Dixmude (airship)

Dixmude (ex-LZ 114)
Role	reconnaissance/bomber
National origin	Germany
Manufacturer	Zeppelin Luftschiffbau
Designer	Ludwig Dürr
First flight	9 July 1920
Primary user	French Navy

The Dixmude was an airship built for the Imperial German Navy as L 72 (c/n LZ 114) and not completed until after the end of the First World War, when it was given to France as war reparation and recommissioned in French Navy service as Dixmude. It 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 first 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 British R101 in 1930 (48 dead), the USS Akron in 1933 (73 dead) and the German Hindenburg in 1937 (36 dead).

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.

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, it was first flown on 9 July 1920 and was surrendered to the French authorities four days later, when it 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. 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.

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