[CD47] DE HARPONVILLE (80) VERS CONTAY (80) 07.09.1954

At about 7:30 a.m. on September 7, 1954, two cyclists travelling to work between Harponville and Contay saw a dark, circular-looking object in a field approximately two hundred metres from the road. In clear weather they described a cylinder with a slightly domed top, an opening in its side and an oscillating movement. They approached to about one hundred metres. The object reportedly rose silently at an angle for roughly fifteen metres and then climbed vertically. Grey-blue smoke seemed to emerge from a pipe. After four or five minutes it disappeared into the sky. The frightened witnesses went directly to the gendarmerie. Investigators found no ground traces that day. One witness, familiar with helicopters, said it was not one. No additional testimony was obtained, and the inquiry did not challenge the witnesses' credibility. GEIPAN classified the case D.