ALSACAT-1970-04-20-WITTELSHEIM-1
The magazine "Phénomènes Spatiaux" #24 for June 1970 of the GEPA ufology group published an article about sightings reported by the newspaper L'Alsace for April 24, 25 and 26, 1970.
A correspondent of GEPA then investigated and wrote a report on the observations in the week at various points with a score of witnesses interviewed for Mulhouse, Ensisheim and the Ballon de Guebwiller. Except for two inhabitants of Wittenheim, witnesses wished to remain anonymous for fear of ridicule.
He said that on April 20, 1970, at about 10:30 p.m., one Miss Suzanne Meyer, 26, residing in the cities of Wittelsheim, was coming out from a friend's place and was returning to her parents' home.
When she entered the small family garden, she saw before her toward the mounts of the Vosges, at the height of the Thur farm, an unusual glow, resembling the light of the street lamps illuminating the streets, but more red.
The glow suddenly elevated slowly vertically, without changing color, but emitting beams, or more precisely, light strokes.
Arriving at some altitude, the glow marked a pause, then resumed a horizontal movement heading towards an isolated elongated cloud, located at the height of the first peaks of the Vosges. At the same pace, the light penetrated the cloud that was internally lit for about ten minutes, and then suddenly it was gone, all that remained was the lone motionless cloud in the night sky.
Miss Meyer waited twenty minutes to see "if the light came out of the cloud," but nothing happened and she went, without understanding and without trying to understand.
| Date: | Wittelsheim |
|---|---|
| Time: | ~10:00 p.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | June 1970 |
| Reporting delay: | Day, 2 months. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Wittelsheim |
| Place: | From outside a cité home, UFO in the sky. |
| Latitude: | 47.803 |
| Longitude: | 7.237 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 3 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 1 |
| Witness(es) ages: | 26 |
| Witness(es) types: | ? |
| Reporting channel: | The regional Press, and/or local ufologist. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | From outside home, UFO in the sky. |
| 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: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified, insufficient information. |
[Ref. lae1:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
Let's agree, dear readers, of a vocabulary agreement: it semms it must be admitted that everything that appears as an unexplained luminous phenomenon is called "flying saucer", without claims about the true reality of these phenonomena. Under this condition we can thus say that a female resident of Wittelsheim saw, yesterday evening, a flying saucer. Maybe she was not the only one to note a phenomenon that puzzled her, but she was the only one to come to our newsroom to report it. We will not go so far as to say that the bewilderment of the editor was greater at that visit than about the facts that motivated it, but this deserved to be stressed.
So, the facts: this lad, from he home's court, looking at about 08:45 p.m. in the direction of the Vosges, saw rising from the ground a thing that resembled a ball of light, surrounded of rays. The "Thing" went p to the sky in straight line in front of the background of the moutains, not behind, it veered toward a small cloud, entered that cloud and did not come out of it. At least not in a luminous state.
That's it. This is all that can possibly be said, with the addition that according to the observer's statement, it could have been located in the area of Berrwiller.
There are of course, many natural explanations that come to mind. We will not give any. Having no possibility to check the facts, we will also believe in the flying saucer, under the condition that "flying saucer" means something odd and luminous. After all, there are, in the profession, the "dogs run over", the column for the small incidents.
[Ref. lae2:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
Who? A resident of Lutterbach, Mr. H. What? The "flying saucer". Mr. H. phoned yesterday morning to our Witttelsheim office to confirm the luminous phenomenon a resident of our city noted on Monday evening. Mr. Humbert was looking, from his house located near the railway tracks, in the direction of Richwiller and Wittelsheim (by tracing a line on a map, one realizes that it ends in the area of Berrwiller) and suddenly saw, according to what he said, "an object of the size of a pomelo and the color of an orange, that ascended vertically in the sky, entered in a small cloud and did not come out of it." Mr. H. listened carefully, but heard no engine noise; which in his opinion excludes the explanation by a jet plane.
The phenomenon thus being confirmed, our correspondent in Wittelsheim is now assured that she did not dream. And if these lines fall under the eyes of a resident of the are of Berrwiller, maybe he would tell us if he saw aliens or youngsters plaing with fireworks od celebrating a bachelor party in his area.
[Ref. lae3:] NEWSPAPER "L'ALSACE":
Still no explanation for Monday evening's "flying saucer", but one more witness. It is a resident of Mulhouse who, after his working day, likes to wander at the limits of our city, towards the road to Cernay. But he adds an information. Having observed the phenomenon, he locates it much closer than one previously thought: "if this had happened near Berrwiller, I could not have seen the luminous ball at ground level. The trees would have hidden its departure. As I saw it start from the ground, it must indeed have taken off from a place much closer to Wittelsheim, for example on the meadows near the [river] Thur".
It remains to be known what really happened on the meadows of the Thur last Monday at about 9 p.m.
[Ref. gpa1:] "PHENOMENE SPATIAUX" UFOLOGY MAGAZINE - GEPA:
On April 27, Mr Jacques Thomas of Belfort, was kind enough to send us three clippings of the newspaper "L'Alsace" dated respectively 24, 25 and 26 April, reporting that at places located some tens of kilometers from Mulhouse, north of this city, several witnesses had seen on April 20, around 9 pm, and on April 24, around 10:30 p.m., unusual objects.
The object of April 20 was described by three witnesses, including Mr. Claude Blumer, of Jeune Bois - Wittenheim, as a kind of luminous ball seen at ground level and then rising from the ground, by a witness, and high in the sky by two other witnesses who specified it was yellow.
[...]
Mr. Jacques Thomas can not investigate in person immediately, so we, on his advice, alerted two of our Alsatian correspondents. One of them, after careful investigation, sent us the following report:
"The week of April 20 to 26 was marked by a number of unexplained space phenomena, in a triangle formed by three points: Mulhouse, Ensisheim and the balloon of Guebwiller in the Haut-Rhin.
"I interviewed twenty witnesses about these apparitions, but if these people were willing to tell me what they had seen, they asked me insistently not to be named, for fear of ridicule, but two inhabitants of Wittelsheim; about whom I give their exact report further below.
"If I summarize all the statements (the interviewed people do not know each other and stay in different places), it is certain that on five consecutive evenings, Monday 20, Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 and Friday 24, April, objects were noticed in the sky of southern Alsace, at night, between 08:30 p.m. and midnight.
"The witnesses placed these moving lights, flashing and silent in the triangle already defined and not elsewhere.
"On April 20, 1970, at 10:30 p.m., Miss Suzanne Meyer, 26, living in the suburbs of Wittelsheim, was leaving a friend and returned to her parents' home. When she entered the small family garden, Miss Meyer, saw in front of her, toward the Vosges mountain range, at the height of the Thur farm, an unusual glow, that was like the light of the street lamps illuminating the streets, but more red. Suddenly the light rose slowly vertically without changing color, but while emitting beams, specifically luminous lines.
"Arrived at a certain altitude, the glow marked a pause, then resumed a horizontal movement heading towards an isolated cloud, an elongated cloud located at the height of the first summits of the Vosges mountains. At the same pace, light penetrated the cloud that was internally lit for about ten minutes, then suddenly the light disappeared. There remained only in the starry sky the motionless elongated cloud.
"Mrs. Meyer waited for twenty minutes to see "if the light came out of the cloud," but nothing happened and she went away, without understanding and without trying to understand.
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN - "BASE OVNI FRANCE":
General features
| Num Base: | 304 |
| Department: | Haut Rhin (68) |
| Place of observation: | Mulhouse |
| Latitude: | 47.75 |
| Longitude: | +7.333 |
| Date of observation: | April 20, 1970 |
| Hour: | 22:30 hours |
| Duration (HH:MM:SS): | N.C. |
| Weather: | Sky cloudy low altitude |
| Type of observation: | Visual: Distant |
| Nbr of witness(es): | 3 |
| Official investigation: | 3 |
Features of the object
| Nbr of object: | 1 |
| Type of object: | Sphere |
| Size: | Not specified |
| Color: | Yellow |
| Luminosity: | Halo |
| Visual characteristics: | Halo |
| Speed: | not defined |
| Movement/Displacement: | No indication |
| Object on the ground: | On the ground then take off |
| Instantaneous disappearance: | No |
Observation
|
Three witnesses, observe during at least one minute a round object of yellow color with a halo. It goes off from the ground and takes off to continue a trajectory interrupted of times when it is motionless and times when it is fast. |
Sources
|
Les Universons by Poher Claude ** http://www.premiumwanadoo.com/universons/ |
[Ref. ud1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
20 April 1970 22:30
Mulhouse, Alsace, France
One object was observed by three witnesses for over three minutes (Blumer).
Hynek rating: NO
The sources are indicated as: "Poher, Claude, Etudes Statistiques Portant sur 1000 Temoignag [sic], Author, undated; GEPA, Phenomenes Spatiaux."
[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 an observation on April 20, 1970, was reported in the newspaper L'Alsace for Wednesday, April 22, 1970, in the Mulhouse issue:
Let's agree, dear readers, of a vocabulary agreement: it semms it must be admitted that everything that appears as an unexplained luminous phenomenon is called "flying saucer", without claims about the true reality of these phenonomena. Under this condition we can thus say that a female resident of Wittelsheim saw, yesterday evening, a flying saucer. Maybe she was not the only one to note a phenomenon that puzzled her, but she was the only one to come to our newsroom to report it. We will not go so far as to say that the bewilderment of the editor was greater at that visit than about the facts that motivated it, but this deserved to be stressed.
So, the facts: this lad, from he home's court, looking at about 08:45 p.m. in the direction of the Vosges, saw rising from the ground a thing that resembled a ball of light, surrounded of rays. The "Thing" went p to the sky in straight line in front of the background of the moutains, not behind, it veered toward a small cloud, entered that cloud and did not come out of it. At least not in a luminous state.
That's it. This is all that can possibly be said, with the addition that according to the observer's statement, it could have been located in the area of Berrwiller.
There are of course, many natural explanations that come to mind. We will not give any. Having no possibility to check the facts, we will also believe in the flying saucer, under the condition that "flying saucer" means something odd and luminous. After all, there are, in the profession, the "dogs run over", the column for the small incidents.
He gives this continuation in L'Alsace for Thursday, April 23, 1970, in the Mulhouse issue:
Who? A resident of Lutterbach, Mr. H. What? The "flying saucer". Mr. H. phoned yesterday morning to our Witttelsheim office to confirm the luminous phenomenon a resident of our city noted on Monday evening. Mr. Humbert was looking, from his house located near the railway tracks, in the direction of Richwiller and Wittelsheim (by tracing a line on a map, one realizes that it ends in the area of Berrwiller) and suddenly saw, according to what he said, "an object of the size of a pomelo and the color of an orange, that ascended vertically in the sky, entered in a small cloud and did not come out of it." Mr. H. listened carefully, but heard no engine noise; which in his opinion excludes the explanation by a jet plane.
The phenomenon thus being confirmed, our correspondent in Wittelsheim is now assured that she did not dream. And if these lines fall under the eyes of a resident of the are of Berrwiller, maybe he would tell us if he saw aliens or youngsters plaing with fireworks od celebrating a bachelor party in his area.
Then this continuation in L'Alsace for Friday, April 24, 1970, Mulhouse issue:
Still no explanation for Monday evening's "flying saucer", but one more witness. It is a resident of Mulhouse who, after his working day, likes to wander at the limits of our city, towards the road to Cernay. But he adds an information. Having observed the phenomenon, he locates it much closer than one previously thought: "if this had happened near Berrwiller, I could not have seen the luminous ball at ground level. The trees would have hidden its departure. As I saw it start from the ground, it must indeed have taken off from a place much closer to Wittelsheim, for example on the meadows near the [river] Thur".
It remains to be known what really happened on the meadows of the Thur last Monday at about 9 p.m..
Christian Valentin indicates that two month later, Phénomènes spatiaux magazine published in their issue #24 for June 1970, the investigation by two of their correspondents about these phenomena, and he gives these extracts:
One of them (one of the two correspondents - author's note), after careful investigation, sent us the following report: The week of April 20-26 was marked by a number of unexplained spatial phenomena, in a triangle formed by three points: Mulhouse, Ensisheim and the ballon de Guebwiller in the Haut-Rhin.
I questioned about twenty witnesses about these apparitions, but if these people were willing to tell me what they had seen, they insistently asked me not to be named for fear of ridicule, with the exception of two inhabitants of Wittelsheim, the exact relation of which I shall give later. If I summarize all the statements (the interviewees do not know each other and reside in different places), it is certain that five evenings in a row, Monday 20, Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23, and Friday 24 April, objects were noticed in the sky of Southern Alsace, at night, between 8:30 p.m. and midnight. On the 20th of April 1970, at around 10:30 p.m., Miss S.M., 26, living in the cities of Wittelsheim, left a friend's house and returned to her parents' home. At the moment when she was going to enter the little family garden, Miss M. saw in front of her, in the direction of the Vosges mountain range, at the height of the Thur farm, an unusual glow, which resembled the light of the lamps that lit up the streets, but redder, and suddenly the glow rose vertically, without changing color, but emitting rays, more precisely luminous lines. Arrived at some height, the gleam stopped for some time, then resumed a horizontal movement towards an isolated cloud, of elongated form, a cloud situated at the height of the first summits of the Vosges mounts. At the same pace, the glow penetrated into the cloud which was lighted internally for about ten minutes, then suddenly the gleam disappeared. There remained alone motionless in the starry sky the elongated cloud. Miss M. waited about twenty minutes to see "whether the light would come out of the cloud", but nothing happened and she went away, without understanding, and without trying to understand. On April 24, 1970, M. H., a 22-year-old worker at the Ile-Napoléon Peugeot factory, residing in the city of Wittelsheim station, left his bride at about 10:30 pm, and by moped, went to his parents'. Suddenly, the young man's gaze was stopped by a red, moving and silent gleam that came from the direction of the Vosges range and made for Wittelsheim. At one point, with the gleam just above him, Mr. H. stopped his moped and looked. The light seemed to him made of a large round object. A large red light was flashing on the underside. The machine lit up with a red glow the cloudy layer lying just above it. The young man before such a phenomenon suddenly became frightened, and wished to flee, but could not start his moped; he had to push it for a long time before starting it normally, while it was in perfect working condition. Arrived in front of his house, M. H. observed that the light was still in the sky, and that it was directed towards the the Vosges moutain range, where it suddenly died out like "a bulb from which the power is turned off." We are very grateful to the first correspondent, who is a journalist, for his extensive investigation and for his excellent report. Mr F. R., another Alsatian correspondent whom we asked for his help, answered our call with such devotion that we are grateful to him. Through his younger brother, he discovered a witness, M.S., a pupil of the Lycée de Mulhouse, residing at Wattwiller (Haut-Rhin), who kindly made statements to him which he recorded on a magnetic tape he sent us. Let's specify that M. S., who is interested in astronomical and space issues, is a member of the Astronomical Society of France.
He was alone at the time of his observation on Monday evening, April 20. Here is the essence of his statements: "It was a little before nine o'clock, I was in my bed reading when I saw through my window a red object of rather large size. That is, more important than a normal star, and that was moving, I stood up and continued to observe the phenomenon, and at that moment I saw that it stopped. So it remained stationary for about 30 or 40 seconds, then it left again in a different direction towards the south, it had come from the east to the west... It went back to the south. At that time, I saw it on a fairly short distance and then it left behind the clouds. I tried to locate it later, but there was nothing more to do. It had disappeared altogether." Responding to the investigator's questions, the witness clarified a number of things: Weather conditions: fairly low clouds, very clear holes, as it had rained the previous days and the same day. Conditions of observation: very satisfactory.
The object did not pass over the Vosges. It stopped at the sub-Vosges hills and left, along the chain of the Vosges, towards the south. It did not follow any roads. Duration of observation: maybe 30 seconds between the time the witness saw it and the moment it stopped right in front of his window, towards the north; the stop itself lasted about 30 seconds. In total, the observation lasted from 1 minute and a half to 2 minutes. The witness said that the clouds behind which the object disappeared were above his house and that he went to see on the other side, but these clouds were very extensive and he remained under observation for half an hour or three-quarters of an hour without having seen the object again. The witness dismissed the hypothesis of a shooting star, because of the color, which was red, of a very shiny red, and of the size, which appeared to him too great. The shape of the object was circular. When it came from the east, its speed was relatively slow. When it left, its speed seemed much faster to the witness. The latter did not notice any color change. The object remained of a bright red nearing the orange. It was surrounded by a very small halo, but left no trail. No noise was heard and no flashing of light was observed. The object, according to Mr. S.'s estimate, was to be quite high. Much higher than the treetops. Compared to the mountain tops just nearby, the witness thinks that it must have been about 500 or 600 meters from the ground, but he does not pronounce on its size, very difficult to appreciate. There were no close animals whose reaction he might have noticed. M. S. does not believe in a hallucination, and finds no astronomical explanation for what he has observed. "For me," he said, "it's a flying saucer." The next day he went to tell the story to his sister, who told her that she had heard at about the same time a humming sound in her ears. She had never before suffered from ringing in her ears.
For the sake of simplicity, we did not keep the original dialogical form, but we believe that we have faithfully reported the statements of Mr. S., whom we thank very much for having kindly agreed to this interview. These statements testify to the relevance of the questions addressed to him, we can only compliment our investigator, Mr. Francis Rigoni, to whom we reiterate our gratitude.
It seems that there was a time lag between the observations of Miss M. and M. S., which took place on the same day. We shall return to this set of observations at a later date, and we shall welcome with gratitude all the additional indications which our readers may send us.
[Ref. spa4:] UFOLOGY GROUP "SPICA":
| City | Date and hour of observation | General shape Identification |
General color Hypothesis |
Conclusion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MULHOUSE | Monday 20 April 1970 at 10:30 p.m. | Circular, round or disc (2D) Unidentified |
red None |
Unsolved -lack of info |
[Ref. ub1:] "UFODATENBANK":
This German database managed to record the same case three times:
| Case number: | 19700420 |
| New case number: | |
| Date of observation | 20.04.1970 |
| Hour of observation | 22.30 |
| Zip code: | |
| Place of observation | Mulhouse |
| Geocoordinates: | Longueur: Largeur: |
| Federal state: | |
| Country of observation: | France: |
| Witnesses: | |
| Classification: (Explanation) | |
| Note: (Explanation) | |
| Identification: | |
| Investigation:: | |
| Status of investigation: (Explanation) | (WRITTEN) Reproduction |
| Investigator: | |
| Source: | DUFOA-Deutschland - SiDat - 1996-2002 |
| Case number: | 19700424 |
| New case number: | |
| Date of observation | 24.04.1970 |
| Hour of observation | 22.30 |
| Zip code: | |
| Place of observation | Mulhouse |
| Geocoordinates: | Longueur: Largeur: |
| Federal state: | |
| Country of observation: | France: |
| Witnesses: | |
| Classification: (Explanation) | |
| Note: (Explanation) | |
| Identification: | |
| Investigation:: | |
| Status of investigation: (Explanation) | (WRITTEN) Reproduction |
| Investigator: | |
| Source: | DUFOA-Deutschland - SiDat - 1996-2002 |
| Case number: | 19700424 |
| New case number: | |
| Date of observation | 24.04.1970 |
| Hour of observation | 22.30 |
| Zip code: | |
| Place of observation | Mulhouse |
| Geocoordinates: | Longueur: Largeur: |
| Federal state: | |
| Country of observation: | France: |
| Witnesses: | |
| Classification: (Explanation) | |
| Note: (Explanation) | |
| Identification: | |
| Investigation:: | |
| Status of investigation: (Explanation) | (WRITTEN) Reproduction |
| Investigator: | |
| Source: | DUFOA-Deutschland - SiDat - 1996-2002 |
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFODATENBANK":
| Case ID | 19700420 |
| Global case number: | 19700420-0001-UDB |
| Date of observation (Day) | 20 |
| Date of observation (Month) | 4 |
| Date of observation(Year) | 1970 |
| Hour of observation | 22.30 |
| Zip Code | |
| Place of observation | Mulhouse |
| County | |
| Federal state | |
| Country | France |
| Witnesses | |
| Hynek Classification | |
| Vallee Classification | |
| Ruthledge Classification | |
| Henke Classification | |
| Evaluation | |
| Identification | |
| Investigations | |
| Status of the investigation | |
| Domain | UFO-Datenbank |
| Case added by | |
| Latest change by: | |
| Investigator in charge of the case | |
| Source | DUFOA-Deutschland - SiDat - 1996-2002 |
| State of the information | 25.04.2015 22:16 |
| Accesses to this record | 2 |
| Link to Openmap | http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Mulhouse,France |
| Link to theobservation | http://www.ufo-db.com/WfrmSetupSichtung.aspx?uid_Sichtung=345ff730-9c49-4ab4-9064-0769d6dbf61b |
| Summary for guests | Les faits et éventuellement d'autres documents seront publiés progressivement. Nous vous remercions de votre patience. |
| Preview image |
| Case ID | 19700420 |
| Global case number: | 19700420-0002-UDB |
| Date of observation (Day) | 20 |
| Date of observation (Month) | 4 |
| Date of observation(Year) | 1970 |
| Hour of observation | 22.30 |
| Zip Code | |
| Place of observation | Mulhouse |
| County | |
| Federal state | |
| Country | France |
| Witnesses | |
| Hynek Classification | |
| Vallee Classification | |
| Ruthledge Classification | |
| Henke Classification | |
| Evaluation | |
| Identification | |
| Investigations | |
| Status of the investigation | |
| Domain | UFO-Datenbank |
| Case added by | |
| Latest change by: | |
| Investigator in charge of the case | |
| Source | DUFOA-Deutschland - SiDat - 1996-2002 |
| State of the information | 25.04.2015 22:16 |
| Accesses to this record | 2 |
| Link to Openmap | http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Mulhouse,France |
| Link to theobservation | http://www.ufo-db.com/WfrmSetupSichtung.aspx?uid_Sichtung=f7570a2a-f722-4511-bec7-098bb5b1e266 |
| Summary for guests | Les faits et éventuellement d'autres documents seront publiés progressivement. Nous vous remercions de votre patience. |
| Preview image |
|
It is not known exactly where the woman was during the observation. We are told she was returning to her parents living in the cités of Wittelsheim, but that does not give a more precise position than: one of the home cities of Wittelsheim.
The Thur Valley in the part where the farm must have been, is the Thann valley. There are for example the farm-inn of the Gsang, but many others, so that the indicated direction can only be described as the direction to the Thann valley.
This gives a direction of observation which must be approximately East, considering that the entry of the Thur valley is about 10 kilometers East of Wittelsheim.
The maneuvers described are such that I do not think an astronomical explanation can seriously be claimed; and this did not seem to match typical movements of a plane or helicopter. Unfortunately, no duration is given, so that if I do not have an identification for the phenomenon, I have nothing to support a claim that it must have been coming from another planet.
Unidentified, insufficient information.
* = 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 | March 17, 2016 | Creation, [gpa1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | March 17, 2016 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | January 25, 2018 | Addition [ubk1]. |
