Dixmude (airship)

The Dixmude was an airship built for the German Navy as LZ 114 (L 72) and not completed until after the end of the First World War, when she was given to France as war reparation and recommissioned in French Navy service as Dixmude. She was lost when she exploded in mid-air on 21 December 1923 off the coast of Sicily, killing all 52 (42 crew and ten passengers) on board.^[1][2]

History

The L 72 was the third and final Zeppelin of the X class built for the Imperial German Navy. Incomplete at the end of the war, she was first flown on 9 July 1920 and was surrendered to the French authorities four days later,^[3] when she was flown by a German civilian crew from Friedrichshafen to Maubeuge and was recommissioned as Dixmude in honour of the French marines who had died in the defence of Dixmude in 1914.^[4] Under the command of lieutenant Duplessis de Grénédan she was then flown across France to the naval air base at Cuers-Pierrefeu near Toulon.

Dixmude was grounded for the next three years. An attempt was made to reinflate her in 1921, revealing that the original gasbags had deteriorated too much for this to be possible. Although new gasbags could have been supplied by Zeppelin, the French preferred to have them made in France, resulting in a two-year delay while the technique of using gold beater's skin was mastered. These were delivered in June 1923 and proved less than satisfactory; many small tears appeared, possibly due to the use of an inferior quality of cotton.^[5] An ambitious plan to fly across the Sahara to Dakar was approved, and in order to prepare for this a program of trials was begun.

On 2 August 1923, Dixmude made a 18-hour trip to Corsica. Between 30 August and 2 September, she made a 2,800 km (1,700 mi) trip to North Africa, passing over Algiers, Tunis and Bizerte, and returning via Sardinia and Corsica.

On 25 September at 7.55 pm Dixmude left Cuers, crossing the Mediterranean to Algiers and then turned westwards, following the coast to Bizerta and then turning south, flying over Sousse and Sfax where she turned inland towards Touggourt. The return flight over the Mediterranean was delayed by a storm which initially caused de 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 flight was continued to Bordeaux and then to Paris, which was reached at dawn on 28 September. She then returned to Cuers, which was reached at 8 pm, but, still having fuel on board, then flew to Nice and back, finally mooring at Cuers at 6.30 am on 29 September. The flight had lasted 118 hours and 41 minutes and covered 7,100 km (4,400 mi)^[6]

This was followed between 17 to 19 October by a flight undertaken for publicity purposes in which she overflew a number of cities in the south and west of France including Toulouse, Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyons.

On 18 December Dixmude left Cuers with the intention of making a return flight to In Salah, an oasis deep in the Sahara, carrying a crew of 40 and 10 passengers. In Salah was reached at 4 pm on the 19th,; the airship did not land, but dropped a bag of mail from the crew. The intention had been to make a stop at the Baraki airfield near Algiers, a north-west headwind caused du Plessis to alter course to the east, and was seen crossing Tunisia on the evening of the 20th. The last radio message received from Dixmude was sent at 2.08, the airship reporting that she was reeling in her radio antenna due to a thunderstorm.

Railway workers in Sciacca, Sicily, were preparing to take out a train due to leave at 2.30 when they saw the sky to the west light up, the glow then sinking 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. In the morning two aluminium fuel tanks were washed up, bearing the numbers "75 L-72" and "S-2-48  LZ-113" and various other debris, including charred scraps of fabric and even fragments the duralumin girders. However, news of these events seem not to have reached the outside world; for several days the French government, unwilling to admit the possibility of the airship's loss for political reasons, issued a series of reports of rumoured sightings of Dixmude, suggesting that it had been blown inland over Africa.^[7] It was not 26 December, when fishermen found a body, identified as du Plessis by documents found in the pockets, that the loss of Dixmude was acknowledged. His watch was stopped at 2.27.

During WWII, USN Airship Patrol Squadron 14 (ZP-14)^[8] established an advanced base at the Cuers-Pierrefeu aerodrome^[9] in Cuers, France to make use of the airship hangars. In 1944, squadron personnel photographed the monument^[10] at Cuers to the lost crew of the Dixmude.

Specifications

Data from Robinson 1973, p. 341.

General characteristics

• Length: 226.52 m (743 ft 2 in)
• Diameter: 23.90 m (78 ft 5 in)
• Volume: 68,490 m³ (2,418,700 cu ft)
• Powerplant: 6 × Maybach Mb IVa 6-cylinder water-cooled piston engine, 175 kW (235 hp) each

Performance

Citations

Sources and references

• Robinson, Douglas H., Giants in the Sky. Henley-on Thames: Foulis, 1973 ISBN 08549 145 8
• Dixmude : l'histoire oubliée d'un dirigeable de la Marine
• Le Dixmude
• Cuers-Pierrefeu Aerodrome with Dixmude Memorial