The article below was published in the daily newspaper La Voix du Nord, édition locale de Lille, France, page 6, on October 6, 1954.
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Sunday evening, when a hundred residents of the Annoeuillin region saw a strange craft in the sky, about fifty Chéreng residents gathered on the occasion of the festivals of the hamlet of l'Autour made identical observations.
[Photo caption:] in the company of the school principal, the children in the front row of whom we see J.-C. Delmotte, M. Lison and Jeanine Besanger, try to find traces seen in a field, Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately, traces of horse hooves have replaced the palm prints that one thought to have seen there.
(Photo "La Voix du Nord")
Among them was Mr. Fiolet, director of the communal school for boys, whose seriousness cannot be doubted. He told us the story of the display contemplated, Sunday, around 8 p.m., by the Chéreng residents, which lasted about twenty minutes.
"It was around 8 p.m., and the celebrations in the l'Autour district had brought many walkers to this hamlet of Chéreng.
I was chatting with some friends at the Coyot cafe when I was caught by the murmurings of the crowd outside: "These are saucers, these are saucers ", people said.
I was challenged by two of my students: Jean-Marc Delerue and Gérard Mullier.
Skeptical, I advanced, followed by some friends, to note the presence in the sky, at a distance of about 70 km, in a south-south-west direction, of an oblong-shaped craft, from which emanated a powerful reddish glow. It looked like a downward rounded crescent moon. The slightly bulging central part of the craft seemed more illuminated. Suddenly the bulging part went out. It was then that I had the impression, and the people present also, of seeing two cigars. The slow-moving craft pivoted and then disappeared."
On Monday, Mr. Fiolet questioned his students.
Jean-Claude Delmotte, 9 and a half years old, informed his master that he had already seen two bizarre craft, one Sunday morning, the other the previous Thursday. But for fear of being laughed at, he didn't say anything about it.
"Thursday, around 4:30 p.m., while I was at the entrance to the Chemin de la Chapelle, near the Town Hall, I saw, said the child, a sphere of dark color and about 3 m in diameter, which was posed in a field located at the edge of the wood of Chéreng, about 300 meters from the place where I was. The sphere, slightly flattened at its upper part, suddenly disappeared."
In the company of comrades: Marcel Lison and Jean-Luc Besanger, he noticed, on the ground, the presence of three or four traces having, he said, the shape of the flippers used by underwater swimmers.
Tuesday morning, Mr. Fiolet, young Delmotte and several people present, on Sunday evening, in the hamlet of "L'Autour" were heard by Chief Warrant Officer Millerot, of the gendarmerie brigade of Rorest-sur-Brand, who opened an investigation.
They all repeated what they told us. However, we went on Tuesday, with the children, to the place where they would have seen traces. The rain had soaked the ground and all we could find were the tracks left by horse hooves.
If the testimonies of the children may seem questionable, as their imagination is so fertile, on the other hand Mr. Fiolet and a good number of Chéreng residents are certain of having seen in the sky, Sunday evening, a phenomenon which did not cease to intrigue them.
