USS Dixmude (A-609)

History

The French escort carrier Dixmude A-609 was built in the United States in 1939 and was originally named Rio Parana - a river in South America - by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock of Chester, Pennsylvania as a C3 type passenger and cargo ship. She was incomplete and was delivered to the U.S. Navy for conversion into an aircraft tender by the Atlantic Basin and Steel Works in Brooklyn, New York. In early 1942, due to assignment, she was completed and classified as BAVG 3 and handed over to the UK in preparation for the next stage under Lend-Lease.

Delivered on behalf of the Royal Navy at the New York Navy Yard, the BAVG3 entered service with the Royal Navy in May 1942 as HMS Biter - D 97. Until the end of 1944, Bittel performed important escort missions in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.

With the addition of new escort carriers to the HMS Navy, she was placed into reserve duty in January 1945.

In April 1945, HMS Biter was handed over to the French Navy and renamed Dixmude A-609 again after the French name of the Flemish town of Diksmuide. After World War II, she began fighting another conflict to retake French colonies in Indochina or Vietnam.

In January 1947, she left Toulon with an air group of Douglas SBD 5 World War II "Dreadnought" dive bombers and more than 20 French Air Force aircraft. When she arrived in Saigon in March, her plane supported two landing operations.

Dixmund was the first French aircraft carrier to conduct combat duty. The Old Intrepid was assigned to the French 4F fleet and conducted her first bombing raid in April, when the SBD bombed the Vi?t Minh fortress at Tuyen Quang. Later that spring, she returned to France and needed repairs before returning to Indochina.

It was a double duty, first as an airplane ferry, her deck cargo was 12 Junkers Ju. 52 triple-engine transports and 12 Spitfires. Their assigned aviation group, including aging Dreadnoughts from Fleet 4F, was below the deck of the Cruise. She arrived in Saigon in October 1947 and unloaded her deck cargo before returning to sea to fly her aircraft to land bases in Hanoi and Haiphong for inland operations.

These operations carried out more than 200 sorties and dropped more than 65 tons of bombs.

Her last combat mission took her to the coast of Cochinchina, where she worked until the spring of 1948. During the deployment, their aircraft bombed rebel positions on the Kama Peninsula. After being reclassified as a transport aircraft, she spent the remainder of her active career under the French flag as a ferry for aircraft, bringing two fighter units equipped with American Bell P 63A King Cobras to Indochina in the summer of 1948.

On her second flight in the summer and fall of 1950, she flew Grumman F6F 5 "Hellcat" fighter jets and Curtiss SB2C 5 "Helldiver" dive bombers. Dixmude returned to the U.S. in January 1951 and was re-designated again under the U.S. designation BAVG 3. However, she was transferred back to France as a grant on the same day in January 1951. During the 1950s, Dixmuder continued to operate in the French Navy. She went on to serve as a ferry, delivering 35 Dassault MDs and 450 Uragan jet fighters to the Indian Air Force in Mumbai, India, in 1953. In 1954, she took another 32 to India.

The French government returned the ship to the United States in Toulon. France, the last time in June 1966. She completed her final voyage as BAVG 3, targeted and sank as the 6th Fleet, this intrepid ship bears many tri-national classifications and names.

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