The article below was published in the daily newspaper Nord-Matin, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, pages 1 and 10, on October 20, 1954.
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An intense emotion seized the parishioners of Walscheid (Moselle) when, at the end of the evening mass, a group of children told them that a "Martian commando" had taken up position on a village farm.
With a thousand precautions, some of the most courageous men set out as scouts, and indeed distinguished on the terrace of the said farm, silhouettes as imprecise as suspicious, even disturbing...
A war council was held during which the virile element of the population decided to dislodge the aggressor.
While the women took refuge in the church, the men gathered an armament which, though disparate, was nonetheless handled with resolution: sticks, forks, rifles, knives...
Silently, making maximum use of
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under the title:
MARTIANS
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mum the ground and the parades, the attackers progressed towards the entrenchment of the Martians and surrounded it.
No emotion being manifested among the suspicious figures, the assault was decided. One formed two columns and the bearers of edged weapons moved cautiously under the protection of the hunters, their fingers on the triggers.
At an adequate distance, the summons were launched. The Martians did not flinch: the summons became more imperative and soon a window opened, a man appeared. It was the owner of the place, who, with a sleepy voice, inquired:
- What's going on? What are you doing there?
He was told.
He replied with a huge laugh that was soon to be communicated to everyone...
He explained that he had swaddled the chrysanthemums on his terrace at nightfall to protect them from frost.
These were the suspicious figures, which had ignited the children's imaginations.
[...]
Monday evening, around 8:50 p.m., four people simultaneously saw an unknown object in the Béthune sky. One of them was in Vendin, 2 km west of Béthune, the three together in Beuvry, 2 km east.
It was to the Vendin resident, Mr. Louis Decourcelle, 53, transporter, rue de la Mairie, that the appearance was the clearest.
He was near his house when, shortly before 9 p.m., he saw in the sky, above Béthune, an indigo-colored disc which remained motionless for a moment, at a certain height. Then the disc elongated as if, at its base, a shape were unfolding. The whole thing spread a bright light in the sky. Suddenly, the craft launched blinding sparks. Then the craft went out and disappeared quickly.
Mr. Decourcelle, whom the Béthune gendarmes heard yesterday morning, at the Quay de Bruay where he works, drew for them on the blackboard, in the Quai post, the silhouette of this "saucer".
This appearance was very brief.
Mr. Decourcelle, without knowing what craft he had dealt with, is strictly certain that he was not the victim of hallucination.
At the same time, moreover, 4 or 5 km. from there, three Beuvry residents saw in the sky a luminous trail around a disc, the whole corresponding to the phenomenon observed by M. Decourcelle.
These are MM. Julien Vanarien, 35, laborer, hamlet of Gorre in Beuvry, who was accompanied by MM. Julien Vanne and Jules Delbarre, from Beuvry. All three were close to Beuvry railway station when they saw the mysterious object.
The gendarmes of Béthune took the testimony of Mr. Vanarien and attached it, in a formal report, to that of Mr. Decourcelle.
Several other residents of Béthune and Douai also saw the "saucer" at the same time Monday evening.
Sunday evening, around 10 p.m., Mr. Maurice Ramette, 24, from Naves, near Cambrai, and Mr. Léon Héquier, 28, from Sailly-en-Cambrésis, were returning on foot from Zutquerque, to Audruicq, accompanied by their wife and their two children, ages 8 and 2 and a half.
They saw high in the sky and to their right, an unusual object of round shape and white pink color, smaller than the moon but much larger than a star, and which seemed to be moving towards them. They remained petrified. The object went out. They continued on their way and saw it again, re-lit and moving away from them to their left, faster than a jet plane.
Mr. Ramette, who recounts the event, is a beet tarer at Audruicq station. He seems to be sincere. His 2 and a half year old son is still terrified of the apparition. His wife denies that she had been afraid, but admits having returned quickly to her dweeling and that she did not dare to go out to go to the movies.
Several people were running across fields in Moyeux, in the direction of a flying saucer, surrounded by white smoke; which had been signaled to them by a child.
One of them, a farmer, Mr. Filate, did not take his eyes off the sky: he fell into a deep pond where he almost drowned. His companions managed to save him.
ROME. -- The flying discs continue their sarabande in the sky of the peninsula. In Capri, one of these mysterious craft landed on the terrace of the villa of the writer Curzio Malaparte.
It is a painter, Mr. Raffaele Castello who, during a night walk on Cape Massullo, saw a huge disc about five meters in diameter, which was moving at a hundred meters of altitude. The craft descended slowly and landed on the terrace of the writer's villa.
Mr. Castello, who at first thought it was a helicopter, approached the summer residence of Curzio Malaparte and was greatly surprised to see four men, small, descend from the disc. The passengers of the craft, who were wearing overalls, remained around the disc for about half an hour. "I had the feeling, said the witness of this landing, that they did not speak, or they did so in a low voice, because from where I was, I could not hear any sound. What is certain is that bluish gleams escaped from the disc without stopping, similar to pins and lightning fast, going in all directions."
"After some time, about half an hour, the four men entered the disc which, with a slight purring sound, rose gently, perpendicularly, and then quickly gained altitude."
