The article below was published in the daily newspaper L'Ardennais, France, pages 1 and 5, on January 8, 1954.
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DIEPPE. -- Yesterday morning, between 4:30 and 5:15 a.m., nearly seventy dockworkers from the port of Dieppe saw in the sky a blinding glow followed four minutes later by a tremendous explosion that blew open many doors and shattered several windows in the city's houses. Most of Dieppe's inhabitants were awakened by this deafening noise. It does not seem that this could be a hallucination, as the testimonies are very numerous and agree on almost all points. Only some discrepancies are noted among witnesses regarding the direction of the glow, which, according to some, came from the north, and according to others, from the west.
The postal vehicle operating between Dieppe and Rouen was near the former of these two cities at the moment the glow occurred. However, according to the two occupants of the vehicle, the explosion happened only eight minutes after the glow.
The Dieppe semaphore contacted the one at Fécamp and those of all the small ports along the coast. All agree in stating that the phenomenon was observed at these different locations. On the other hand, the semaphore at Le Havre reported nothing.
However, several witnesses living in La Mailleraye, a locality situated about 80 km south of Dieppe, and in Serqueux, a village located 50 kilometers southeast of Dieppe, are categorical: they saw the glow coming from the direction of Dieppe.
Finally, it should be noted that about a week ago, a fishing boat arrived in Dieppe riddled with small fragments that may have come from an aerolyte [sic].
For the moment, there is much speculation about the nature of this strange phenomenon.
Yesterday morning, at 4:27 a.m., a railway employee starting his shift at Orchies station saw in the sky a disc of fire moving horizontally at a dizzying speed. A luminous trail followed the glowing disc along its path.
The same phenomenon was observed at roughly the same time in Arras. One witness stated that he saw the disc remain motionless in the sky for a moment, but did not have time to observe it, as it immediately resumed its course and disappeared [sic] over the horizon.
See continuation on page 5
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PARIS. -- It is very likely, it is believed at the Astrophysics Institute of Paris, that the phenomenon observed in the Dieppe region was nothing other than a bolide. The very time at which this observation was made - shortly before sunrise - supports this view. However, it is added that such explosions are not very rare, and many others have been recorded across the globe.
It is known that bolides are bodies whose origin and composition are poorly understood, and which, moving through the sky at extremely high speed, heat up when they encounter the Earth's atmosphere due to the resistance it exerts on them. It is then that they become incandescent.
Sometimes they pass by leaving only a luminous trail. Sometimes they explode silently, sometimes with a loud crash. It also happens that they fall to the Earth's surface whole or fragmented: this is the origin of meteorite falls.
