The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this site is here.
Reference number for this case: 20-October-54-Préchac. Thank you for including this reference number in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
[Ref. 312] GERARD BARTHEL AND JACQUES BRUCKER:
The two authors argue that no UFO is an extraterrestrial craft because their shapes are ridiculously varied. As example they indicate a case which they date of October 20, 1954, in Préchac, which they say has been described in the "Sud-Ouest" newspaper of August 11, 1974 as such:
"Mr Mothes, set in his pidgeon tower vis-a-vis Ciron awaits the game. At approximately 01:30 p.m., he is very surprised when the hoped prey has no other aspect than that of a hypertrophic batrachian larva."
"- I saw a kind of bulky machine presenting the form of a huge tadpole of 2 meters in diameter and 4 in length. Two white portholes flanked the back of the body, a bent prolongation was protruding. The machine disappeared in a recent cut in the forest; low noises accompanied its landing. On the location of its impact with the ground I did discovered nothing. -No circulation of Zeppelin or other pisciform airship was announced in the area."
The two authors then suggest as explanation that Mr. Mothes saw certainly a shooting star and made a strange description of it, that one sees melons in Cavaillon [because Cavaillon produces melons] and silly things in Cambrai [because Cambrai produces a pastry called "bêtises de Cambrai", i.e. "silly things"].
Not looked for yet.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Préchac, Gironde, Mothes, tadpole, portholes, white, noise
[-] indicates sources which I have not yet checked.
