Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency compilation dated 25 October 1954 gathers foreign press reports of unidentified flying objects seen during 1954. It covers an object watched by 50 soldiers at an antiaircraft battery at Stavern, Norway, nightly sightings over West Berlin, and saucers over Darmstadt, Schleswig and Rastatt. It also includes formations over Lake Constance and Chur in Switzerland, a cigar and saucers at Vernon and objects over Montlucon and Lyon in France, a luminous globe over Laketi in the Middle Congo, and six objects over Enkeldoorn, Southern Rhodesia.
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Several people also report having seen two "flying saucers" over Schleswig between 2200 and 2315 hours. They were described as faint, fiery red points of light, which finally approached close enough to be made out as disks. Greenish-white rays are reported to have been emanated from the center of the disks. "FLYING SAUCERS" OVER SOUTHERN GERMANY -- New York, N.Y. Staats-Zeitung und Herold, 25 Aug 54 Two "flying saucers" were seen over the city of Rastatt several days ago, shortly after 2200 hours, by at least 2 dozen witnesses. The saucers passed over the city from West to East within a few seconds. The two disk-like objects were lighted like white neon lamps and made no noise. The radar sets at the nearby airfield of Soellingen, where Royal Canadian Air Force jet fighters are based, failed to pick them up, because of their high altitude. There have been several cases of sightings of "flying saucers" over Southern Germany recently. "FIXING SAUCERS" OVER SWITZFRLAND -- N.Z, Steats-Zeiling und Herold, 29 Aug 54 According to the DPA (Deutsche Presse Agentur, German Press Agency), a number of Swiss, including members of the Swiss Air Force, have reported 'flying saucers' to the authorities during the past few days. Five objects, flying in formation, were reported over the area between Lake Constance and the Saentis Mountain range. [The 19 August 1954 issue of the Casaolanca newspaper La Vigie Marocaine reported that five saucers were observed over Lake Constance on 13 August.] At Chur, a similar phenomenon was observed on three successive evenings, when bright objects were seen flying at an altitude of about 3,000 meters. ## SEES "FLYING SAUCER" IN CENTRAL FRANCE -- Paris, L'Aurore, 19 Aug 54 Claud. Coche, an industrial designer residing in the town of Vincennes, declared that in the afternoon of 17 August 1954, he had seen a "flying saucer" in the sky over Montlucon, Allier Department. He described what he saw as luminous, brilliant white, disk-like object. The phenomenon was visible for several seconds before it was hidden by a cloud. REPORT "FLYING CIGAR" AND "SAUCERS" IN NORTHERN FRANCE -- Paris, Le Figaro, 27 Aug 54 A 25-year-old man of Vernon, Eure Department, reported that during the night of 22 August 1954, he had seen, motionless in the sky, a large, luminous, cigar-shaped object, from which a flying saucer detached itself, assumed a vertical position, descended a short distance, leveled off, and silently disappeared at great speed. He stated that this silent appearance and flight was repeated in turn by four other saucers. The fifth saucer descended farther than the others and was clearly red in the center and black along the edge. [By the time the last flight was completed,] the "cigar" had long since "volatilized" [aic]. The entire phenomenon lasted about 45 minutes. Two constables of Vernon also reported having seen an elongated, luminous flying object during that night.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.