French airship Dixmude
Encyclopedia
The LZ 114 was an airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
of the German Navy, later given to France as war reparation and recommissioned in Navy service as Dixmude. She was lost at sea with all hands on the 21st of December 1923.
Built for the German Navy, LZ 114 (L 72) was not completed before the First World War ended. She was handed over to the French Navy as war reparation. She flew from Friedrichshafen to Maubeuge on 13 July 1920 and was recommissioned as Dixmude, under lieutenant Jean du Plessis.
Dixmude was inactive for two years. Lieutenant du Plessis persuaded the Ministry of the Navy to send her to trials in 1923. She performed several journeys over the Mediterranean:
- on 2 August 1923, Dixmude made a 18-hour trip to Corsica
- from 30 August to 2 September, she made a 2800-km trip over Algiers, Tunis, Bizerte, Sardignia and Corsica
- From 25 to 30 September, she broke a record by traveling 118 hours and 41 minutes over Sahara and the Mediterranean, covering 7200 km.
- In October, Dixmude departed for a trip around France
In the early hours of 21 December, as she attempted to cross Sahara, she disappeared in a storm with her 44-man crew. Lieutenant du Plessis' body was found a few days later.
During WWII, USN Airship Patrol Squadron 14 (ZP-14) established an advanced base at the Cuers-Pierrefeu aerodrome in Cuers, France to make use of the zeppelin hangars. In 1944, squadron personnel photographed the monument at Cuers to the lost crew of the Dixmude.