Several moderate magnetospheric substorms on September 14, 1968, were observed by two satellites (Vela 4A and ATS 1), balloon-borne X-ray detectors, and extensive arrays of ground-based instruments in Alaska. Combined results from those observations and their interpretations are described in detail. Several interesting aspects of magnetospheric substorms are suggested by the analysis. (a) Simultaneous with the brightening of an auroral arc that signals the onset of an auroral substorm, there can occur a sudden enhancement of energetic electron flux in a limited region of the distant magnetotail. The simultaneity of these two phenomena suggests a magnetic link between them. The region evidently contracts rapidly toward the earth. A satellite appropriately situated in the magnetotail (e.g., a Vela satellite at 18 RE) may be imbedded in the electron flux initially and then, after a short time, find itself outside it as the flux-containing region contracts earthward. This results in a brief impulsive flux of energetic electrons at the satellite starting at substorm onset. (b) The sharp enhancement of electron flux that, in the midnight sector of the geosynchronous orbit (r=6.6 RE), characterizes substorm onset and that is generally ascribed to a change of electron drift paths associated with earthward ‘collapse’ of magnetic field may, in some substorms, be partly due to earthward motion of a nonadiabatic source region. (c) The westward drift motion of auroral patches results from that of a source or scattering region rather than from the drift of the individual precipitated electrons in a strong electric field. The number of substorms that can be studied with such a variety of simultaneous observations is obviously very limited, and thus the generalization of our conclusions must be taken to be tentative.