HMS Biter (D97)
_underway_c1943.jpg) HMS Biter 1943
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The HMS Biter (D97) was an escort aircraft carrier of the Avenger or Charger- class of the Royal Navy during World War II . Like its three sister ships, the ship was commissioned as a liner and then completed as an escort carrier. For her service in the Royal Navy, the Biter was awarded the Battle Honors "North Africa 1942" and "Atlantic 1943-44".
Returned to the USA at the end of the war in Europe, they made the escort carrier of the French Navy available. In the French service the ship was named Dixmude after the Battle of Diksmuide in the First World War . In 1966 the Biter / Dixmude returned to the USA was sunk as a target ship.
construction
The ship was laid down as the Type C3 freighter Rio Parana on December 28, 1939 under Maritime Commission contract (Hull Sun-60; builder's hull number 187) by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company , Chester , Pennsylvania, and laid down on December 18, 1940 Baptized Ms. Kay Calder Lee. In May 1941, the ship was acquired by the US Navy and converted into an aircraft carrier at Atlantic Basin Iron Works and then handed over to the Royal Navy in early May 1942.
After being transferred to Great Britain, the carrier was used for the first time in autumn 1942 in the Mediterranean in the "Center Task Force" off Oran during the Allied landing in French North Africa ( Operation Torch ). At fifteen SeaHurricanes IIc of 800 Naval Air Squadron , she secured the airspace over the invasion fleet, together with the sister ship Dasher and its also SeaHurricanes equipped use relay 804 . In March 1943, the ship took nine Swordfish II and three Wildcat IV of the 811 Naval Air Squadron on board and was used to secure convoy in the North Atlantic. Their machines were involved in the sinking of the German submarines U 203 on April 25 and U 89 on May 12, 1943. The escort was part of the 5th Support Group with the destroyers Pathfinder , Obdurate and Opportune of the O and P classes . On November 16, 1943, the rudder of the carrier was severely damaged when one of their Swordfish made an emergency landing next to the ship and the wreck of the aircraft got into the rudder system.
After the necessary repairs, the escort carrier was ready for action again in mid-January 1944 with the 811 squadron and was now assigned to the 7th Support Group . The squadron had eleven Swordfish and four to seven Wildcats . On February 16, a managed Wildcat the Biter the launch of a four-engined Junkers Ju 290 . On April 14, U 448 was sunk by their companions after an unsuccessful attack on the Bitter . The carrier went to Greenock in July 1944 to be rebuilt . The conversion to a transporter had begun a few days earlier when the ship caught fire on August 24, 1944 in the port of Greenock. The damage was considerable and because of the unexplained further use, repairs and modifications were discontinued and the biters were no longer used. In April 1945 the heavily damaged ship was returned to the USA.
French Navy
After repairs, the ship was again be lent, in 1945, this time to the French Navy , where the ship's name Dixmude after the Battle of Diksmuide in the First World War received. Previously, the airship LZ 114 delivered by the German Reich in 1920 had carried this name, which had an accident on December 22, 1923. The flotilla 3FB , equipped with Dauntless dive bombers , was planned as the operational squadron .
In French services, the escort carrier was primarily used as an aircraft transporter to Indochina from 1949 onwards . From 1956 the Dixmude only served as a residential ship .
Whereabouts
In June 1966 the Biter / Dixmude was finally returned to the US Navy and sunk there as a target ship.
literature
- Maurice Cocker: Aircraft-Carrying Ships of the Royal Navy , The History Press, Stroud 2008, ISBN 978-0-7524-4633-2
- Karl Kössler , Günther Ott: The great Dessauer Junkers Ju 89, Ju 90, Ju 290, Ju 390 , Aviatic Verlag, Planegg 1993, ISBN 3-925505-25-3
- Kenneth Poolman: Escort Carrier 1941-1945 , Ian Allen, London 1972, ISBN 0-7110-0273-8
- Ray Sturtivant: The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm , Air-Britain (Historians), Tonbridge 1984, ISBN 0-85130-120-7 .
Web links
- HMS BITER (D 97) - Archer-class Escort Aircraft Carrier
- HMS BITER , Escort Carrier, Ex Rio Parana and Ex BAVG-3, Became Dixmude (France) 1945
- HMS Biter (D 97), escort carrier of the Avenger / Charger class
- ATTACKER escort aircraft carriers (1942–1943)
- Jürgen Rohwer: Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945 , published by the Library for Contemporary History, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart 2007
Individual evidence
- ↑ SUN SHIPBUILDING AND DRY DOCK COMPANY HULL LISTING, March 9, 2004 (PDF; 115 kB), accessed April 30, 2010
- ↑ Moore-McCormack Cargoliner timeline , Moore-McCormack Line, accessed on 30 April 2010
- ^ Rohwer: Sea War , November 8-11, 1942, French North Africa, Operation Torch
- ↑ Sturtivant: Squadrons FAA , p.156, 159
- ↑ Sturtivant: Squadrons FAA , pp. 204f.
- ↑ Rohwer, 21.- 27.4.1943 North Atlantic
- ↑ Rohwer, 8.- 05/15/1943 North Atlantic
- ↑ Kössler / Ott: The great Dessauer , p. 231, WNr. 290110177
- ↑ Rohwer, 2.- 4.24.1944 North Atlantic
- ^ Dixmude: l'histoire oubliée d'un dirigeable de la Marine , Jean-Dominique Merchet