take things But my sister, 18-year-old, very impressed, was seized with fear and asked me to continue my journey The craft, hitherto motionless, then, moved very slowly, approaching the ground. It also seemed to turn on its axis ... Nearly two minutes passed thus, then, the form headed Turckheim where it disappeared before our eyes in a layer of fog that perhaps it had caused. I then looked at my watch, it was 1:45..."

The paper said that Jean-Paul Clog did not believe much until then the "flying saucers and other equipment of the kind."

Sunday with friends, he had walked a good half dozen kilometers to where the thing could have landed, looking for a trace, without discovering anything.

Former journalist Christian Valentin report in his book of 2012 on UFOs in Alsace, in June 2007, he met the witness, then retired assets, which recounted his adventure very simply, as if s' was held there a few months:

"I know what you'll say, coming back from a party and you see flying saucers. Amalgam is quick, but we had been drinking, my sister and me that soda Despite their limited duration, j 'have a specific recollection of events; you know, this may seem long, a minute and a half. "

Mr. Clog had specified that the fog had appeared when the spacecraft approached the ground, and when it had disappeared in a flash, the fog had dissipated right away.

Christian Valentin published two sketches done by Mr. Clog to illustrate his observation; which are visible below in this file.

Data:

Temporal data:

Geographical data:

Witnesses data:

Ufology data:

Classifications:

Sources:

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

[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 there was a sighting on July 25, 1965, at 1:45 in Saint Gilles in the Haut-Rhin, reported in L'Alsace for Saturday 31 July 1965:

Christian Valentin adds that in June 2007, he met with Mr. Clog, then an active retired.

The latter told him his adventure in a very simple manner, as if it had occurred a few months ago:

"I know what you're going to say: you go to a party and you see flying saucers: amalgam is quick, but we were drunk, my sister and I, only soda. Despite their limited duration, I have a clear recollection of the events; you know, this may seem long, a minute and a half."

Mr. Clog specified to him that the fog came only when the craft approached the ground, and when it had disappeared in a flash, the fog had dissipated immediately.

Christian Valentin published these two sketches made by the witness:

Discussion:

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

Let's see this case.

Above: the sighting's starting location is just after the railway crossing. The heading of the road is of 91°,
Turckheim is at the end of the railway at the 45° heading.

Above: aerial view, with the yellow marker at the location of the start of the sighting, the road, and Turckheim.

When I look at the witness sketches, the object is clearly looking like an alien craft may look. An oval of yellow lighted portholes.

But I have to note the following.

That July 25, 1965, at 01:45 am, the moon was located from the observation point at an azimuth of 59°45 and a very low elevation of 2°51. It was in her first crescent with 16.9% of its surface visible, illuminated by the sun.

The witness tells of a fog, able to conceal the exact shape of the moon crescent and create a halo on the fog from its light.

And he was on a road with the moon on his left, with the phenomenon going towards Turckheim on the left, thus, a possible illusion of movement due to the fact that the road at that place slightly turns to the right.

In the witness sketches, the UFO clearly goes down, but the road goes up; this could reate the illusion of the moon going down. So if I get the chance, I will check that the road goes up, as can be seen on the sketches.

So, structured unearthly craft on land, or mistaken Moon? I can provide no "scientific proof", but I think that doubt is allowed.

Evaluation:

Possible Moon, or extraterrestrial craft.

Sources references:

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

• [lae1] * ""Objet volant non identifié" également près de Turckheim", article in the regional newspaper L'Alsace, July 31, 1965.
• [cvn2] * "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés - Histoire des soucoupes volantes en Alsace jusqu'en 1980", book by Christian Valentin, Grimoires d'Alsace publishers, France, pp 84-85, 2012.

File history:

Authoring:

Changes history:

Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home

This page was last updated on April 7, 2016.