The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Charente Libre, Angoulême, France, pages 1 and 8, on October 7, 1954.
|
Around 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning, Mr. Pierre Lucas, a baker in Loctudy (Finistère), who was busy drawing water from the bakery yard, suddenly saw in the night a craft shaped like a saucer, 2.5 to 3 meters in diameter. He saw an individual, 1 meter tall, emerge from it. 20, who approached him and tapped him on the shoulder, uttering unintelligible words. The baker managed to keep his composure and returned to the bakehouse, where the stranger followed him.
In the light, Mr. Lucas was able to scrutinize the visitor: he had an oval face, completely covered in hair, and eyes the size of a crow's egg. The young man called his boss, but before he had time to come downstairs, the stranger had disappeared, along with his flying saucer, of which no trace was found.
A beer merchant from Concarneau, for his part, declared that he had seen two luminous discs in the sky, shaped like round tables with a sort of tail extending from them. One of the discs was stationary while the other moved nearby. The two discs disappeared after ten minutes, having launched a rocket.
Several Parisians declared on Tuesday afternoon, passersby reported seeing flying saucers in the sky above the capital. They claimed to have spotted one around 4:30 p.m. near the Porte Dorée.
Mr. Pierre Allouis, a cardboard packaging representative, was on his way to business by taxi when the vehicle was stopped at a red light. Hearing a high-pitched whistling sound, he said, they looked out the door and saw a flying object flying overhead, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake.
Mr. Allouis describes the saucer as a disc larger than a normal airplane and silver in color.
The same testimony is given
[---]
SAUCERS IN ITALY
Traffic was disrupted for over an hour in the center of Mantua, Italy, by groups of people who gathered to observe a strange "white object" which, at a high altitude, stood out clearly against the blue sky.
After carrying out extremely rapid movements, the spherical craft - which, according to some witnesses, was part of a formation of flying saucers - remained motionless in the sky for some time before disappearing over the horizon.
Furthermore, the "Martians" seem to want to visit Italy as well. Indeed, a fisherman from Roverbella in the province of Mantua reported that last night, he was approached by a mysterious individual dressed in red who reportedly spoke unintelligible words to him and then quickly disappeared before the fisherman had time to warn his wife.
[---]
the passage of the craft at an insufficiently precise time. Furthermore, radar can only record the passage of a heavier-than-air craft as a luminous spot, regardless of its nature.
- Two saucers were seen Tuesday in the sky over Clermont-Ferrand. The first was seen 10 kms from Beaumont at 3:45 p.m. It was moving in a west-east direction. Witnesses stated that the craft approached them and became less and less bright.
When it was only 150 meters away, they felt a strange sensation and were as if rooted to the spot. At that moment, a smell of nitrobenzene was emanating from the air. Soon the craft moved away, the discomfort ceased, and the saucer disappeared.
The other saucer was spotted above the Côtes de Chanturgues, near Clermont. It was moving vertically and was a brilliant white.
A saucer was also spotted in Billom by a group of 30 people. The craft was moving above the town. It was traveling horizontally. It was visible for 3 or 4 minutes before disappearing. An intense light emanated from the craft.
Several residents of Saint-Brieuc saw a flying saucer last night that took the shape of a cigar before disappearing. They were able to observe it for over an hour.
The same phenomenon was observed in Trégueux, where a cyclist returned home frightened by what he had seen.
Last night, several people of Thouare-sur-Vie (Vendée) saw about ten luminous, elongated objects in the sky, passing at a very rapid pace.
Continued on page 8
|
Continued from page 1
high speed and high altitude.
- Mr. and Mrs. Guillemoteau were in front of their farmhouse in the Charente-Maritime when they spotted, about a meter above the ground, a spherical saucer that could have measured 2 to 3 meters in height and 5 meters in diameter. The craft, which made no noise, stopped for a few minutes and then rose vertically. The next day, Mr. Guillemoteau went to the place where he had seen the craft and was able to detect oily traces on the grass.
Two residents of Lezignan, Messrs. André Gardia and André Darzens, who were driving a truck on departmental road D-3, stated that they had seen a disc-shaped craft land in a field between the village of Lagrasse and the hamlet of Villemagne (Aude).
The craft, they stated, measured approximately ten meters in diameter. Before they could approach, it enveloped them in a brilliant gleam and disappeared.
Mr. Jean Defix, a firefighter in Bergerac, and Mr. Jean Labonne, stated that they saw a disc approximately three meters in diameter, supported by three crutches, land in the latter's garden.
In Mégrit (Côtes-du-Nord), a young farmer, Mr. Henri Lehérissé, stated having seen in his farmyard a craft about one meter in diameter inside which two human forms appeared, motionless and the size of a child.
In Nevers, five residents of Château-Chinon reported seeing on Tuesday evening, at a very high altitude, a kind of luminous spot that split into two discs. These, they said, began to rotate, changing color several times.
Saucers, discs, cigars, spheres, and other flying objects were seen Quend (Somme), Grandvillars (Territoire de Belfort), in Magnac-Laval (Haute-Nienne), in Saint-Jean-d'Angély (Charente-Maritime), in Forges (Corrèze), Perros-Guirec (Côtes-du-Nord).
The Coulommiers newspaper "Le Pays Briard" published a letter sent by one of its readers, Mr. E. Farnier, a member of the Society of the Civil Engineers of France, regarding a flying saucer.
In this letter, Mr. Farnier specifies that he saw a large disc, 8 to 10 meters in diameter, "rotating in place, emitting reddish-violet glows, with a whistling sound somewhat reminiscent of a jet aircraft approaching. The craft was approximately 400 meters high and hovered above me for over 20 minutes. I therefore," said Mr. Farnier, "had ample opportunity to examine it thoroughly. The craft then disappeared in the direction of Coulommiers."
In his letter, Mr. Farnier specifies:
"As a former commissioner with the Aero Club of France, having served in aviation, I was not a victim of an hallucination, and this craft was not a weather balloon, but a thick, circular wing hovering in place and moving at very high speed while gradually gaining altitude."
