The index page for the 1954 French flap section of this site is here.
Reference number for this case: 7-Jan-54-Dieppe. Thank you for including this reference number in any correspondence with me regarding this case.
[Ref. 1362] USAF PROJECT BLUE BOOK, ALEXANDER MEBANE, AFP:
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AI-F- Dieppe, France, Jan. 7, 1954 Dieppe Jan. 7 (AFP) -- A mysterious phenomenon took place at Dieppe between 3:30 and 4 a.m. this morning (Greenwioh Mean Time). A dazzling light, noticed particularly by 70 Longshoremen, was followed some minutes later by an explosion which jarred open numerous doors and blew out several windows in the town, and awakened most of the townspeople with a start. The Dieppe semaphore (Coast Guard Station?) queried those of the smaller ports of the coast, and found that the phenomenon had also been noticed by them, with the exception of the Havre semaphore, which observed nothing. Numerous accounts were collected; although they differed in detail, all confirmed the event, whose origin is a matter of conjecture. Some drew a correlation with the fact that a fishing boat returned to Dieppe, about a week ago, all punctured by little splinters that might have come from an aerolite. (Transl. by A. Mebane) |
[Ref. 1363] REUTERS PRESS RELEASE:
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DIEPPE, FRANCE, Jan, 7, 1954 (Reuters) -- A powerful explosion rocked this port early today, shattering windows, blasting open doors and waking most of the inhabitants. The explosion was preceded by a blinding flash in the sky. Some people said the explosion came four minutes after the flash. Some said eight minutes. They also differed on the direction. It was seen 50 miles away. A railwayman at Orchies, near the belgian border, said he saw a fiery disc in the sky at great speed about the time of the Dieppe explosion. |
[Ref. 1016] CIA:
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SIGHTINGS OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
[... (Reports from other countries and France) ...] EXPLOSION IN SKY BREAKS WINDOWS AT DIEPPE -- Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter, 8 Jan 54 Paris (TT-AFP) -- Inhabitants of Dieppe were awakened early on the morning of 7 January by a loud crash, accompanied by a dazzling light in the sky. The explosion was so powerful that doors were thrown ajar and many window panes were broken. Up to now, no explanation for the phenomenon has been found. A railwayman in Orchies, near the Belgian frontier, claims that at about the same time as the explosion he saw a luminous flying saucer cross the sky at a very great speed. [... (Next reports)] |
[Ref. -:] JIMMY GUIEU:
Science Fiction writer and ufologist Jimmy Guieu reports that on January 7, 1954, at 04:33, a flying disc has been seen in Orchies, near Dieppe.
[Ref. 655:] AIME MICHEL:
Aimé Michel indicates that on January 7, 1954, a few seconds after 04:27 a.m., all the department of Seine-Inférieur, from Fécamp in the west up to Dieppe in the north, from Mailleraye in the south to Gournay in the East, was illuminated by a general flashover of the sky. During one half-minute, the light was so intense that the railwamen of Serqueux could read the serial numbers of the coaches.
A few minutes later, Dieppe was shaken by a gigantic explosion which broke many windows and woke up from their sleep three quarters of the city.
Aimé Michel notes that after the observations of that day, in the evening, a spokesman of the Institute of astrophysics of Paris stated:
"It is very likely that the phenomenon observed this morning in the area of Dieppe was nothing else than a fireball."
[Ref. 369:] NEWSPAPER "DAGENS NYHETER":
EXPLOSION IN SKY BREAKS WINDOWS AT DIEPPEParis (TT-AFP) - Inhabitants of Dieppe were awakened early on the morning of 7 January by a loud crash, accompanied by a dazzling light in the sky. The explosion was so powerful that doors were thrown ajar and many window panes were broken. Up to now, no explanation for the phenomenon has been found. A railwayman in Orchies, near the Belgian frontier, claims that at about the same time as the explosion he saw a luminous flying saucer cross the sky at a very great speed. |
[Ref. 370:] MAGAZINE "LE MONDE DU TRAVAIL":
BALL OF FIRE SEEN OVER BRUSSELSOn 7 January 1954 at 0420 hours, a Sabena pilot preparing to land at Melsbroek saw a ball of fire low on the horizon, moving in a north-northwesterly direction. The ball was white, edged with green, and was followed by a long trail. The phenomenon illuminated the whole sky and the pilot supposed at the time that it was a green rocket signal set off by the airport authorities. Since the latter denied this, it was assumed that he had seen the same light which was seen over Dieppe. |
[Ref. 371:] NEWSPAPER "NIEUWE HAAGSCHE COURANT":
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DIEPPE "FLYING SAUCER" CALLED METEORITE - (Paris) French astronomers are convinced that the object which exploded over Dieppe recently was an exceptionally large meteorite. |
[Ref. 522] CLAUDE POHER, UFO RESEARCH GROUP "GEPA": P>In 1968-1969, before the official GEPAN ufology effort started, its future head Dr Claude Poher was a member of the unofficial GEPA ufology group, and gathered a computer coded listing of more than 700 UFO reports on which multiple factors statistical computation could be run. In the file were a number of 1954 French UFO reports, among those this one.
For readability, a decoded interpretation of the data is provided here under the original 80 character encoded string. Decoding was done according to the original indications, the code number and its generic meaning is given. Please not that the generic meaning of each code is a predefined category, not the real specific details of the case. For example, if the main witness' age was 33, the coding would result in a number "3" which corresponds to a category "Adult from 21 to 59 years."
| Original code: | 2643590701195404301JAZ000000000011ZZZZ000000360000000000000000000000000000000000 |
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| Location: | Dieppe - France |
| Case number: | 2643 |
| Source code: | 59 |
| Nature of the source: | J. Guieu: Les soucoupes volantes viennent d'un autre monde |
| Day: | 07 |
| Month: | 01 |
| Year: | 54 |
| Hours: | 04 |
| Minutes: | 30 |
| Type of Time: | 1 = local time |
| Number of witnesses: | Z = "several, many" |
| Main witness named: | 0 = name is not indicated |
| Main witness age: | 0 = no indication |
| Main witness occupation: | 0 = no indication |
| Official investigation: | 0 = no indication |
| Weather: | 0 = no indication |
| Duration: | 0 = no indication |
| Minimal distance witness - phenomenon: | 0 = no indication |
| Method of observation: | 0 = no indication |
| Number of "objects" observed simultaneously: | 01 = 1 |
| Shape of the "object" (terminology of witness(es)): | 1 = disk, saucer, lenticular |
| Dimensions of the phenomenon: | ZZZZ = no indication |
| Color of the observed phenomenon: | 00 = no indication |
| Luminosity of the phenomenon: | 00 = no indication |
| Lights or projectors on the phenomenon: | 00 = no indication |
| Moving speed of the phenomenon: | 00 = no indication |
| Acceleration of the phenomenon: | 00 = no indication |
| Trajectory of the phenomenon: | 3 = brutal turns |
| Sounds perceived during observation: | 6 = violent explosion noise |
| Maximum angular height of observation (horizon = 0°): | 0 = no indication |
| Nature of the landing place: | 0 = no indication |
| Number of contact points with ground: | 0 = no indication |
| Traces of landing: | 0 = no indication |
| Observation of "occupants" | 0 = no indication |
| Height of the occupants observed: | 00 = no indication |
| Garment of the occupants: | 00 = no indication |
| Garment: | 0 = no indication |
| General behavior of "occupants": | 0 = no indication |
| Interaction of "occupants" with witness: | 0 = no indication |
| Head, hair: | 0 = no indication |
| Voice, breathing, chin: | 0 = no indication |
| Skin: | 0 = no indication |
| Eyes: | 0 = no indication |
| Mouth: | 0 = no indication |
| Various details: | 0 = no indication |
| Thermal effects: | 0 = no indication |
| Luminous effects: | 0 = no indication |
| Magnetic effect (or electromagnetic): | 0 = no indication |
| Odor perceived by witness: | 0 = no indication |
| Physiological effects on the witness(es): | 0 = no indication |
| Psychological effect on the witness(es): | 0 = no indication |
| Effects on animals: | 0 = no indication |
| Other effects reported: | 0 = no indication |
| Nebulosity: | 0 = no indication |
| Oscillations, emission of matter: | 0 = no indication |
| Spin, formation flight: | 0 = no indication |
| Immediate disappearance: | 0 = no indication |
| Halo surrounding the phenomenon: | 0 = no indication |
| Interaction witness / phenomenon (complement to the other rubrics): | 0 = no indication |
| Drawing or photo: | 0 = no indication |
| Structural details observed: | 0 = no indication |
Meteor.
(These keywords are only to help queries and are not implying anything.)
Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, fast, trail, luminous, noise, explosion, meteor, multiples, damages
[-] indicates sources which I have not yet checked.
