Does anyone know the fate of the German Aircraft carrier
“Graf Zeppelin”?
Hitler ordered her construction in 1934 and she was launched at Kiel on 8th December 1938 weighing in at 23,200 tons.
The Germans intended to use JU87C which had arrester hooks and manually folding wings. They also converted Me109Es which became Me109Ts butnever became carrierborne due to poor visibility and a tendency to drop the wing on landing.
This information comes from a book ‘Duel in the sky’ but doesn’t say what happened to the carrier.
By: Ant.H - 7th November 2002 at 21:43
RE: German Aircraft Carrier in WW2?
Construction work on Graf Zeppelin stopped in 1942,and she was pushed over to one side of the harbour,where she was left until the end of the war.She fell into Russian hands in 1945 and the Russians showed a great deal of interest in her.She had repairs carried out to make her roughly seaworthy,with the intentioned that she’d be towed back to the USSR for examination and evaluation,the Germans having used some pretty novel welding techniques,amongst other things, on thier warships which the Russians were keen to learn about.
Unfortunately for the Russians she capsized and sank in the Baltic whilst under tow.
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November 7, 2002 at 8:48 pm