The article below was published in the daily newspaper Nord Littoral, Calais, France, page 3, on November 4, 1954.
See the case fuile.
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A new testimony (apparently serious and precise) is to be added to the Calais file of "flying saucers." Here is the letter sent to us by one of our young fellow citizens. We publish it for information:
"I have the honor to inform you that, Thursday evening, around 1:30 a.m., returning from driving my fiancée to her parents, I took the road from Coulogne to the Virval to return home, when my attention was attracted to a shiny object almost at the side of the road. Intrigued, I approached and was amazed to find myself in the presence of a mass of metal not being there some 30 minutes earlier. Skeptical about flying saucers, I had to admit that this thing was one.
But, unlike the objects already seen, this one looked more like a spacecraft. It was a kind of tubing with portholes and truncated at the top. It had four diametrically opposed tubes. Statoreactors as it seemed to me. The lower part, raised approx. 1.50 meters above the ground, was very wide and provided at its base with cylindrical orifices.
Being interested in mechanics, I supposed this to be exhaust nozzles. In addition, this rocket, if I can call it that way, had four fins about a meter wide: fins for stabilization in flight, probably.
I decided to approach. I proceeded with caution so as not to alert the occupants, because the rocket was obviously manned. The possibilities of remote control being ruled out because of its close proximity to an inhabited place. No sooner had I walked a few meters than a violent movement of air made me fall back. A blinding glow came from the turbines and the machine rose, slowly at first, then faster and faster.
And I was alone at the place where, a few moments before, this machine was.
In my opinion, it was an experimental stratospheric rocket having landed as a result of damage or fuel shortage.
I am ready to swear on my honor that what I saw was not the product of my imagination or an excess of drink.
I hope you don't believe some prank of a bad joke. I would just like to shed a little light on public belief and soothe a little bit the spirits excited by these mysterious appearances.
Please accept, gentlemen, my best regards ".
Mr. Claude L....,
rue Den...., Calais.
