The article below was published in the daily newspaper
See the case file here.
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The path runs through the freshly plowed land. A path muddy in places, dug by the heavy carts which, in the evening, bring back from the lands of the nearby Sundgau their load of beet to the farms which surround Dornach.
This path, we follow it for almost half an hour. The air is cold, the landscape desolate at this twilight hour, which clears the blueness of the Vosges in the distance and drags its milky mist on the side of a hill that we are now climbing.
At the top of the hill we discover a vast horizon and we locate exactly the places: on the left the steeple of Didenheim, a few kilometers, emerges from a hollow; straight ahead, a valley opens towards Hochstatt; to the right, that is to say, approximately to the west, extends the ban of the municipality of Morschwiller-le-bas. The wood that can be seen at a short distance is called Didenheim forest, although the village is quite far away.
It is where we are that a mysterious craft has moved at a low altitude, at the beginning of the night from Thursday to Friday.
We would like to persuade the reader that the testimonies we have gathered are absolutely reliable and that we conducted the inquiry with all the seriousness and objectivity that one is entitled to expect in such a case.
These testimonials are here:
A red and luminous ball
The Hiroltzer family owns a farm, rue des Trois-Epis in Dornach, in the immediate vicinity of the Belfort road, in front of the calvary which marks the limits of the commune of Mulhouse and that of Morschwiller-le-bas. Currently, she is busy pulling beets in the fields she possesses between Morschwiller and Didenheim, to the left of the road of Belfort. Thursday evening shortly after 6:30 p.m., that is to say at a time when night fell, members of the Hiroltzer family, perched on a tractor-drawn car, were returning along a dirt road, in the fields, to head for the farm. At the back of the car loaded with sugar beet a 14-year-old had taken his place. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation. He was questioned. He claimed to have seen a red ball crossing the sky. The reflex of those who accompanied him was to make fun of him. It was 6:40 p.m. The young man, on returning to the farm, told what he had seen to the farmer's son, Mr. Hiroltzer, a young peasant who cannot be fooled, because he has both feet firmly on the ground and common sense does not lack to him. At least that's the impression we had while questioning him last night in the field that he plowed at the controls of his tractor. Hiroltzer was struck by the teenager's sincerity and he decided to return with him on the spot by bicycle.
They were there soon; Henri Hiroltzer dismounted and waited, a little skeptical. And suddenly, the incredible happened. A globe appeared in the sky, exactly where we described it above. Despite the relatively large distance separating the men from the machine, it appeared to be about 50 cm in diameter, which suggests that the actual dimensions of the machine were considerable. The craft slowly moved over the wood of Didenheim. Its color was sharp red, like the strong glow that emanated from it. Suddenly a violent light made the night roll back, a flash of light surrounded the disappearing globe. It was 07:30 p.m.
Henri Hiroltzer and his companion took the road back. But when he arrived at the farm, the young farmer decided not to stop there. He went to fetch one of his friends, Mr. Jean-Paul Reck, who works in a Mulhouse meat shop. Both, riding a motorcycle, returned to the fields. Let us open a parenthesis to clarify that we have also collected the testimony of Mr. R., and that it is in all respects identical to the descriptions of Mr. Hiroltzer Because a third appearance took place. The two men leaving Dornach thought that this time nothing would happen. They were wrong about that...
The night was total, only slightly broken by places scattered throughout the countryside. Once arrived, always in the same place, Mr. Hiroltzer left the headlight of his motorcycle on, in order to, he says, attract the machine. And that's what happened. Suddenly the globe reappeared over the wood of Didenheim. It was advancing slowly, at low altitude, towards the men. The red colur changed to green. A lightning bolt split the night. The globe became purple, then red again. At this moment, Mr. Hiroltzer extinguished his headlight, seized with terror. Shortly after the craft disappeared and the two men, convinced this time and somewhat anxious, returned to the reassuring lights of human homes.
