The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this website is here.
Reference for this case: 18-oct-54-Huby-Saint-Leu.
Please cite this reference in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
The author and ufologist Aimé Michel had pointed out in his 1958 book on the 1954 wave in France that on October 18, 1954, in Huby-Saint-Leu in the north of France, a very classical fireball is seen, confirmed because it is seen at the same hour than in Béthune, Douai, Pommier, Audruicq, Hesdin.
Indeed the regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard, on page 3 of the Amiens issue for October 20, 1954, mentioned that several residents of Huby-St-Leu had seen the same phenomenon as the one seen in Hesdin at 08:45 p.m. on January 18, 1954, a phenomenon that the newspaper considered "inexplicable at least for us."
[Ref. cpd1:] NEWSPAPER "LE COURRIER PICARD":
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Flying saucers are still on the agenda. They continue to excite public opinion and to be the subject of all conversations.
Every day, new mysterious craft are seen. This is how the day before yesterday, around 6:30 p.m., a resident of Hornoy, who wishes to remain anonymous, working in the fields on the road to Thieulloy, saw in the sky a very bright craft whose exterior seemed to contain facets which gave it the look like a lark mirror. The craft was moving very high and at a very high speed in the east-west direction.
The lady who saw the saucer was hitherto incredulous: she kept of this an emotion which was still showing when, yesterday afternoon, she informed Mr. Godard, our devoted correspondent of Hornoy.
Monday, around 9 p.m., Mr. Biencourt, teacher at the boys' school in the Faubourg Saint-Pierre, in Amiens, who lives near the Citadel, was returning to his home when, in the sky, he saw a globe of fire descending vertically and at very high speed. It lasted a few seconds, then various colors appeared to Mr. Biencourt's eyes to suddenly go out.
Also, the young apprentice typographer of our newspaper, Henri Duchêne, who will be 15 next month, said yesterday only that on Saturday, around 7 p.m. while returning to Dury by bicycle, he saw in the fields, between the Saint-Dominique farm and the Dury cemetery, a large object posed on the ground some 50 meters from the road.
The craft was in the shape of an elongated egg and could be ten meters in diameter and three meters high. At the back was a sort of tail through which blue smoke escaped.
The machine made no noise.
After having made his discovery, the young man had only one haste: to move away as quickly as possible; which he did with all the speed being possible to his machine...
***
In addition, we are informed that in Hesdin, in the Pas-de-Calais, that is to say near the Crécy region, where "saucers" were already seen on Monday 18 at 8:45 p.m., Mr. Jean Gambier, sworn police officer, was on rue Farré, on his way to the Familla movie theater, when his attention was drawn to a blaze of the sky, northerly, above the forest. The craft, which had an elongated shape, seemed, according to the witnesses, to descend from the sky. Its upper part was bright red, its center was bright white, and the lower part left behind a shower of stars and light trails.
The phenomenon lasted about twenty seconds. The whole sky was lit up. The craft then resumed vertical height and disappeared at a dizzying speed, leaving behind it a trail similar, the witness told us, to a spate of fireworks going up vertically.
Several residents of Huby-St-Leu also witnessed this phenomenon, and if this information had not been reported to us by a sworn official, we would have hesitated to insert it. But the fact is here and for now, like all the others of the same genre, it is inexplicable at least for us.
[Ref. ner1:] NEWSPAPER "NORD-ECLAIR":
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In Hesdin, Mr. Jean Gambier, sworn police officer, was going to his duty, when his attention was drawn to a conflagration from the sky above the forest. The object, which had an elongated shape, seemed to come down from the starry sky.
Its upper part was bright red, its center was bright white and the lower part left behind a shower of stars and a luminous trail.
The craft then picked up height again, vertically, and disappeared at a dizzying speed, leaving behind it a trail similar, the witness claims, to a gigantic fireworks rocket.
This phenomenon was also seen at the same time by a hundred people from Auby-Saint-Leu [sic].
IN AIRE-SUR-LA-LYS
Near Aire-sur-la-Lys, a steelworks worker from Isbergues saw a luminous craft of round shape, descend slowly.
When it touched the ground, the witness continued, almost three kilometers from me, a lightning bolt lit up the sky.
Many residents confirmed that they saw not the fire ball, but the sky lit up. As for the object which would have fallen, no trace of it was found.
(To be continued)
[Ref. jdm1:] NEWSPAPER "JOURNAL DE MONTREUIL":
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Monday, October 18, at 8:45 p.m., Mr. Jean Gambier, police officer (sworn) in Hesdin, was on rue Farré, when his attention was drawn to a blaze of the sky, northern direction, above the Hesdin forest. The luminous craft, which had an elongated shape seemed - according to the witnesses who came to join Mr. Gambier - to descend from the sky; its upper part was bright red, its center was bright white, and the lower part left behind a shower of stars and luminous streaks. The phenomenon lasted about half a minute and the whole sky was illuminated. The craft then took height again, vertically, and disappeared at a dizzying speed, leaving behind a trail of fire, similar, Mr. Gambier told us, to a firework rocket...?
Several residents of Huby-St-Leu also witnessed this phenomenon, and, if this information had not been communicated to us by a sworn official, we would have hesitated to insert it.
But the fact is there... just like other facts of the same kind... inexplicable... at least for us.
But let's not anticipate.
R. B.
***
We learn that this luminous phenomenon was seen in Etaples, at exactly the same hour and by several people.
[Ref. pat1:] NEWSPAPER "LE PAYS D'AUGE - TRIBUNE":
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In Audruicq (P.-de-C.), MM. Maurice Ramette and Léon Gégnier saw, high in the sky, an object of round shape and white in color which was moving towards them. Suddenly, the craft tilted and disappeared at breakneck speed.
In Hesdin (P.-de-C.), Mr. Jean Gambier, a police officer, was on his way to his duty when his attention was attracted to a blaze in the sky. Above the forest, a red object seemed to descend from the starry sky. The lower part of the craft left behind a luminous trail.
Many residents of Huby-Saint-Leu, a village near Hesdin, also witnessed this phenomenon.
A resident of the village of Prades (Pyrénées-Orientales), to whom two motorcyclists wanted to request information, fled, the other day, shouting: "The Martians are coming". Caught by the bikers, who, to reassure him, had removed their helmets, the farmer admitted that if he had had a gun in his hands he would have killed them.
A saucer was seen by the supervisor of a penitentiary center in Ecrouves, Mr. Roger Thiriet, residing in Blénod-les-Toul (Meurthe-et-Moselle). The jailer's saucer is not exactly fresh since it would have appeared on October 10. But Mr. Thiriet remained silent for a long time "fearing to be the laughing stock of his colleagues". However, his secret seemed to him too burdensome, and here is the account given to the gendarmes by this balanced man:
- I returned to the center by motorbike, when around 6:30 a.m., near the railway bridge, near Charmes-la-Côte, my headlight lighted an aluminum-colored saucer appearing from the fog, posed on the ground. The craft was 2 meters in diameter and 1.40 meters high. It was surmounted by a dome pierced by two portholes.
"I stopped my engine immediately; but as I approached, the saucer rose without noise."
It turns out that, this same October 10, a machine identical to [Continued on page 3]
A very bright flying disc was seen by a group of workers over a street in Rome. It is one of the innumerable appearances of the "flying saucers" which visit Italy at the moment. Their arrival provokes a strong emotion. In Livorno, a young man, Bruno Senesi, was sent urgently to the mad house. He had presented himself, very agitated, at the city hospital, shouting: "They come to take me... I saw them land in a field... Discs big like that, all in light and in smoke, full of Martians, small and red."
The people of Bondowoso, in east Java, were terrified when they saw a white and green disc, which passed at high speed over the city and disappeared in half a minute. Witnesses described the object as a "large plate" with a rotating movement.
A "Stratojet" plane which flies daily over the Rhône valley, at an altitude of about 10,000 meters, was mistaken the other day, by several inhabitants of Vienna, for a flying saucer.
Indeed, a strange phenomenon occurred after the passage of the powerful jet plane. Kinds of parachutes were formed in the sky, animated of strange movements, which soon reached the ground.
The witnesses of the phenomenon seized this matter and one of them put a little of the substance in a box and had it photographed immediately. A few hours later, the contents of the box, although waterproof, had evaporated.
It seems that the condensation in the rarefied and cold atmosphere of certain compounds of the "stratojet" fuel can cause white or iridescent formations moving at high speed and thus gives rise to various interpretations.
This observation made above the aerodrome of Vienne, is identical to that already reported in its time, by a resident of Oloron.
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(continued from page 1)
Aussay, a small town near Dieppe, was overflown by a mysterious craft which emitted a strange whistling sound. It had the shape of a gigantic cigar thay could reach 15 to 18 meters in length; in the center of the craft there was a disc surmounted by a dome.
In Villepinte (Aude), Mr. Henri Rouquet, 22, was returning home when he noticed a luminous form that was moving at high altitude. Suddenly, the craft lands not far from the farm where the young man lives. Mr. Bouquet then hastened to warn his family and several neighbors, who were able to observe the saucer distinctly. After a few minutes, the disc rose silently and quickly disappeared.
In Ham (Somme), three motorcyclists, MM. Marc and Gilles Lemaire, and Jean Ivard, were going to their work when they noticed in the sky a red disc followed by a flaming cone which advanced at the speed of an airplane. At the precise moment when the craft was above the motorcyclists, the engines of their machines stopped suddenly and the headlights went out. Everything returned to normal when the mysterious object moved away.
A motorist in the Cherbonnières region was driving with his 3 and a half year old son on the road from Sérifère to Paillé when, around 9:30 p.m., he and the child experienced painful tingling sensations, similar to electric shocks; which increased as they progressed.
The car engine suddenly stopped and the headlights went out. The child started to cry. A bright glow, passing from bright red to orange, dazzled the occupants of the car, who see a motionless craft in space. Then what they recognized as a flying saucer disappeared in the night.
been seen in Longwy, in the north of the department.
- It must be a secret weapon, said Mr. Thiriet (who does not believe in Martians), built by a foreign power. I think the craft would come from Antarctica.
Two motorists from Royan, Mr. Labestière and his wife, saw in the sky "a kind of waddling balance".
- The scourge was dazzling green, witnesses said. One of the plates was red, the other orange. After remaining motionless, the two plates detached and landed in a field. Two little beings came out of it and, after crossing paths, changed their plates. The "flying balance" then disappeared, plates included, in a dazzling flash.
In Ollainville, near Arpajon, six residents of the locality noticed an incandescent object which at first looked like a star and was revealed as it approached in the shape of a cigar. Coming from the west, the object disappeared to the east.
In Saint-Fiacre, not far from Etampes, several people saw a craft in the shape of a gigantic star spinning above the village for 20 minutes.
The mayor of Nexon (Haute Vienne) saw a very bright metallic hemisphere hovering at breakneck speed, without noise.
A very brilliant disc was even seen in Boulogne-sur-Seine, by a dozen workers from the Régie Renault. The phenomenon had been observed in broad daylight for half an hour.
In Trevedec (C.-du-N.), several people saw a flying saucer hovering over the sea.
Near Aire-sur-Lys, a worker at the steel works in Isbergues saw a luminous sphere descend slowly. When it touched the ground, the sky lit up.
[Ref. aml1:] AIME MICHEL:
The author indicates that on October 18, 1954, in Huby-Saint-Leu in the north of France, a very classical fireball is seen, confirmed because it is seen at the same hour than in Béthune, Douai, Pommier, Audruicq, Hesdin.
[Ref. gqy1:] GUY QUINCY:
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October 18, [1954]
? [= unknown hour]: Huby-Saint-Leu (1 km Hesdin--Pas-de-Calais) (meteor?)
[Ref. ldl1:] "LUMIERES DANS LA NUIT" UFOLOGY MAGAZINE:
This magazine reproduced the article of the newspaper Le Courrier Picard [cpd1] for October 20, 1954.
[Ref. ubk1:] "UFO-DATENBANK":
| Case Nr. | New case Nr. | Investigator | Date of observation | Zip | Place of observation | Country of observation | Hour of observation | Classification | Comments | Identification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19541018 | 18.10.1954 | Huby St Leu | France |
|
The 08:45 p.m. meteor of that day.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Huby-Saint-Leu, Pas-de-Calais, meteor, night
[----] indicates sources that are not yet available to me.
| Version: | Created/Changed by: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | June 12, 2009 | First published. |
| 1.1 | Patrick Gross | March 4, 2017 | Addition [ubk1]. |
| 1.3 | Patrick Gross | January 18, 2019 | Addition of the Summary. Explanations changed, were "Not looked for yet. Probable meteor." |
| 1.4 | Patrick Gross | January 28, 2020 | Additions [cpd1], [pat1], [ldl1]. In the Summary, addition of the paragraph "Indeed the regional newspaper Le Courrier Picard..." |
| 1.5 | Patrick Gross | March 19, 2020 | Addition [jdm1]. |
| 1.6 | Patrick Gross | June 22, 2020 | Addition [ner1]. |
| 1.6 | Patrick Gross | October 30, 2021 | Addition [gqy1]. |
