The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Echo Républicain, Chartres, France, pages 1 and 8, on October 12, 1954.
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CARCASSONNE, 11. -- While driving his car, Mr. Jean Bertrand, a mechanic in this city, saw, flying at low altitude, a spherical craft of shiny metal whose upper part appeared to be made of plastic. He said he could easily distinguish two human figures inside this craft, which disappeared at high speed toward the east.
LIMOGES, 11. -- In Uzerches (Corrèze), two young men, Charles and Alphonse Beaujour, driving a car, saw in the direction of Espartignac a huge, extremely bright sphere.
The two young men, having stopped their vehicle, watched this sphere for fifteen minutes as it changed from white to orange, then to red, before disappearing toward Lagrauliere. Other people observed the same phenomenon.
POITIERS, 11. -- Mr. Roger Barrault, a laborer in Lavoux (Vienne), reported that while riding his bicycle, he was suddenly stopped by a double beam of light emanating from a sort of "diver" barely 1.5 meters tall, with heel-less boots, very bright eyes, and a thick mustache.
The diver walked along the road for about a minute, according to Mr. Barrault, then suddenly disappeared into the nearby forest.
MACON, 11. -- Several people, on the bridge at Saint-Laurent-les-Mâcon, saw above the Saône a disc that disappeared after a brief moment. A new detail: this disc was not shiny, but dark.
MONTLUCON, 11. -- A worker, Mr. Magnier, and some truck drivers saw in Montluçon a luminous sphere that crossed the sky at high speed.
ANGOULEME, 11. -- At Tourriers, 17 kilometers from Angoulême, about thirty people saw, in
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on the night of the 8th to the 9th, a "sort of cigar" remained stationary about forty meters above National Road No. 10 for about twenty minutes. The craft, which was equipped with two fins, then took off at a speed of approximately 250 to 300 km/h.
IN THE ORNE
Mrs. Lebert, guardian of the Château de Pont-Chapelle in La Ferté-Macé, observed in broad daylight a mysterious craft in the sky. This craft, which resembled a rocket, rose silently vertically, leaving a faint white trail behind it. It was visible for several seconds before disappearing quickly. A woman and children living in the outskirts of the town also witnessed the phenomenon.
Additionally, Mr. Christian Couette, the son of a plumber from Tesse-la-Madeleine, was riding his bicycle toward Ranes when, near the Lande-Forêt pond in the commune of Beauvain, he was overtaken by a strange luminous craft skimming the treetops at high speed. The craft, about 4 meters in diameter, had the shape of a fireball with a rounded top. It was observed for about ten seconds.
ALEXANDRIA, 11. -- Egypt, in turn, enters the flying saucer competition. At the beginning of Saturday night, several hundred residents of Alexandria reported a luminous object in the sky that appeared to change colors from red to orange, then green, and bluish-gray.
BEIRUT, 11. -- The newspaper "L'Orient" reports this morning a statement from Mr. Max Favell, representative in Beirut of a German company, who claims to have seen, on Saturday at 10:15 p.m. local time, near the sea, a stationary craft in the sky emitting a whitish light.
Mr. Favell specified that the craft, which was only a few meters above the ground, landed for a few seconds, then took off vertically while rotating on itself, and soon disappeared into the sky.
BONN, 11. -- A "flying saucer" was observed for about two minutes by 13 members of a gliding school above the Ockstadt airfield, near Frankfurt.
The 13 pilots and trainee pilots were watching the maneuvers of an instructor when they saw appear above the glider in flight, at an altitude of about 3,000 meters, a "slightly bulging silver disc" moving without making any sound. The witnesses, among whom were several former Luftwaffe aviators, were adamant that they could not have been victims of an optical illusion.
YAOUNDE, 11. -- Several credible individuals report having witnessed last night one of those phenomena called "flying saucers."
This includes Colonel Cauvin, director of Hygiene and Prophylaxis Services in Cameroon; Dr. Menu, chief physician at the Yaoundé hospital; Messrs. Dumont, director of Security Services in Cameroon; Poilleux, advisor to the Territorial Assembly of Cameroon; Moreau, administrator and deputy mayor of Yaoundé; and their spouses.
All these people, gathered at the chief physician's residence, were preparing to go to the cinema when they were intrigued by the behavior of the household dog, which suddenly began growling and bristling its fur. Thinking that intruders were near his home, Dr. Menu went outside and saw a shining object in the sky. He immediately called his guests, who all later reported seeing, almost directly above the plateau where the hospital is located, a huge disc violently illuminated, stationary at an altitude of about 600 meters.
This appearance lasted about fifteen seconds. The craft had the exact shape of a mushroom, whose diameter the witnesses could not precisely estimate, beneath which a cylinder lightly swayed, with a length equal to the diameter of the cap and also brightly illuminated.
Suddenly, the "saucer" headed eastward, and its volume seemed to decrease visibly. It then paused for a few seconds before rapidly ascending and disappearing.
