The 1954 French flap:

The Courier of the Somme

A mysterious craft moves
for ten minutes
in the sky of the Doullenais

It seems that we have not finished talking about the "saucers" and other mysterious craft which, daily, cross the sky in many places.

Certainly, there was in many people, an excess of imagination which leaves skeptical a number of minds. However, it seems obvious now that there really are strange craft.

So let's leave aside the more or less fanciful statements and attach our attention to serious testimonies. One of these is particularly noteworthy. It is that of Mr. Maurice Niquet, farmer in Hardinval, annex of the town of Hem, near Doullens. Mr. Niquet, 17 years old, was Thursday afternoon, beating barley in a field at a place called "Behind the hedges", not far from the houses and about two hundred meters from the national road nr 25.

It was around 5:00 p.m. when he was hailed by Mr. Percheval, an agricultural worker, who was harvesting beets in a nearby field, and whose 8 years old son had just seen a kind of green disc moving at very high altitude. In his turn, Mr. Niquet saw the object very clearly, while Mr. Percheval, who did not want to be taken for a "joker", rushed on the road to stop a possible motorist who could serve as witness.

As for the young farmer, he stayed in place to hold his horses, who were also looking at the craft and seemed quite frightened. A strange display was then offered to his sight. The disc, which rotated on a vertical plane, began to descend slowly. during this descent, the gyration had stopped. It only resumed gently when the object came to rest about thirty meters from the ground, just above trees near the town and about two hundred meters from Mr. Niquet.

"It was", the later would say, "a ball which, from green, had turned to white, without being excessively luminous. But the strangest thing is that on all sides, like jets of vapor of all colors came out; which lit the ground, my horses and myself. Sometimes we were pink, sometimes purple, or red, yellow, etc... The spectacle was splendid, but I was all the same frightened enough by this vision."

The ball thus remained ten minutes completely motionless. Then, it started to rotate again very fast, always on a vertical plane and it went away first in oblique, then straight in the sky.

Mr. Percheval, who was waiting on the road, could not see the craft which was hidden from him by the trees.

As one may guess, Mr. Niquet told his adventure to his parents. His father inquired at the neighbors. This is how Mr. and Mrs. Oncle, who were much further from the indicated place, noticed, at the indicated time, color changes above the trees; which suggests that the appearance was not caused by the imagination of the young farmer.

But another testimony also came to us from people just as reliable. It is that of Mr. and Mrs. Dumeige, cattle dealers, in Domart-en-Ponthieu, and of Mr. Lourdel, cattle broker, in Condé-Folie, who, Thursday, around 9 p.m., were traveling by automobile truck on the road from Domart to Condé-Folie. These three people, in fact, saw not far from the farms of La Folie, a very bright glow which seemed to land in a meadow not far from the road.

Mr. Dumeige, who was driving, stopped his vehicle and got out with his wife and Mr. Lourdel. It was then that they saw clearly, near the light, six or seven small beings who were advancing one after the other. They were so frightened that they quickly set off again, leaving the craft and its occupants there.

A mysteirous craft
near Doullens

Thursday, around 5 p.m., MM. Maurice Niquet, 17, farmer; Georges Percheval, 33, farm worker, and Emile Oncle, 55, farmer, were in the fields in Hardinval, near Doullens. They were busy digging up the beets, when their attention was attracted by a shining craft in the sky at a great height, above the hamlet of Hardinval, slightly to the south of the national road Abbeville-Doullens.

The machine, spherical in shape and about 10 meters in diameter, descended to 50 meters. It emitted lights of all colors which were reflected on the ground and on the horses led by Mr. Niquet: the horses were frightened, they had to be unhitched and held by the bridle.

The craft, oscillating and rotating at first slowly, then faster and faster, gained altitude obliquely then climbed to a great height and disappeared without making any noise. The three witnesses to the scene were amazed at such a spectacle which lasted nearly twenty minutes.

The Doullens gendarmerie wrote down an incident report.

STILL
THE SAUCERS

We reported yesterday under what conditions several farmers in the hamlet of Hardinval, near Doullens, had their attention drawn by a mysterious machine which they were able to follow for quite a long time. We can complete our information by adding that one of these cultivators saw the machine descend slowly; in the descent the spinning of the apparatus ceased. The saucer came to a stop some 30 meters above the ground, and 200 meters from where Mr. Percheval was. Jets of colored vapor issued from the craft and lit the ground. The ball remained motionless for ten minutes, then spun in place and shot away straight into the sky.

* * *

A spectacle even more hallucinating than the one noticed by Mr. and Mrs. Dumeige, cattle brokers, in Domart-en-Ponthieu, and Mr. Lourdel, also a livestock broker, in Condé - Folie. They saw a bright saucer landing in a field, a short distance from the road they were on. Mr. and Mrs. Dumeige and Mr. Lourdel got off their

Having mitaken his neighbor for a
Martian, a cultivator shoots
two gunshots at him

Lille, 17. -- Mr. Maurice Ruant, farmer in Sinceny, near Chauny (Aisne), almost fell victim to the panic that is caused to some people by the appearance of saucers or other flying objects.

Last night, he was busy repairing his car in a meadow near his home, when two shots were fired in his direction. The pellets crashed onto the vehicle body, not far from his head. Mr. Maurice Ruant complained and the investigation, immediately opened, made it possible to quickly find the author of the two shots: a neighbor of Mr. Ruant, Mr. Faisan.

The latter said to the police:

"I thought, seeing a silhouette moving in the light of two headlights, to be in the presence of a Martian repairing his flying saucer. I went to get my gun and I fired."

IN THE SOMME

Mr. Percheval, an agricultural worker employed in the harvesting of beets, near Amiens, clearly saw a disc which turned on a vertical plane and which began to descend slowly. When the craft was 30 meters above the ground, that is, less than 200 meters from the location of another farmer, Mr. Nicket, the craft, which was in the shape of a ball, stopped. Jets of steam of all colors came out on all sides, which lit up the sky, sometimes purple and even red and yellow. The spectacle was said to be magnificent. The ball remained motionless for ten minutes, then began to spin quickly, rose at full speed, and disappeared.

Also in the Somme department, livestock brokers, Mr. and Mrs. Dumeige, and Mr. Lourdel, were driving in an automobile truck when they saw a very bright gleam which seemed to land in a meadow, not far from the road. Mr. Dumeige, who was driving the truck, stopped his vehicle and went down on the road, with his wife and Mr. Lourdel. The trio then saw very clearly near the craft six or seven small beings who advanced in line. The spectacle frightened the stockbrokers so much that they immediately got back into their cars and continued on their way at full speed.

Flying Saucers...

Like it or not, there is a problem with the flying saucers, the matter seems to be getting serious.

Whereas, at the beginning, many newspapers scoffed (and L'Abeille, like the others), it became obvious, even to the most skeptical "that there is something".

To take only examples close to here and officially noted by the gendarmeries and the security services of the territory, how to admit that in Hem-Hardinval, the mysterious craft which intrigued several farmers, known for their seriousness, and which frightened their horses, is a product of the imagination? At a distance of 100 meters, people still could not dream... As could not dream the inhabitants of Domart-en-Ponthieu who saw a saucer land near their car, and strange beings get out of it.

In the Ternois, people are more discreet, and if we know that some saw bizarre craft (a miner from Linzeux, a Buneville farmer woman, etc.) they were careful not to advertise too much what they saw.

Other residents of the Ternois also saw strange objects in the sky: an industrialist from Saint-Pol returning in the evening by car, farm workers returning from work. Monday evening a dozen Saint-Pol residents saw around 8:30 p.m. a luminous object, followed by a dazzling tail which took the direction of Ramecourt. The object was clearly seen by a city councilor, a doctor and various other personalities.

We also talked about strange objects seen in Frévent, in Auxi, in Wavrans, etc...

What should we conclude from this? It would obviously be very difficult to say.

Be that as it may, we find ourselves in the presence of two very distinct phenomena: luminous objects in the sky and objects of metallic appearance posed in the countryside, or landing there.

Some objections immediately come to mind. Why would the occupants of these objects come to land in hollow paths, in the deserted plains, etc. If they really come from other planets and are on an observation mission, it would make more sense for them to come near factories, big cities, ports. Given their power and the influence of their so-called paralyzing beam, what would they risk?

L'Abeille obviously does not claim to provide its readers with the solution to this problem which, to be honest, seems really frightening. However, we thought it would be interesting to publish extracts from a letter that a prominent Swiss personality, Mr. Alfred Nahon, professor of philosophy and psychology in Lausanne, just sent to the newspaper L'Express.

Here's what he writes:

"I was surprised the other day to find that you seem to deal with the so-called "flying saucer" issue lightly.

Studying the questions and information relating to "flying saucers", I have been perfectly aware for seven years, of everything that has been said or written on this matter. I am a member and general correspondent for Switzerland of the International Investigation Commission "Ouranos".

It follows from my information, intersected by the turn of certain important diplomatic facts, that these craft come from several planets and that their occupants have advised the main governments to have to stop their atomic and military policies in general.

It is a long time since the population should have been honestly informed of the truth: the extraterrestrial nature of these apparatuses, the peaceful mission of its other humanity, the possibility of several landings in the immediate future, details on the past landings in 1948 and 1952 in the United States, 1952 and 1954 in France, etc.

In recent days, identical phenomena multiplied, in France in particular, and the public, who once laughed, seems to be worried today.

This concern is not justified. It is due to the ignorance in which the population was kept on all the phases and particularity of these prodigious forewords to the interplanetary era.

Consequently, I think that it is necessary, without delay, to train the public in the idea of this reality, to inform them of all the historical aspect of the question, of our own preparations with a view to going to nearby planets and provide directions for contact or simple unsuccessful landing.

Alfred Nahon
Professor of Philosophy
and Psychology
Lausanne

ALWAYS THE SAUCERS

Last week, Thursday, around 5 p.m., MM. Maurice Niquet, 17, farmer; Georges Percheval, 33, agricultural worker; and Emile Oncle, 55, a farmer, were in the fields at Hardinval, near Doullens.

They were busy grubbing up the beets, when their attention was drawn to a brilliant craft, located in the sky at a great height, vertically above the hamlet of Hardinval, south of the national road Abbeville-Doullens.

The spherical craft, with a diameter of about 10 meters, emitted gleams of all colors which were reflected towards the ground and on the two horses led by Mr. Niquet; the horses got scared and had to be untied in a hurry and held by the bridle.

The craft descended gently; on the descent, the gyration of the craft stopped. The saucer came to a stop some 30 meters from the ground, and 200 meters from the place where Mr. Percheval was. Colored jets of steam came out of the craft and lit the ground. The ball remained motionless for ten minutes, then spun and jumped straight into the sky.

Even more amazing spectacle than the one noticed by Mr. and Mrs. Dumeige, cattle brokers, in Domart-en-Ponthieu, and Mr. Lourdel, also a livestock broker, in Condé-Folie. These people saw a bright saucer landing in a flagpole, not far from the road where they were.

Mr. and Mme Dumeige and Mr. Lourdel got out of their vehicles and saw six or seven little beings near the light, advancing in single line. The three Earthmen were so frightened that they got back in the car and left the place as quickly as possible.

A Fienvillers farmer also told us that when she was in the fields, she saw an elongated, very shiny object descending and going up vertically.

She did not believe in it either and yet when one sees these mysterious craft one has to face the facts, added this cultivator.

***

So we just hear about saucers every day.

Will we finally be able to discover the secrets of these mysterious craft?

HEM-HARDINVAL

An unknown object in the sky. - Thursday October 14, around 5 p.m., MM. Maurice Niquet, 17 years old, farmer; Georges Percheval, 33 years old, agricultural worker; and Emile Oncle, 55 years old, a farmer, were in the fields.

They were busy either cutting down barley or pulling out beets, when their attention was drawn to a brilliant object in the sky, at a great height, vertically above the hamlet of Hardinval, towards the south of the national road Abbeville-Doullens.

The craft, spherical in shape, moved slightly vertically and descended to a height of 50 meters. It might have a diameter evaluated at 10 meters, emitting gleams of all colors like a rainbow, these were reflected towards the ground and on the two horses led by Mr. Niquet. The horses, seized by fear, had to be uncoupled and held by the bridle.

The craft oscillated and it turned on the vertical plane first slowly then, the rotation increasing in speed, it took altitude obliquely in the direction of the South-West, went up to a very great height and disappeared, all this without any noise.

The three witnesses were amazed at this phenomenon which lasted more than 20 minutes.

The Doullens gendarmerie wrote up a report of the facts.

The October 18 "Saucer"

In our last issue, we reported the passage of a saucer on Monday, October 18, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the evening first east of Doullens, then on Frévent and St-Pol, from where the phenomenon (or craft?) took the direction of the sea. Its route from Hem-Hardinval to Frévent is now established. It went to Montigny-les-Jongleurs, then to Beauvoir-Rivière (Somme) at the limit of the Ternoise. It seems that it took a break of half an hour to three quarters of an hour in this last town, either on the ground or at very low altitude. It allowed, in any case very instructive observations, which seem to invalidate certain hypotheses and tend to confirm others, on the nature and the means of maneuvering of these mysterious machines.

A farmer from Beauvoir-Rivière, a man already of some age, and very serious, had lingered in the fields to cover a beets silo. He suddenly saw the saucer coming towards him, at a very low altitude four or five meters and flying very slowly. "Its speed was probably not exceeding, he told us, 10 kms per hour. I had the impression that it was trying to land. It was shaped like a bell with a red light below. It seemed to me to be remarkably piloted: a small grove being in its path, it rounded it slowly, although its height would have allowed it to pass over it.

"Then an extremely curious fact happened. The saucer kept coming at me. Between it and me was a pasture closed with burl wire and iron stakes. In the falling evening this fence was practically invisible. It was necessary to know its existence. Now, on arriving there, the saucer made a right [turn] at a right angle to go alongside it, and then, arriving at the corner stake, one to the left to follow its other face, thus resuming the general north-south direction it followed before.

"Note that it could have easily flown over these fences, without risk given its height.

A curtain or crest was then to its left, it moved along it for a moment. Then pressing on this side, it took a little more height to cross it. It then flew over it, in a northwesterly direction, upward sloping fields, increasing its height accordingly, so that it continued to stay at the same distance from the ground.

"It then crossed a second ridge, similar to the first. This then hid it from my sight. I assumed it then landed in the plain above.

"This supposition seemed to me to be confirmed when, returning home three quarters of an hour later, my wife said that on returning from milking, shortly before my return, she had seen a bright red glow in the direction where the saucer was gone for me.

The cultivator only made these statements to us under the express promise not to name him. He does not want to pass for a "saucer voyeur". And that had prompted him to be silent for eight days, without telling anyone about his adventure.

We asked him the following additional questions, which we found of interest.

- Were the contours of the saucer sharp?

- No, blurry.

- Yet a metallic object standing out against the twilight sky must give sharp edges.

- It was not.

- Did the lower edge stand out more clearly on the red light?

- Neither.

- What was the appearance of this fire? That of a light? Of a lantern? Of an exhaust fire? Was it sharp? Or blurred?

- Blurred; a kind of brightness rather.

- Did you observe the appearance of the walls?

Impossible in the twilight for the whole mass, which was dark. I could only see [sic] gray canvas from the top not at all fit the silhouette of a metallic aircraft, or other material, even in the twilight. On the other hand, this blur would fit very well with a gaseous nebula formation.

We are thinking here of the theory according to which saucers "could be" vortices of grouped electrons, and taking the shape of a saucer, around a "condensing nucleus" provided either by a cosmic particle or by a radioactive particle among the millions that are thrown into the upper atmosphere by nuclear explosions.

Note that this theory would fit in with the episode of the burl wires, the vortices of electrons being known to be repelled by the metal.

As for the diffuse red light, it is accepted that such electron eddies can create phosphorescent luminosities, on contact with the neon gas floating in the lower layers of the atmosphere in the same way as the electric current, does it in a neon light tube. The experiments show that this coloring varies according to the intensity of the radio electric agent which causes them: red for the low frequencies and voltage intensities for the electric current then orange, brown, purple, even tending to green, when they increase.

Regarding this question of luminosity, let us note again that at Beauvoir-Rivière, where it was going very slowly, the saucer only showed red luminosity in its lower part, while the ten Saint-Pol residents who saw the saucer a little later (indisputably the same) noticed a dazzling tail. The light emission therefore takes on an increasing intensity with speed, the tail being explained by the very movement of the object in the air. Peremptory reversal of Lieutenant Plantier's theory, according to which the saucers would be surrounded by a belt of air moving with it: in this case there could indeed be no luminous trail, forming a tail.

Let us add that the craft was seen the same day and almost at the same time in Hesdin, Montreuil and Etaples.

INFORMATION

On 9th of October around 8 p.m. 3 farmers of Le Crotoy observed an orange disc in the sky at an undetermined distance, in the shape of an inverted plate that moved for 45 minutes before disappearing northwest.

On October 14, 1954 around 5 p.m. 4 witnesses appearing sincere saw in the hamlet of Hardinval RN.25 in the south-west direction, very high speed, height 40 meters, a spherical apparatus making no noise, color of a rainbow.