The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this site is here.
Reference number for this case: 9-Nov-54-Le Cateau. Thank you for including this reference number in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
[Ref. 711] JEAN SIDER:
French ufologist and author Jean Sider found this case in the newspaper "La Croix du Nord" for November 11, 1954 and reproduced the contents of the article.
Antoine Lefèbvre, greengrocer, aged 29 and living on 58, rue de la République in Le Cateau, was in company of his father, Maurice Lefèbvre, grocer and greengrocer aged 65, living on 14, rue Paul Delplanche in Le Cateau. They were going together to the market of Cambrai.
When they arrived at location known as Le Pont des Quatres Veaux, at the crossraods of the Brunehat Roadway and the National Road RN29, they saw a sphere of fire of which they evaluated the diameter as being of 25 or 30 meters. The phenomenon was distant of 300 or 400 meters, it was of sunk red color, and it illuminated all the landscape around. The phenomenon was very low but was not posed on the ground.
At the beginning of the observation, a cyclist who was riding in front of the witnesses' van was seen throwing himself in a ditch.
The phenomenon moved from Inchy Le Château in a horizontal course very near to the round level. The driver stopped his vehicle under the effect of a strong fright. At this time there, the phenomenon went in the opposite direction of Inchy. The driver started his vehicle and resumed his trip and the two men saw the sphere disappearing behind a house in the locality of Le Pendu. The phenomenon disappeared without leaving traces.
The article indicates that other people saw at that same time a sharp gleam in the sky.
Not looked for yet.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Le Cateau, Nord, Le Cateau, Nord, Antoine Lefèbvre, Maurice Lefèbvre, grocer, mercheant, bicycle, van, globe, orb, fire, low. red, illumination, light, luminous, manoeuvre
[-] indicates sources which I have not yet checked.
