ALSACAT-1977-08-11-BOUXWILLER-1
Among other observations, the regional newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for August 14, 1977, told that a female resident of Bouxwiller and her husband were awakened around one o'clock in the morning by the groans of their dog - usually calm.
Thinking that there might be a burglar, the two people looked through their louvers and noticed an abundant light in the direction of the train station: "It was far too bright to be a torch, especially as the house was lit up as much on the back as on the front at the same time, and the dog kept moaning and panting: which lasted a good half hour."
An article in Ufologia, the bulletin of the Cercle Français de Recherches UFologiques, in January 1978, seems to mention this sighting, without giving any details, but including it in what would have been quite a series of observations in Alsace that evening stretching from 10:00 p.m. to 02:30 a.m.. The CFRU evoked numerous investigations they conducted on what would have been the overflight of Alsace by a craft of unknown origin, but they do not give details. This observation would be the only one in the series featuring an animal reaction.
| Date: | August 11, 1977 |
|---|---|
| Time: | ~01:30 a.m. |
| Duration: | 30 minutes? |
| First known report date: | August 14, 1977 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, 2 days. |
| Department: | Bas-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Bouxwiller |
| Place: | Through shutters from home in village, UFO in the sky or the village. |
| Latitude: | 48.827 |
| Longitude: | 7.480 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 1 km |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 1 or 2 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | Adults or aged. |
| Witness(es) types: | A married couple. |
| Reporting channel: | The regional Press. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | Through shutters from home in village, UFO in the sky or the village. |
| Visibility conditions: | Night. |
| UFO observed: | Yes |
| UFO arrival observed: | No |
| UFO departure observed: | Yes |
| Entities: | No |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | Puzzled. |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Hynek: | NL |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Unidentified, probably not UFO-related. |
[Ref. dna1:] NEWSPAPER "DERNIERES NOUVELLES D'ALSACE":
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Following the article we published yesterday relating the astonishing adventure that occurred to a Strasbourg couple on the EDF road, between Rhinau and Gerstheim, we received several phone calls to confirm the testimony of Mr. and Ms. J. On the other hand, the Bas-Rhine section of the Cercle français de recherches ufologiques [French Circle of Ufological Research] has also collected information going in the same direction.
Four couples currently on vacation at the Gerstheim campsite were walking on the site, around 10:30 p.m. One of the eight people present, Mrs. A. told us: "We were talking when I saw like a ball of fire in the sky, with a red light in the center; it was still: it changed color when it started to move, in that we saw several yellow lights; when the craft stopped, again it was the red that prevailed. We looked at it through binoculars. It didn't make noise. It had a circular shape, although we didn't see it in detail. It came and went along the Rhine river. We watched it for ten to fifteen minutes. Then it disappeared, suddenly."
Another testimony, that of a resident of Bouxwiller (Bas-Rhin) who, with her husband, was woken up around one in the morning by the moans of their dog - usually calm. Thinking that there might be a prowler, the two people looked through their blinds, and they noticed an abundant light in the direction of the station: "It was far too bright for it to be a torch, of as much as the house was lighted as much from the back as from the front at the same time. And the dog kept moaning and panting. It lasted a good half hour."
The information obtained by the Strasbourg ufologists relates to testimonies emanating in particular from Shirmeck and Rothau.
Everything therefore suggests that something happened in the Strasbourg sky on Thursday evening: but what? That is the whole question.
[Ref. ufa1:] UFOLOGY BULLETIN "UFOLOGIA":
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INVESTIGATION - CFRU ALSACE FILE
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS IN ALSACE
On the night of August 11, 1977, various witnesses observed an unidentified flying object. We went to the scene and to the majority of the witnesses. And, at present, we continue to record and screen witness statements.
The observations last from 10 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., in short, several hours of flight over Alsatian soil. The line followed totally intersects the subsequent investigation in short, a route following the shape of a "Y" practically along the Rhine up to Strasbourg to separate there, either in the direction of ST-DIE in the Vosges, or towards the north of Alsace, passing WISSEMBOURG, towards the North Sea.
The shape of the object - and there ALL the testimonies overlap - was circular; the craft presented a red color WHEN STOPPED, turning to yellow when it moved. Some witnesses note smaller lights on the craft, flashing red lights moving along the outer circle of the UFO.
It should be noted that several witnesses felt an impression of anguish during the observation, anguish being in no way due to fear, but approaching a kind of oppression difficult to define.
We noted - in one of the statements - that the witnesses' dog kept moaning and panting, these unusual moans waking them up, allowing them to carry out their observation.
Subsequently, telephone calls and other statements were to allow us to locate the line of flight of the craft as observations were made by the witnesses, in particular in relation to the times indicated. The flying craft coming from RHINAU-GERSTHEIM then headed towards SCHIRMECK to move away towards ST-DIE, place of the last observation.
We noted, moreover, that - for the third consecutive time - the UFOs observed by witnesses in the Strasbourg sky are circular in shape, have a red color when stationary, yellow when moving, and that, in any case - if they are present - the dogs and other animals show flagrant signs of insecurity (groans, tremors, gasps...) In 80% of the cases, it is firstly the dogs who have warned their masters.
In addition, it is particularly interesting to note that 90% of witnesses feel:
1/ a feeling close to anxiety that is difficult to explain, not assimilable to fear but oppressive, a feeling still perceptible most often several days or even weeks after the observation...
2/ absolute certainty regarding sightings.
3/ an unshakable conviction of an "other origin" of the craft.
4/ a systematic impossibility to film the event.
The witnesses do not know each other and yet the descriptions are consistent (colors, places, shape absolutely identical).
It is confirmed, once again, that the occupants of the UFOs PSYCHICALLY influence the witnesses. In addition, the theory of magnetic propulsion (voluntarily simplified name in this context) seems very plausible because of the disturbances of watches and the ignition problems on vehicles reported. It turns out that an ultrasound emission sensitizes the animals. THIS IS REALLY A UFO.
Investigation: Roland LIENHARDT CFRU/BAS-RHIN/77
[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 the regional newspaper Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for August 14, 1977, reported several observations of August 11, 1977:
Following the article we published yesterday relating the astonishing adventure that occurred to a Strasbourg couple on the EDF road, between Rhinau and Gerstheim, we received several phone calls to confirm the testimony of Mr. and Ms. J. On the other hand, the Bas-Rhine section of the Cercle français de recherches ufologiques [French Circle of Ufological Research] has also collected information going in the same direction.
Four couples currently on vacation at the Gerstheim campsite were walking on the site, around 10:30 p.m. One of the eight people present, Mrs. A. told us: "We were talking when I saw like a ball of fire in the sky, with a red light in the center; it was still: it changed color when it started to move, in that we saw several yellow lights; when the craft stopped, again it was the red that prevailed. We looked at it through binoculars. It didn't make noise. It had a circular shape, although we didn't see it in detail. It came and went along the Rhine river. We watched it for ten to fifteen minutes. Then it disappeared, suddenly."
Another testimony, that of a resident of Bouxwiller (Bas-Rhin) who, with her husband, was woken up around one in the morning by the moans of their dog - usually calm. Thinking that there might be a prowler, the two people looked through their blinds, and they noticed an abundant light in the direction of the station: "It was far too bright for it to be a torch, of as much as the house was lighted as much from the back as from the front at the same time. And the dog kept moaning and panting. It lasted a good half hour."
The information obtained by the Strasbourg ufologists relates to testimonies emanating in particular from Shirmeck and Rothau.
Everything therefore suggests that something happened in the Strasbourg sky on Thursday evening: but what? That is the whole question.
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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. [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
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I do not have a precise explanation for this observation. But its strangeness is weak and it does not seem to me to be an observation of an unidentified flying craft: it is a strong light, for half an hour, staying in one place.
May it was a power transformer station fire, for example - but then there should have been, normally, firefighters intervention, and the newspaper should have reported about it.
Unidentified, probably not UFO-related.
* = 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 |
| Editeur: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | June 29, 2021 | Creation, [dna1], [cvn2]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | June 29, 2021 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | July 29, 2022 | Addition [ufa1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraph "An article in Ufologia..." |
