Cette page en français
The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this site is here.
Reference number for this case: 26-May-54-Marseilles. Thank you for including this reference number in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
[Ref. lp1] "LE PROVENCAL" NEWSPAPER:
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A flying saucer above Marseilles?They are definitely of topicality, these famous "saucers" reported a little everywhere without the mystery which surrounds them being dissipated. This time, here is a photographic document which relates to them. It was communicated to us by one of our readers, Mr. J. Ates, and it was carried out by a amateur photographer wishing to preserve anonymity. This photo bears at the back the following information: "Flying craft above Marseilles, May 26, 1954. hour: 06:30 p.m., time of observation: three minutes. Slightly covered weather. Enormous disc, coming from the East and speeding in direction of the West, going at an average speed, very sudden acceleration and complete disappearance at the horizon in some split seconds..." This would be the first photograph of a saucer, if the fact could one day be confirmed scientifically. |
[Ref. in1] ON THE INTERNET:
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The comment of the blog where this picture appeared indicates that it was published in "Semaine du Monde" for the week of October 1st to October 7, 1954 #99."
The article is cited as saying about this photograph:
"Thus France, in its turn, will give to the problem a national interest. But already we pour in the file the first photographs taken in France. All three were taken by two correspondents of our newspaper, Misters L. Alyons and J. Ates. The fact that they were photographed in the sky of Marseilles does not allow to infer anything as for the nature of the phenomenon."
"That of the left, caught on last May 26, at 06:30 p.m., "enormous, remained fixed at low altitude while making the window of the room vibrate" before fleeing suddenly. In top on the left: June 7, this apparatus lenghtily showed itself to the teleobjective. On the right: August 22, this apparatus, resembling also like a brother to a flying saucer hesitated a long time, sometimes coming down as low as 100 meters and sometimes going up vertically, to land over the hills of Marseilleveyre for the evening pastis. Did the indifférence expressed by the rsidents of Marseilles seem suspect to the mysterious travellers?"
Not looked for yet.
One American ufologist notes that the silhouette evokes that of a military ship of the corvette or destroyer type, and that the photograph could show water and not the sky.
The silhouette indeed matches for example that of the fast escort ships of "Le Triomphant" type, in use 1954, or some other.
In this class of escort ships, Fantasque, le Malin, le Terrible, le Triomphant, le Chateaurenault, le Guichen, l'Albatros, le Hoche, le Marceau, le Kléber, and le Lorrain were active in 1954. I have le Triumphant in mind because it was decommissionned in December 1954 in Toulon close to Marseilles.
I could not locate photographs of this class of ship exactly under the appropriate angle, here is however a photograph of a model kit of "le Terrible":
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And a photograph of "le Fantasque":
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I then found on April 17, 2008, on a web blog a long collection of articles coming from my own site, not credited and deprived of the links to my corresponding case files, but also among those, the transcription of the article indicated to be of "Semaine du Monde" and the image presented here, which I did not have in my collection.
In this better version, it is obvious that the explanation by a ship does not stand anymore, except in the form of a double-exposure.
The fact that all three "flying saucers pictures" come from the same persons though at three different date highly suggests that they are all hoaxed.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Marseilles, Bouches-du-Rhône, photograph, anonymous, object, craft, weather, disc, cupola, acceleration, duration
[---] indicates sources which I have not yet checked.
