Dixmude (airship)

''Dixmude'' was a Zeppelin airship built for the Imperial German Navy as L 72 (c/n ''LZ 114'') and unfinished at the end of the First World War, when it was given to France as war reparations and recommissioned for service in the French Navy and renamed ''Dixmude''. The airship was lost when it exploded in mid-air on 21 December 1923 off the coast of Sicily, killing all 52 (42 crew and ten passengers) on board. This was one of the earliest of the great airship disasters, preceded by the crash of the British '' R38'' in 1921 (44 dead) and the US airship ''Roma'' in 1922 (34 dead), and followed by the destruction of the USS ''Shenandoah'' in 1925 (14 dead) the British ''R101'' in 1930 (48 dead), the USS ''Akron'' in 1933 (73 dead) and the German ''Hindenburg'' in 1937 (36 dead).

Name

The ship was named after the Belgian city of Diksmuide (French: ''Dixmude''), and specifically, in honour of the Fusiliers Marins at the battle of Diksmuide. It was the first of three ships named ''Dixmude''.

History

Completed after the end of the First World War, ''L 72'' was the third and final Zeppelin of the X class built for the Imperial German Navy. ''L 72'' was originally built with the intention to bomb New York City, a mission never carried out due to the end of the war. The Zeppelin Company still wanted to fly ''L 72'' to New York as a demonstration of the Zeppelin's capabilities, but the flight was never undertaken for political reasons. Instead, the British airship '' R34'' became the first aircraft to make the first east-west-east transatlantic flight in July 1919. ''L 72'' made its first flight on 9 July 1920 and was surrendered to the French authorities four days later, when the airship was flown by a German civilian crew from Friedrichshafen to Maubeuge and was rechristened ''Dixmude'' in honour of the French marines who had died in the defence of Diksmuide in 1914. Under the command of lieutenant Jean du Plessis de Grenédan it was then flown across France to the naval air base at Cuers-Pierrefeu near Toulon.

''Dixmude'' was deflated and remained in its hangar for the next three years. In 1921, while attempting to reinflate the airship, it was discovered that the original gasbags had deteriorated. Although new gasbags could have been purchased from the Zeppelin company, the French preferred to have their own made in France, resulting in a two-year delay while the technique of using gold beater's skin was mastered. The bags were delivered in June 1923 and proved to be less than satisfactory; many small tears appeared, possibly due to the use of an inferior quality of cotton. An ambitious flight across the Sahara to Dakar was approved, and in preparation for this, a programme of trials was begun.

On 2 August 1923, ''Dixmude'' made an 18-hour trip to Corsica. Between 30 August and 2 September, it made a trip to North Africa, passing over Algiers, Tunis and Bizerte, and returning via Sardinia and Corsica.

On 25 September 1923 at 07:55, ''Dixmude'' left Cuers, crossing the Mediterranean to Algiers and then turned westwards, following the coast to Bizerte and then turning south, flying over Sousse and Sfax where it turned inland towards Touggourt. The return flight over the Mediterranean was delayed by a storm which initially caused du Plessis to turn back to Bizerte, but after the weather cleared a successful crossing was made. On reaching Cuers, conditions were so favourable that the dirigible continued to Bordeaux and then to Paris, arriving during the morning of 28 September. ''Dixmude'' then returned to Cuers, which was reached at 8 pm, but, still having fuel on board, then flew to Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyon.

On 18 December, ''Dixmude'' left Cuers with the intention of making a return flight to In Salah, an oasis, Sicily, were preparing to take out a train due to leave at 02:30 when they saw a bright flash in the western sky followed by a red glow that sank out of sight behind a hill, while a hunter on the seashore, watching the thunderstorm, saw a flash of lightning strike a cloud, followed by a red glare inside the cloud and four burning objects falling from the cloud. Later that morning, two aluminium fuel tanks washed up, bearing the numbers "75 L-72" and "S-2-48  LZ-113" and various other debris, including charred scraps of fabric and fragments of the duralumin girders. However, reports of these events did not reach the outside world for several days; the French government, unwilling to admit the possibility of the airship's loss for political reasons, apparently suppressed these reports and issued its own series of deliberately false reports of rumoured sightings of ''Dixmude'' which suggested that it had been blown inland over Africa. On 26 December, the body of du Plessis was discovered in a fishing net and identified by documents found in the coat pockets. France then publicly acknowledged the loss of ''Dixmude''. The captain's watch was stopped at 02:27. Only one other body from the airship was recovered, that of radioman Antoine Guillaume, which was found four months later.AAHS 1964, p.99. The loss of ''Dixmude'' was the deadliest airship accident in history at the time, surpassed by the destruction of in 1933, which killed 73 crewmen.

Specifications

Citations

Sources and references

* Robinson, Douglas H., ''Giants in the Sky''. Henley-on Thames: Foulis, 1973
* Robinson, Douglas H., ''Mystery of the Dixmunde''. Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, Summer 1964

Dixmude : l'histoire oubliée d'un dirigeable de la Marine

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixmude
Airships of France
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1923
Hydrogen airships
Zeppelins
Accidents and incidents involving balloons and airships
Aviation accidents and incidents in Italy
Aviation accidents and incidents involving in-flight explosions
Aircraft first flown in 1920
Military airships of World War I