ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

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Case of Andlau, on October 2, 1954:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1954-10-02-ANDLAU-1

Summary:

Journalist Christian Valentin published in 2004 a long article about the flying saucers stories in Alsace during the 1954 French flap.

He indicates that on October 2, 1954, in the evening, a celestial body of red color and the size of a plate crossed the sky from the East to the West at the level of the city of Andlau.

In his 2012 book, he added that the case came from the newspaper Le Nouveau Rhin Français, France, Sélestat issue, for October 5, 1954; which reported:

"Flying saucer: two residents of Andlau, Mrs R. H. and K. J., observed Saturday between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. a flying object of bright red color and the size of a plate, moving from east to west."

Data:

Temporal data:

Date:	October 2, 1954
Time:	Between 08:00 p.m. and 09:00 p.m.
Duration:	?
First known report date:	October 5, 1954
Reporting delay:	2 days.

Geographical data:

Department:	Bas-Rhin
City:	Andlau
Place:	?
Latitude:	48.385
Longitude:	-7.4183
Uncertainty radius:	5 km

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses:	2
Number of known witnesses:	?
Number of named witnesses:	2
Witness(es) ages:	?
Witness(es) types:	?

Ufology data:

Reporting channel:	The Press?
Type of location:	?
Visibility conditions:	Night
UFO observed:	Yes
UFO arrival observed:	?
UFO departure observed:	?
Entities:	No
Photographs:	No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es):	No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es):	No.
Witness(es) feelings:	?
Witnesses interpretation:	?

Classifications:

Hynek:	NL
ALSACAT:	Totally insufficient information, possible meteor or plane for example.

Sources:

[Ref. nrf1:] NEWSPAPER "LE NOUVEAU RHIN FRANÇAIS":

Flying saucer: two residents of Andlau, Mrs R. H. and K. J., observed Saturday between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. a flying object of bright red color and the size of a plate, moving from east to west.

[Ref. cvn1:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

Christian Valentin indicates among the many observations in Alsace in 1954, that on October 2, 1954, in the evening, a celestial body of red color and the size of a plate crossed the sky from the East to the West at the level of the city of Andlau.

[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 on Saturday, October 2, 1954 in the Bas-Rhin Andlau there was this observation, reported in the newspaper LE NOUVEAU RHIN FRANÇAIS for Tuesday, October 5, 1954 in the bilingual edition of Sélestat:

Flying saucer: two residents of Andlau, Mrs R. H. and K. J., observed Saturday between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. a flying object of bright red color and the size of a plate, moving from east to west.

[Ref. spa1:] UFOLOGY GROUP "SPICA":

City	Date and hour of observation	General shape Identification	General color Hypothesis	Conclusion
ANDLAU	Saturday 2 October 1954	various others Unidentified	red None	Unsolved -lack of info

Discussion:

With so little information, many possibilities are open: plane, meteor, extraterrestrial spacecraft...

Evaluation:

Totally insufficient information, possible meteor or plane for example.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

[nrf1] * Article in the regional newspaper Le Nouveau Rhin Français, France, Sélestat issue, October 5, 1954.
[cvn1] * "1954, l'année des OVNIS - Des observations par dizaines, des témoins par centaines", article by Christian Valentin in "Saisons d'Alsace", quarterly magazine, Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace publisher, Strasbourg, page 91, summer 2004.
[cvn2] * "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés - Histoire des soucoupes volantes en Alsace jusqu'en 1980", book by Christian Valentin, Grimoires d'Alsace publishers, France, page 32, 2012.
[spa1] * "DEPARTEMENT 67 - BAS-RHIN", listing of UFO sighting reports by the Alsatian ufology group SPICA, Alsace, France, not dated, found in May 2015, at http://www.spica.org/Page_Listing_67.htm

File history:

Authoring:

Main author:	Patrick Gross
Contributors:	None
Reviewers:	None
Editeur:	Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version:	Create/changed by:	Date:	Description:
0.1	Patrick Gross	May 1, 2005	First published in the France 1954 catalogue. [cvn1].
1.0	Patrick Gross	February 27, 2009	Conversion from HTML to XHTML Strict. First formal version.
1.1	Patrick Gross	February 27, 2009	A search on the web did not reveal any other information. Addition of the Summary.
3.0	Patrick Gross	April 23, 2014	Additions [nrf1], [cvn2].
3.0	Patrick Gross	April 23, 2014	First published in the ALSACAT catalogue.
3.1	Patrick Gross	June 11, 2015	Addition [spa1].

This page was last updated on June 11, 2015.