Here is a report written on May 23, 1955, in Rocroi by Captain G[-], commander of the Gendarmerie squad of Rocroi, about the sighting of an unidentified aerial machine.
The sighting's description is quite indicative of a meteor.
This document was reproduced in the ufological litterature long ago.
On May 20, 1955 during a night visit and being on Main Road 51 between Givet and the hamlet of Trois-Fontaines, gendarmerie officers N[-] and L[-] saw in the sky, at 02:30, an unknown aerialmachine which flew at the low altitude of 200 or 300 meters approximately, above the area extending between Ham-sur-Meuse and the hamlet of Trois-Fontaines, and following the direction south-east - north-west. This machine seemed to have the shape of a large shell or a cigar, with the dimension of the fuselage of an fighter arplaine. The inside was luminous. From its back, luminous projectors spouted out, shiny and multicoloured. At the time they had the impression that this was a plane in flames, but the machine disappeared in level flight in direction to the North-West after a few seconds. Its speed seemed very high to them, higher than that of the current planes. At the time when they saw it, a rail-car that moved towards Givet, passed on the railway parallel with Main Road 51. The noise made by this rail-car did not allow them to hear a possible noise produced by this machine. The night was spangled and without the moon. The direction of the wind was north-east - south-west, i.e. contrary to the direction followed by the machine. Having pointed out to these gendarmes that it could have been a commercial aircraft of the Geneva-Brussels or Brussels-Nice airways, the latter agreed to saying that there could not be such a confusion, and that it could not have been a plane. It is the first time that the passage of such a machine is observed above the district of the brigade.
