The 1954 French flap:

A Lyon resident claims: "I saw a flying saucer over my garden"

LYON, August 31 (Disp. "France-Soir"). -- A cigar-shaped flying saucer was seen last night in Lyon by Mr. Henri Tardy. He was taking a digestive walk in his garden around 8:15 p.m. He had stopped to admire the twinkling lights on the Lyonese hills when he saw an elongated object, like a short, thick cigar, moving from east to west. The object had a blue-green hue, and from its rear end came a shower of sparks.

The sighting was very brief and disappeared within seconds in the direction of the Mont Verdun lighthouse, which guides aviators over the Lyon region.

Mr. Tardy cannot say how far away the flying saucer was, but he specifies:

- I was not the victim of a hallucination. Nor was I influenced by reading articles about flying saucers.

At last, a real (fake) flying saucer was seen

DARMSTADT, August 31 (Reuter). The Darmstadt police is finally in possession of the first authentic report of a flying saucer. It was a wooden disc suspended from balloons and lit up with light bulbs.

A passing motorist managed to identify the flying saucer for what it was by shining his headlights on it.

The police suspects it is the work of a prankster.

CLASSIFICATION [Blackened out]

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROACASTS

			CO NO.:	..
COUNTRY:	Non-Orbit		DATE OF INFORMATION:	1954
SUBJET:	Military - Unidentified flying objects
HOW PUBLISHED:	Daily newspapers		DATE DIST.:	25 oct 1954
WHERE PUBLISHED:	As indicated		NO. OF PAGES:	3
DATE PUBLISHED:	5 Jul - 2 Sep 1954
LANGUAGES:	Various		SUPPLEMENT TO REPORT NO.:
[Blackened out]	[Blackened out]		THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
SOURCE:	As indicated

SIGHTINGS OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

[... (Previous reports)]

UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT OVER LYON -- Dakar, Paris-Dakar, 2 Sep 54

At 2015 hours on 31 August 1954, Henri Tardy is reported to have seen a flying object in the shape of a short, fat cigar flying from east to west over Lyon. The object was bluish-green in color and emitted sparks from its tail. It disappeared in a few seconds towards the radio beacon of Mount Verdon.

[... (Next reports)]

The number of saucer sightings continued to acce1erate. Each day several were reported. By the end of August [1954], at the moment when Wilbert Smith, who had predicted the phenomenon, closed his observatory at Shirley's Bay near Ottawa because nothing special was happening in Canada, the skies over Lyon, Angers, and over the entire Paris region were swarming with saucers.

Swarms of UFOs.

By the last days of August Europe was swarming with UFOs if we can believe reports from Villacoublay, Brittany, Anger, Amiens, Lyon, and the Paris region of France; Munich and Berlin in Germany; Innsbruck in Austria; Trieste in Italy; and Stone and Stafford in England; to name a few. The visitation at Villacoublay on the 29th was seen and reported by military and technical personnel stationed at the French air base located in the vicinity. 214.

• 214. Michel, Aime. "Flying Saucers In Europe - Saucers or Delusions" Fate January 1, 1958. p.32.