[D40] de SAINT-MARCEL (08) vers HAUDRECY (08) 27.10.1954

At about 5:15 a.m. on October 27, 1954, two gendarmes cycling between Saint-Marcel and Haudrecy heard a detonation, then saw sparks to the left of the road, about 150 metres away. A whistle and then a humming sound seemed to move rapidly northeastward. They saw no solid object. On approaching, they found frightened, bellowing cattle. Their superiors visited separately with each witness later that morning and afternoon and considered the independently collected accounts consistent. Investigators noted flattened grass over roughly 1.6 by 1.3 metres and damage along twenty-five metres of nearby fence, including two posts broken at ground level. GEIPAN cautioned that cattle could have flattened the grass and that neither the marks nor fence damage was demonstrably caused by the observed event. An abandoned military explosive or another pyrotechnic device was a possible explanation for the flash and noises, though unconfirmed. No crater was reported. The original landing interpretation went beyond what the witnesses actually saw. GEIPAN classified the case C.