Circles on the field and other formations. France

The essential report on this unusual case was written by local ufologist investigator Jean-Pierre Schirch, and published in the ufological magazine Lumières Dans La Nuit in April 1972. I supplemented it with details about the places and details collected from the main witness by journalist Christian Valentin in 2008.

On June 25, 1971, at about 11 p.m., 18-year-old Joel Schweitzer and his comrade who asked to remain anonymous had visited a female friend and were returning home.

They came from the hill of Entremont on the edge of Riedisheim, culminating at 283 meters, from where Mulhouse can be overseen. The descent is fairly steep, and before reaching the railroad tracks from Mulhouse to Basel, it ends on what was then a large meadow, surrounded by newly-built houses, except on the east side where fields were still extending, back then.

The night was rather dark, there had been a thunderstorm in the evening, the weather was heavy, big black clouds were passing in the sky, the moon did not seem to light the landscape - it was set down or about to set down.

The two youngsters were coming down a vague path to the edge of the meadow when they saw a light in the distance to the northeast. It looked like an electric flashlight far away from them. It seemed to be getting closer, which intrigued them, and they began to observe it.

They said it was very bright, and gave the impression of spinning. It came down over the girls' private school of St. Ursule, and continued to come, still coming down, and getting closer to them. The light was now shaped like a disc.

According to what Mr. Schirch said, this disc had one flat surface, and the other durface was bulged - it was like a cap - and the advance was more or less with the flat face vertical to the axis of displacement.

The object was soon vertical to the meadow, at a height of about 15 meters according to the estimate of witnesses. The disc then stopped, remained there for 2 to 3 seconds, its brightness appearing to weaken - though it never went out throughout the duration of the observation.

The two witnesses saw this light, which seemed very white to them, and noticed that the ground was lit up below because they could distinguish the grass of the meadow. In 2008, Mr. Schweitzer told that the light was dazzling.

During its hovering, the object performed a reversal maneuver: the flat face tilted to face the ground, and from that moment the disk was in the form of a sphere segment. It gave a strong impression of being in very fast rotation, like a top.

There was a light, like a white beacon, on the top of the object, which seemed to be able to be oriented, tilted, and gave an appearance of blinking - the witnesses could not explain the cause of this blinking.

After a few seconds of stopping, the object descended to the ground, very slowly and the descent was done vertically. The ground was now well lit, and the object took 3 or 4 seconds before reaching the ground, without any other particular movement observed during this descent.

At no time did the witnesses hear any noise. The numerous dogs around did not bark.

The two friends had sat down, a little frightened, about to flee, when they saw the object stopped in its descent remaining stationary 25 meters from them. Its brightness had increased during the descent, then it weakened, always blinking a little.

The object appeared to have landed, or was in close proximity to the ground. It did not move at all, and its light lit up the grass. There was a shadow area under the object, where it was impossible to distinguish anything. The surroundings were lit up.

The witnesses could not see any feet or landing gear, because the contrast between the shadow zone and the illuminated part of the ground was too strong.

The object remained like this for about a minute and a half, then it went up vertically, still very slowly, and took for a few moments the position it occupied before the descent, 15 meters above the ground, the face flat facing the ground.

It then started to swirl and left slowly. The light illuminated the ground like when it had arrived, that is to say weakly, more and more feebly as it moved away - they saw the ground become darker as it went.

Eventually, it shot away at high speed, with no noticeable acceleration, almost horizontally, and faded into the night.

The size of the object was estimated at 8 meters in diameter and 2 meters in height. The hue was difficult to define, some parts shone as if they were metallic, especially the outlines.

The next day, Joël Schweitzer and his friend returned to the spot, and found traces in the grass where the object had been. These traces were very visible. The meadow had been mown a few days before, the vegetation, mostly alfalfa, with some grass, was 5 to 10 cm high. The vegetation had no time to resume its growth since its last cut, and the ground was very dry.

According to the investigator, the traces were a circle of 6.20 meters in diameter, with, in its center, a figure of "H" of 2.20 meters by 2.20 meters. There were also three circular traces 30 centimeters in diameter, eccentric to the circle, and a small square hole. One of the 30 cm traces was inside the circle, the two others were outside the circle at 5.50 of the first one and distant from each other of 4.20 meters. A precise plan of these traces has been drawn up, visible further below in this file. Several photographs were also taken.

The surface of these traces state materialized by the aspect of the grass: it was flattened, and like blackened but without being burned by a source of heat, preserving its aspect of grass.

This trace has posed many problems and caused many interpretations. First, in their 1979 book, two "skeptical" ufologists, Gérard Barthel and Jacques Brucker, told that what was in the trace was soot - like if it was an explanation: "Mulhouse, June 25, 1971, the trace was made of soot." No information was given as to how it was determined to be soot, and no other information than this was given by these authors about this case.

A first problem was the following: on the pictures taken, the trace is "white", or at least, lighter than the surrounding grass. However, according to initial findings, it should have been "blackened." Did someone "mark" the trace with plaster or flour to make it visible on the photographs? All that appears to be known is that the photographs had been taken several weeks after the alleged landing, the traces being still visible in September according to the main witness.

A second issue is that the circle with its "H" in the center is exactly the design of an helicopter landing area marking - I can assure that that meadow was not a heliport per se. But it turns out that in 2008, Joel Schweitzer had told Christian Valentin that he does not remember that there was any "H" in the trace.

Finally, this "H" in a circle has been interpreted by authors - generally Hispanic - as an indication that this had been the landing of a flying saucer from the planet "Ummo". "Ummo" was a gigantic hoax performed in Spain essentially, one of the elements being fake photos of a "flying saucer" from Ummo allegedly seen in the suburbs of Madrid, Spain, in 1966, showing on its underside a drawing that would recall the "H". But in reality, Ummo's "saucer" did not carry an "H" but a shape with one more bar than the "H" in its center - the resemblance is totally dubious - see below in this file.