During those turbulent times in between the two World Wars, right before the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Depression, there were little known and mostly hidden encounters with 'strangers' among us.
For various reasons, probably because of witness reluctance and faltering memories, many of the encounters reported from 1920 through 1929 were mainly ignored and poorly documented. But there is a core of incidents that appear to mirror what was going to occur in the not too distant future. I will attempt to cover some of the least known incidents reported during the time, not only 'humanoid' encounters but other high-strangeness events:
Sometime in 1920 a strange series of events took place in Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia. The following narrative is directly taken from an article by veteran Australian UFO researcher Bill Chalker:
"UFOs sub-rosa down under: The Australian Military ">AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHER BILL CHALKER"
Interesting account, what were those lights reported during the search for the schooner, what kind of a cloud was it that the search aircraft fly into and never came out? I suspect we will never know these answers. The area (Bass Strait) is a well known area for Australian anomaly researchers, where UFOs, strange disappearances and other high strangeness incidents have been frequently reported. This case is what I call perhaps a 'permanent abduction'.
According to Ukrainian researcher, Dr. Anton Anfalov (he quotes UFO Liaisons of the Universe, Lugansk, Ukraine) in the year 1920 during the bloody Russian Civil War and somewhere not specified in the Crimean Peninsula a strange event took place:
A mobile Red Army group was moving along a local road in the rugged mountains of the Crimean Peninsula. There were a total of five soldiers including one woman. They were moving in a cart wagon and were armed with rifles and "Maksim" machine guns. Suddenly they noticed a lighted area on the side of the road and then stopped near the road prepared their weapons and began to check the area. They soon came upon a strange dome-shaped object on the ground and several tall figures walking near the object. The figures were described as dressed in a kind of armored suit, resembling chainmaille, The figures were about 2 meters in height, or taller. Thinking that these were foreign enemies the group prepared to fire upon the strangers with their Maksim machine guns but were suddenly blinded by a bright flash of light and knocked down losing consciousness. When they returned to their senses again, the object and the strange figures had disappeared.
Another interesting event, one that it would have been classified as a CE3 in modern 'Ufological' parlance, the action taken in the part of the unknown entities was apparently a self defense action. It is unfortunate that there is not a more precise location provided for this extremely high strangeness event.
According to veteran French researchers Joel Mesnard and Jean Marie Bigorne sometime during the summer of 1920 near the town of Nontron in the Dordogne region of France the following peculiar event took place:
On a Saturday evening, between 2300 and midnight, a group of young people was returning from a dance when they saw in the sky, above a little wood, a strange spectacle; a group of beings of small stature about in the air, and giving off "musical sounds." The young people could see their little legs move about, and noticed that surroundings the figures were a number of luminous balls that gave to the group a "fiery aspect." According to the accounts of two of the group, Louise and Marie Grasset, they felt no fear at the strange sight.
It appears to have been an encounter with a sort of luminous and flying entity. The 'musical sounds' reported is interesting as there have been many similar reports throughout the years in which 'musical tones' have been connected with the appearance of UFOs and strange entities.
According to published reports in the UFO electronic magazines, "UFO Roundup" Vo. 7 # 28 and "Filer's Files" (unknown volume) a 'classic' close encounter of the third kind took place in September 1920 outside of Bethel, North Carolina, the following is a summary of events:
During the local cotton harvest 14-year laborer Nicora B. and her family were out in the fields plucking the white bolls from the cotton plants and stuffing them in their trailing tote sacks when they saw something large flying over the farm. They described it as an object resembling two pie pans placed together lip to lip. The silvery object zigzagged across the sky and came to rest in the field in front of the witnesses. Two little bald white men got out and pointed short stick-like implements at them. They were the size of little boys but their faces seemed older. One of the little bald men began digging and poking in the dirt with something like a shovel and put some dirt into a bag. He then took a small plant and placed it in the bag also. Both little men then backed up one after the other and entered the pie-pan shaped object, still pointing the sticks at them as they walked backwards. Presently the UFO took off and zigzagged back in the direction it came.
In later decades hundreds if not thousands of similar events were to be reported, supposed aliens collecting samples from the ground, also humanoids carrying stick-like implements.
Like I mentioned earlier I will be covering different types of encounters with all sorts of humanoids during this time period, not all necessarily connected with a 'UFO' the following case is an example.
According to the "Fortean Times" website (1993) sometime in 1921 at an unspecified location in Hertfordshire, England the following encounter took place:
During daytime a man was driving down a rural road with nothing going on, when he spotted a roadside tree stump up ahead. Sitting on the stump was a small (18" high) round-face being with a pointed cap which slouched over to one side. Before being able to secure a better look, the being was no longer there.
Of course this case can be classified as an encounter with a fairy, leprechaun, goblin, etc. Is there a different between this sort of encounter and the landing of a disc-shaped craft from which several short humanoids emerge and begin collecting soil samples? At first sight the answer is no, but maybe there are more similar in nature than we think.
One of the earliest abduction type-scenario-incident was reported by several French Ufologists among them, Joel Mesnard and Jean-Marie Bigorne, this case was said to have taken place in the French city of Marseille in the Bouches du Rhone region it apparently took place one afternoon in the summer of 1921 the following is a condensed narrative of the event:
"In 1921
a very hot year
I was playing one day among the hills of the North Canal. I was eight years old and I love to lose myself in the moonlike landscape made by excavation, and from the First World War. "Suddenly, two beings, wearing a sort of pliable helmet, literally leaped out from between some acacia trees. Without preliminaries, they dragged me toward what I thought was an oddly shaped tank. They took me up into the machine, without my being able to resist. I should say, 'Without my being able to want to resist.' I suddenly began to cry; and I don't know whether that moved them, but after a while an opening appeared in the ceiling of the cabin, and in a few seconds I found myself on the ground. "However, I had to walk most of the afternoon until I found myself near the road I had left five minute before. " When I got home that night, my parents treated me like a little liar, and no one believed me. I can now hardly add much detail to the machine, or its cabin. Doubtless, I was too astounded. I only remember two details; there were square or at least rectangular portholes. The cabin had a kind of soft couch that I sat on." I seem to recall that their helmets appeared metallic. I don't recall any anatomical details, except that the two beings were very tall and very slender."
A bizarre tale to be sure and a rather crude abduction scenario, obviously the young witness was let go by his strange abductors, but there is no further details available.
From veteran UFO/Bigfoot researcher, Peter Guttilla from his book The Bigfoot Files we have the following event said to have taken place one night in August of 1921 in the area of Mount Shasta, California, it includes some interesting details however brief the narrative is:
Elberta Payne was lying sick at her grandmother's home when she saw two large black "furry creatures" with large eyes, watching her through the bedroom window. Almost immediately she recovered from what was thought to have been typhoid fever.
The apparent spontaneous healing of the witness following the encounter is interesting to say the least since we have hundreds of similar events involving alleged healings after UFO encounters.
Renowned international researcher Jacques Vallee introduced us to one of the earliest reports of a flying humanoid in connection to a UFO. The event reportedly took place at five o'clock in the morning on February 22 1922 in an area near Hubbell, Nebraska:
A hunter, William C. Lamb, was following mysterious tracks when he heard a crackling noise followed by a high-pitched sound & realized that a circular object was flying overhead. He hid behind a tree & saw this object, now brilliantly lighted, land in a hollow. Soon afterward a "magnificent" flying creature at least 8 ft tall appeared that landed like an airplane & left traces in the snow. It passed by the tree Lamb followed the tracks for 5 miles before giving up.
Stunning case, it was later reported that Mr. Lamb was involved in other encounters and appeared to have been a 'repeater' witness.
Another very high strangeness case allegedly took place during another civil war, this time the Irish Civil War and it is said to have taken place one early morning in April of 1922 in County Donegal, Ireland. According to the INTCAT listing quoting the "Watford and South Herts Post" of April 30 1964 this is a brief summary of what allegedly took place:
During the Irish civil war, soldier Lawrence Bradley came to a cave, the foliage at the entrance of which was burned. Soldiers sheltering inside said they had been awakened in the early morning by a 'whirring' sound, and fired at an object. The object fired jets of fire at the cave. As the soldiers emerged the object, circular and metallic, was beginning to ascend.
Strange indeed, did the exhausted soldiers perhaps mistake at tank (early version) for a more unconventional craft? However the fact that it was reportedly 'ascending' does not make it a mundane object.
From veteran researchers Ron Westrum and Ted Bloecher we have a more 'typical' (if that is possible) CE3 event from the summer of 1922 said to have taken place around 22:00 in the city of Detroit, Michigan:
Mrs. Irma Hinz was walking home from a movie with a young friend when the two teenagers saw a large disk shaped object hovering over a vacant lot on Dragoon Avenue. The sky suddenly lit up and the object descended to the height of a large tree and slowly revolved as it hovered, around the perimeter of the bottom of the object were rectangular windows, lit from within; seated at these windows were approximately 20 entities that were seen only from the shoulders/neck up. They were bald headed, with eyes set close together, and they were staring intently at the young couple. No other features were observed, Mrs. Hinz and her date watched for several minutes, but left quickly when they became frightened. Although Mrs. Hinz told her parents at the time, her mother tended to believe it was a "vision" of some kind. She recalls her date's name as William O'Brien.
"END OF PART 1"
Of course there were many other encounters and strange encounters during the roaring 20's, I could not have possibly include them all, I hope I was able to chose the most interesting and perplexing cases. The fact is that whoever or whatever this entities are, they have been with us for decades before the so-called modern era of encounters in June 24, 1947. Many of these 'ancient' or like some like to say, 'pre-Arnold' cases are mirror images of modern cases and were mere glimpses of things to come. Please feel free to contact me at garuda79@att.net for additional information or questions.
Sincerely, Albert S. Rosales, April 20, 2013
"Thanks to Albert!"
The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us
Flying Saucers 101: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About UFOs and Alien Beings
Alien Dawn: A Classic Investigation into the Contact Experience
Underground Alien Bio Lab At Dulce: The Bennewitz UFO Papers"
