Sighting record / 1954
Tuesday night, 28 September 1954. Two SNCF railwaymen from the Nantes depot were running a light engine towards Auray, through the marshes of Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon. About 4 km from Redon, a strange light appeared on their left. Above the marsh hung a luminous cigar. Bluish-violet. About 4 metres long. Then four pinkish jets fired, and it shot straight up into the night. It lasted no more than 10 seconds. The fright made one of the two men ill, and a doctor was called the next morning. Two days later, more than 20 French papers carried the story of the first "victim" of the flying saucers.
Autumn 1954. France was in the middle of a flying saucer wave. On the night of Tuesday 28 September, two SNCF railwaymen from the Nantes depot were running a locomotive haut-le-pied, an engine with no train behind it, from Nantes towards Auray. Émile Gérard, 49, came from Savenay. Victor Paroux, 40, lived on Boulevard des Poilus in Nantes.