The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 30-sep-54-Bourgneuf.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
An article in the regional newspaper Le Berry Républicain fot October 5, 1954, reported that two young boys in the class of Mr. Chataigne, director of the Vierzon-Bourgneuf school, had claimed to have seen flying saucers and made a full description of it to their teacher.
One of them was the young Alain Baumgarten who said he had seen "Thursday" - so on September 30, 1954 - around 10:30 a.m., with some classmates, a craft moving in the sky, at avour 10:30 p.m..
[Ref. brn1:] NEWSPAPER "LE BERRY REPUBLICAIN":
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On Friday, around 7:30 p.m., Mrs. Rousselet, residing at the "Moulin de l'Oie" farm in La Guerche, was closing the shutters of her house when she saw a large luminous ball in the sky, reddish in color, which at times took the shape of a cigar. In the middle of the ball, she noticed what appeared to be small filaments. This event was also witnessed by Mrs. Villepreux, the lock keeper at the "L'Oie" lock.
On Sunday, around 2 a.m., young Marcel Debrade, returning from Bourges by train and heading to his parents' home at the "Geal" estate, also observed a flying saucer on the "Claurie" hill. This time, however, the object resembled a coffee cup and was greenish in color.
The young man specified that the road and fields were illuminated, and as soon as the object appeared, everything suddenly plunged into darkness.
On Sunday evening, popular cycling champion Robert Verdenal was returning around 9 p.m. from La Chapelle-Hugon and heading to Grossouvre when, suddenly, a circular shape brightly lit with fiery red glows appeared in the sky ahead of him. The object seemed to hover for a few seconds before suddenly disappearing toward the East. It should be noted that Robert Verdenal was not alone and asserts that he was not experiencing a hallucination.
Two young students from the class of Mr. Chataignier, director of the Vierzon-Bourgneuf school, claim to have seen flying saucers and provided a detailed description to their director. First, young Alain Baumgarten, living in La Petite Loeuf, along with some friends, was stunned when he spotted an object moving through the sky on Thursday morning around 10:30 a.m.
Then, on Friday evening around 7 p.m., young Jean Rousseau saw a luminous object in his parents' garden, which spun around itself before rapidly ascending into the sky.
Should we place much importance on what imaginative children say at their age? They saw something, and to them, that’s all that matters!
On Saturday around 8 p.m., Mrs. Estève Michel, Mr. Jean Bureau, Mr. Gustave Gadoin, and several other residents of Rians observed for about 15 minutes a luminous ball in the direction of Sainte-Solange, which slowly descended vertically. Then, near the horizon, it moved to the right before disappearing. The observers cannot confirm that it was a flying saucer, but given how frequently these luminous objects are reported, it would be easy to label it as such. Will we soon get the explanation everyone is waiting for?
Last Sunday, Mr. Jules Prunget, secretary of the town hall in Pommiers (Indre), was in his garden when his attention was drawn to a very bright yellow-orange object moving from north to south at high speed about 600 meters above the ground. Mrs. Nicaud, who was standing at her door, also saw this strange sight. She described the object as cigar-shaped, about three meters long, with the front larger than the back. No noise or smoke came from it. It was visible for only a few seconds.
The sky over Château-Chinon, according to testimony from five people whose sincerity is beyond doubt, was crossed by one of these mysterious luminous objects now widely known as flying saucers.
The strange sighting occurred around 9 p.m.. This time, the object appeared as an oval-shaped luminous patch seemingly moving at a very high altitude in the sky. At one point, the patch seemed to split into two parts, and each part began spinning rapidly, changing colors several times. Then, it faded, and after a few minutes, the luminous patch reappeared, split again, and started spinning. This phenomenon repeated itself five times before the eyes of the five witnesses.
[Ref. ldl1:] UFOLOGY MAGAZINE "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT":
The magazine says that on September 30, 1954, in Bourgneuf near Vierzon in the département of Cher, a craft has been seen in broad daylight, manoeuvering in the sky.
[Ref. lhh1:] LARRY HATCH - "*U* COMPUTER DATABASE":
3892: 1954/10/01 19:00 1 1:01:40 W 46:10:20 N 3333 WEU FRN CHM 7:6
BOURGNEUF,FR:STUDENTS:GLOWING OBJ IN GARDEN:SPINS+RISES VFAST+GONE:no descript
Ref#194 LUMIERES dans la NUIT.(LDLN France) Issue No. 319 : RESIDENT'L
[Ref. edr1:] EMMANUEL DEHLINGER:
Emmanuel Dehlinger has an entry for this case in his listing for the French 1954 UFO flap:
| Location | Approximate coordoninates | Date | Civilian time | Z time | Duration | Sky | Distance and movement of ufo | Altitude of ufo | Angle B of sun to horizon | Azimut of sun | Angle B of moon to horizon | Azimut de la lune | EL | State of night | Case | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourgneuf, Vierzon (Cher) | 2° 4' E 47° 13' N | Sept 30 | ~10:30C | daylight | Sky | 32° 21' | 140° | 12%+ | J5 | Craft evolving in the sky. | N° 319 p. 8 |
[Ref. lcn1:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Cher, in St Eloy de Gy, on September 1954, at 10:30, "at the place called Bourgneuf, a craft was seen in daylight moving in the sky."
Luc Chastan indicates that the source is "Les OVNI vus de près par Gross Patrick ** http://ufologie.net".
[Ref. lcn2:] LUC CHASTAN:
Luc Chastan indicates that in the Cher in Vierzon, on September 30, 1954, at 10:30 hours "Several children observe an object moving in the sky (without precision)".
Luc Chastan indicates that the source is "Lumières dans la Nuit".
[Ref. uda1:] "UFODNA" WEBSITE:
The website indicates that on 30 September 1954 at 10:30 in Vierzon, France, "An unidentified object was sighted, but with appearance and behavior that most likely would have a conventional explanation. One object was observed".
The source is indicated as Vallee, Jacques, Computerized Catalog (N = 3073).
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19541104 | 04.11.1954 | Bourgneuf | France | 19.39 | NL |
[Ref. jqy1:] JEAN DE QUERCY:
Young schoolchildren from the Vierzon-Bourgneuf school claim to have seen flying saucers and gave a full description of them to their director. The young Alain Baumgarten saw around 10:30 a.m., with some comrades, a craft moving in the sky.
(Source: In Le Berry Républicain for 05 October 1954 p.3)
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A "craft moving in the sky" is certainly not "a complete description". The newspaper Le Berry Républicain [lbr1] gave a really poor version of the affair.
Therefore the "craft" could have been a lot of things, like a simple plane for example. The witness was a kid...
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Bourgneuf, Cher, craft, Alain Baumgarten, Chataigne, kids, flying saucers
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | October 5, 2005 | First published. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 11, 2010 | Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version. Addition [lcn1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 14, 2010 | Additions [lcn2], [uda1]. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | February 2, 2017 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | October 4, 2021 | Addition [lhh1]. |
| 1.2 | Patrick Gross | March 28, 2022 | Addition [jqy1]. |
